On Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:07:02 -0800 (PST) David Rientjes <rientjes@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, 23 Dec 2010, Andrew Morton wrote: > > > > We had to pull aa454840 "mm: page allocator: calculate a better estimate > > > of NR_FREE_PAGES when memory is low and kswapd is awake" from 2.6.36 > > > internally because tests showed that it would cause the machine to stall > > > as the result of heavy kswapd activity. I merged it back with this fix as > > > it is pending in the -mm tree and it solves the issue we were seeing, so I > > > definitely think this should be pushed to -stable (and I would seriously > > > consider it for 2.6.37 inclusion even at this late date). > > > > How's about I send > > mm-page-allocator-adjust-the-per-cpu-counter-threshold-when-memory-is-low.patch > > in for 2.6.38 and tag it for backporting into 2.6.37.1 and 2.6.36.x? > > That way it'll get a bit of 2.6.38-rc testing before being merged into > > 2.6.37.x. > > > > I don't think anyone would be able to answer that judgment call other than > you or Linus, it's a trade-off on whether 2.6.37 should be released with > the knowledge that it regresses just like 2.6.36 does (rendering both > unusable on some of our machines out of the box) because we're late in the > cycle. > > I personally think the testing is already sufficient since it's been > sitting in -mm for two months, it's been suggested as stable material by a > couple different parties, it was a prerequisite for the transparent > hugepage series, and we've tested and merged it as fixing the regression > in 2.6.36 (as Fedora has, as far as I know). We've already merged the fix > internally, though, so it's not for selfish reasons :) Wibble, wobble. It's good that the patch has been used in RH kernels. otoh, the patch is really quite big and the problem was present in 2.6.36 without a lot of complaints and we're very late in -rc and not many people will be testing over xmas/newyear, and it would be most sad to put badness into mainline at this time. So I'm still inclined to go with (discretion > valour). -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxx For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Fight unfair telecom policy in Canada: sign http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/ Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx";> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>