Hmmm... Maybe we can bypass the checks? Subject: [page allocator] Do not check watermarks if there is a page available on the per cpu freelists One should be able to grab a page from the per cpu freelists if available. The pages on the per cpu freelists are not accounted for in VM statistics so getting a page from there has no impact on reclaim. Check for this condition in get_page_from_freelist and short circuit to the call to buffered_rmqueue if so. Note that there is a race here. We may deplete the reserve pools by one page if either the process is rescheduled on a different processor or if another process grabs the last page from the per cpu freelist. Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter <cl@xxxxxxxxx> --- mm/page_alloc.c | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) Index: linux-2.6/mm/page_alloc.c =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.orig/mm/page_alloc.c 2011-07-20 15:27:20.544825852 -0500 +++ linux-2.6/mm/page_alloc.c 2011-07-20 15:30:05.314824797 -0500 @@ -1666,6 +1666,16 @@ zonelist_scan: !cpuset_zone_allowed_softwall(zone, gfp_mask)) goto try_next_zone; + /* + * Short circuit allocation if we have a usable object on + * the percpu freelist. Note that this can only be an + * optimization since there is no guarantee that we will + * be executing on the same cpu. Another process could also + * be scheduled and take the available page from us. + */ + if (order == 0 && this_cpu_read(zone->pageset->pcp.count)) + goto try_this_zone; + BUILD_BUG_ON(ALLOC_NO_WATERMARKS < NR_WMARK); if (!(alloc_flags & ALLOC_NO_WATERMARKS)) { unsigned long mark; -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx. 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>