Hi, Michal, On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 10:54 PM, Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxx> wrote: > I really fail to see how that helps. compound_head is inlined and the > compiler should be clever enough to optimize the code properly. I > haven't tried that to be honest but this looks like it only adds a code > without any good reason. And I really hate the new name as well. What > does it suppose to mean? the code in question is as below: --- snipt ---- if (likely(!PageTail(page))) { <------ (1) if (put_page_testzero(page)) { /* ¦* By the time all refcounts have been released ¦* split_huge_page cannot run anymore from under us. ¦*/ if (PageHead(page)) __put_compound_page(page); else __put_single_page(page); } return; } /* __split_huge_page_refcount can run under us */ page_head = compound_head(page); <------------ (2) --- snipt --- if at (1) , we fail the check, this means page is *likely* a tail page. Then at (2), yes, compoud_head(page) is inlined, it is : --- snipt --- static inline struct page *compound_head(struct page *page) { if (unlikely(PageTail(page))) { <----------- (3) struct page *head = page->first_page; smp_rmb(); if (likely(PageTail(page))) return head; } return page; } --- snipt --- here, the (3) unlikely in the case is a negative hint, because it is *likely* a tail page. So the check (3) in this case is not good, so I introduce a helper for this case. Actually, I checked the assembled code, the compiler is _not_ so smart to recognize this case. It just does optimization as the hint unlikely() told it. Thanks, Jianyu Zhan -- 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