On Tue, Jul 14 2015 at 5:13pm -0400,
David Rientjes <rientjes@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Jul 2015, Mikulas Patocka wrote:
>
> > > > Index: linux-4.2-rc1/mm/util.c
> > > > ===================================================================
> > > > --- linux-4.2-rc1.orig/mm/util.c 2015-07-07 15:58:11.000000000 +0200
> > > > +++ linux-4.2-rc1/mm/util.c 2015-07-08 19:22:26.000000000 +0200
> > > > @@ -316,6 +316,61 @@ unsigned long vm_mmap(struct file *file,
> > > > }
> > > > EXPORT_SYMBOL(vm_mmap);
> > > >
> > > > +void *kvmalloc_node(size_t size, gfp_t gfp, int node)
> > > > +{
> > > > + void *p;
> > > > + unsigned uninitialized_var(noio_flag);
> > > > +
> > > > + /* vmalloc doesn't support no-wait allocations */
> > > > + WARN_ON_ONCE(!(gfp & __GFP_WAIT));
> > > > +
> > > > + if (likely(size <= KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE)) {
> > > > + /*
> > > > + * Use __GFP_NORETRY so that we don't loop waiting for the
> > > > + * allocation - we don't have to loop here, if the memory
> > > > + * is too fragmented, we fallback to vmalloc.
> > >
> > > I'm not sure about this decision. The direct reclaim retry code is the
> > > normal default behaviour and becomes more important with larger allocation
> > > attempts. So why turn it off, and make it more likely that we return
> > > vmalloc memory?
> >
> > It can avoid triggering the OOM killer in case of fragmented memory.
> >
> > This is general question - if the code can handle allocation failure
> > gracefully, what gfp flags should it use? Maybe add some flag
> > __GFP_MAYFAIL instead of __GFP_NORETRY that changes the behavior in
> > desired way?
> >
>
> There's a misunderstanding in regards to the comment: __GFP_NORETRY
> doesn't turn direct reclaim or compaction off, it is still attempted and
> with the same priority as any other allocation. This only stops the page
> allocator from calling the oom killer, which will free memory or panic the
> system, and looping when memory is available.
>
> In regards to the proposal in general, I think it's unnecessary because we
> are still left behind with other users who open code their call to
> vmalloc. I was interested in commit 058504edd026 ("fs/seq_file: fallback
> to vmalloc allocation") since it solved an issue with high memory
> fragmentation. Note how it falls back to vmalloc(): _without_ this
> __GFP_NORETRY. That's because we only want to fallback when high-order
> allocations fail and the page allocator doesn't implicitly loop due to the
> order. ext4_kvmalloc(), ext4_kzmalloc() does the same.
>
> The differences in implementations between those that do kmalloc() and
> fallback to vmalloc() are different enough that I don't think we need this
> addition.
Wouldn't mm benefit from acknowledging the pattern people are
open-coding and switching existing code over to official methods for
accomplishing the same?
It is always easier to shoehorn utility functions locally within a
subsystem (be it ext4, dm, etc) but once enough do something in a
similar but different way it really should get elevated.
--
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>