Hello everyone . I've been trying to understand how KSM works (i want to make some modifications / implement some optimizations) . One thing that struck me odd was the high number of calls to remove_rmap_item_from_tree . Particularly, this instance in cmp_and_merge_page : /* * As soon as we merge this page, we want to remove the * rmap_item of the page we have merged with from the unstable * tree, and insert it instead as new node in the stable tree. */ if (kpage) { remove_rmap_item_from_tree( tree_rmap_item); lock_page(kpage); stable_node = stable_tree_insert(kpage); if (stable_node) { stable_tree_append(tree_rmap_item, stable_node); stable_tree_append(rmap_item, stable_node); } Here, from i understand, we've found a match in the unstable tree, and are adding a stable node in the stable tree. My question is: why do we need to remove the rmap_item from unstable tree here? At the end of a scan we are erasing the unstable tree anyway. Also, all searches first consider the stable tree , and then the unstable tree. What will happen if we find a match in the unstable tree, and simply update tree_rmap_item to point to a stable_node ? Thanks for reading. I'd love to share the ideas i have for (attempting to) improve KSM, if anyone is interested. Prateek -- 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