Document user-space visible device attributes that are enabled by ZRAM_MULTI_COMP. Signed-off-by: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst index c73b16930449..88957fcb6ad7 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst @@ -401,6 +401,61 @@ budget in next setting is user's job. If admin wants to measure writeback count in a certain period, they could know it via /sys/block/zram0/bd_stat's 3rd column. +recompression +------------- + +With CONFIG_ZRAM_MULTI_COMP, zram can recompress idle/huge pages using +alternative (secondary) compression algorithm. The basic idea is that +alternative compression algorithm can provide better compression ratio +at a price of (potentially) slower compression/decompression speeds. +Alternative compression algorithm can, for example, be more successful +compressing huge pages (those that default algorithm failed to compress). +Another application is idle pages recompression - pages that are cold and +sit in the memory can be recompressed using more effective algorithm and, +hence, reduce zsmalloc memory usage. + +With CONFIG_ZRAM_MULTI_COMP, zram will setup two compression algorithms +per-CPU: primary and secondary ones. Primary zram compressor is explained +in "3) Select compression algorithm", the secondary algorithm is configured +in a similar way, using recomp_algorithm device attribute: + +Examples:: + + #show supported recompression algorithms + cat /sys/block/zramX/recomp_algorithm + zstd [lzo] + + #select zstd recompression algorithm + echo zstd > /sys/block/zramX/recomp_algorithm + +Another device attribute that CONFIG_ZRAM_MULTI_COMP enables is recompress, +which controls recompression: + +Examples:: + + #IDLE pages recompression is activated by `idle` mode + echo idle > /sys/block/zramX/recompress + + #HUGE pages recompression is activated by `huge` mode + echo huge > /sys/block/zram0/recompress + + #HUGE_IDLE pages recompression is activated by `huge_idle` mode + echo huge_idle > /sys/block/zramX/recompress + +The number of idle pages can be significant, so user-space can pass a size +watermark value to the recompress knob, to filter out idle pages for +recompression: zram will recompress only idle pages of equal or greater +size::: + + #recompress idle pages larger than 3000 bytes + echo 3000 > /sys/block/zramX/recompress + + #recompress idle pages larger than 2000 bytes + echo 2000 > /sys/block/zramX/recompress + +Recompression is mostly focused on idle pages (except for huge pages +recompression), so it works better in conjunction with memory tracking. + memory tracking =============== -- 2.37.2.789.g6183377224-goog