On Sun, 2011-05-15 at 19:27 +0900, KOSAKI Motohiro wrote: > (2011/05/13 23:03), Mel Gorman wrote: > > Under constant allocation pressure, kswapd can be in the situation where > > sleeping_prematurely() will always return true even if kswapd has been > > running a long time. Check if kswapd needs to be scheduled. > > > > Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman<mgorman@xxxxxxx> > > --- > > mm/vmscan.c | 4 ++++ > > 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) > > > > diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c > > index af24d1e..4d24828 100644 > > --- a/mm/vmscan.c > > +++ b/mm/vmscan.c > > @@ -2251,6 +2251,10 @@ static bool sleeping_prematurely(pg_data_t *pgdat, int order, long remaining, > > unsigned long balanced = 0; > > bool all_zones_ok = true; > > > > + /* If kswapd has been running too long, just sleep */ > > + if (need_resched()) > > + return false; > > + > > Hmm... I don't like this patch so much. because this code does > > - don't sleep if kswapd got context switch at shrink_inactive_list This isn't entirely true: need_resched() will be false, so we'll follow the normal path for determining whether to sleep or not, in effect leaving the current behaviour unchanged. > - sleep if kswapd didn't This also isn't entirely true: whether need_resched() is true at this point depends on a whole lot more that whether we did a context switch in shrink_inactive. It mostly depends on how long we've been running without giving up the CPU. Generally that will mean we've been round the shrinker loop hundreds to thousands of times without sleeping. > It seems to be semi random behavior. Well, we have to do something. Chris Mason first suspected the hang was a kswapd rescheduling problem a while ago. We tried putting cond_rescheds() in several places in the vmscan code, but to no avail. The need_resched() in sleeping_prematurely() seems to be about the best option. The other option might be just to put a cond_resched() in kswapd_try_to_sleep(), but that will really have about the same effect. James -- 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 internet charges in Canada: sign http://stopthemeter.ca/ Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx";> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>