On Tue 21-05-19 11:55:33, Minchan Kim wrote: > On Mon, May 20, 2019 at 11:28:01AM +0200, Michal Hocko wrote: > > [cc linux-api] > > > > On Mon 20-05-19 12:52:54, Minchan Kim wrote: > > > System could have much faster swap device like zRAM. In that case, swapping > > > is extremely cheaper than file-IO on the low-end storage. > > > In this configuration, userspace could handle different strategy for each > > > kinds of vma. IOW, they want to reclaim anonymous pages by MADV_COLD > > > while it keeps file-backed pages in inactive LRU by MADV_COOL because > > > file IO is more expensive in this case so want to keep them in memory > > > until memory pressure happens. > > > > > > To support such strategy easier, this patch introduces > > > MADV_ANONYMOUS_FILTER and MADV_FILE_FILTER options in madvise(2) like > > > that /proc/<pid>/clear_refs already has supported same filters. > > > They are filters could be Ored with other existing hints using top two bits > > > of (int behavior). > > > > madvise operates on top of ranges and it is quite trivial to do the > > filtering from the userspace so why do we need any additional filtering? > > > > > Once either of them is set, the hint could affect only the interested vma > > > either anonymous or file-backed. > > > > > > With that, user could call a process_madvise syscall simply with a entire > > > range(0x0 - 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF) but either of MADV_ANONYMOUS_FILTER and > > > MADV_FILE_FILTER so there is no need to call the syscall range by range. > > > > OK, so here is the reason you want that. The immediate question is why > > cannot the monitor do the filtering from the userspace. Slightly more > > work, all right, but less of an API to expose and that itself is a > > strong argument against. > > What I should do if we don't have such filter option is to enumerate all of > vma via /proc/<pid>/maps and then parse every ranges and inode from string, > which would be painful for 2000+ vmas. Painful is not an argument to add a new user API. If the existing API suits the purpose then it should be used. If it is not usable, we can think of a different way. -- Michal Hocko SUSE Labs
