After the patch "mm: vmscan: Flatten kswapd priority loop" was merged the scanning priority of kswapd changed. The priority now raises until it is scanning enough pages to meet the high watermark. shrink_inactive_list sets ZONE_WRITEBACK if a number of pages were encountered under writeback but this value is scaled based on the priority. As kswapd frequently scans with a higher priority now it is relatively easy to set ZONE_WRITEBACK. This patch removes the scaling and treates writeback pages similar to how it treats unqueued dirty pages and congested pages. The user-visible effect should be that kswapd will writeback fewer pages from reclaim context. Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxx> --- mm/vmscan.c | 16 +--------------- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 15 deletions(-) diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c index 65f2fbea..f677780 100644 --- a/mm/vmscan.c +++ b/mm/vmscan.c @@ -1477,25 +1477,11 @@ shrink_inactive_list(unsigned long nr_to_scan, struct lruvec *lruvec, * as there is no guarantee the dirtying process is throttled in the * same way balance_dirty_pages() manages. * - * This scales the number of dirty pages that must be under writeback - * before a zone gets flagged ZONE_WRITEBACK. It is a simple backoff - * function that has the most effect in the range DEF_PRIORITY to - * DEF_PRIORITY-2 which is the priority reclaim is considered to be - * in trouble and reclaim is considered to be in trouble. - * - * DEF_PRIORITY 100% isolated pages must be PageWriteback to throttle - * DEF_PRIORITY-1 50% must be PageWriteback - * DEF_PRIORITY-2 25% must be PageWriteback, kswapd in trouble - * ... - * DEF_PRIORITY-6 For SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX isolated pages, throttle if any - * isolated page is PageWriteback - * * Once a zone is flagged ZONE_WRITEBACK, kswapd will count the number * of pages under pages flagged for immediate reclaim and stall if any * are encountered in the nr_immediate check below. */ - if (nr_writeback && nr_writeback >= - (nr_taken >> (DEF_PRIORITY - sc->priority))) + if (nr_writeback && nr_writeback == nr_taken) zone_set_flag(zone, ZONE_WRITEBACK); /* -- 1.8.1.4 -- 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/ . Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx";> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>