The patch titled Subject: mm: vmscan: kick flushers when we encounter dirty pages on the LRU has been added to the -mm tree. Its filename is mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru.patch This patch should soon appear at http://ozlabs.org/~akpm/mmots/broken-out/mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru.patch and later at http://ozlabs.org/~akpm/mmotm/broken-out/mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru.patch Before you just go and hit "reply", please: a) Consider who else should be cc'ed b) Prefer to cc a suitable mailing list as well c) Ideally: find the original patch on the mailing list and do a reply-to-all to that, adding suitable additional cc's *** Remember to use Documentation/SubmitChecklist when testing your code *** The -mm tree is included into linux-next and is updated there every 3-4 working days ------------------------------------------------------ From: Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: mm: vmscan: kick flushers when we encounter dirty pages on the LRU Memory pressure can put dirty pages at the end of the LRU without anybody running into dirty limits. Don't start writing individual pages from kswapd while the flushers might be asleep. Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20170123181641.23938-3-hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx Signed-off-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxx> Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- include/linux/writeback.h | 2 +- include/trace/events/writeback.h | 2 +- mm/vmscan.c | 18 +++++++++++++----- 3 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff -puN include/linux/writeback.h~mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru include/linux/writeback.h --- a/include/linux/writeback.h~mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru +++ a/include/linux/writeback.h @@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ enum writeback_sync_modes { */ enum wb_reason { WB_REASON_BACKGROUND, - WB_REASON_TRY_TO_FREE_PAGES, + WB_REASON_VMSCAN, WB_REASON_SYNC, WB_REASON_PERIODIC, WB_REASON_LAPTOP_TIMER, diff -puN include/trace/events/writeback.h~mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru include/trace/events/writeback.h --- a/include/trace/events/writeback.h~mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru +++ a/include/trace/events/writeback.h @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ #define WB_WORK_REASON \ EM( WB_REASON_BACKGROUND, "background") \ - EM( WB_REASON_TRY_TO_FREE_PAGES, "try_to_free_pages") \ + EM( WB_REASON_VMSCAN, "vmscan") \ EM( WB_REASON_SYNC, "sync") \ EM( WB_REASON_PERIODIC, "periodic") \ EM( WB_REASON_LAPTOP_TIMER, "laptop_timer") \ diff -puN mm/vmscan.c~mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru mm/vmscan.c --- a/mm/vmscan.c~mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru +++ a/mm/vmscan.c @@ -1798,12 +1798,20 @@ shrink_inactive_list(unsigned long nr_to /* * If dirty pages are scanned that are not queued for IO, it - * implies that flushers are not keeping up. In this case, flag - * the pgdat PGDAT_DIRTY and kswapd will start writing pages from - * reclaim context. + * implies that flushers are not doing their job. This can + * happen when memory pressure pushes dirty pages to the end + * of the LRU without the dirty limits being breached. It can + * also happen when the proportion of dirty pages grows not + * through writes but through memory pressure reclaiming all + * the clean cache. And in some cases, the flushers simply + * cannot keep up with the allocation rate. Nudge the flusher + * threads in case they are asleep, but also allow kswapd to + * start writing pages during reclaim. */ - if (stat.nr_unqueued_dirty == nr_taken) + if (stat.nr_unqueued_dirty == nr_taken) { + wakeup_flusher_threads(0, WB_REASON_VMSCAN); set_bit(PGDAT_DIRTY, &pgdat->flags); + } /* * If kswapd scans pages marked marked for immediate @@ -2787,7 +2795,7 @@ retry: writeback_threshold = sc->nr_to_reclaim + sc->nr_to_reclaim / 2; if (total_scanned > writeback_threshold) { wakeup_flusher_threads(laptop_mode ? 0 : total_scanned, - WB_REASON_TRY_TO_FREE_PAGES); + WB_REASON_VMSCAN); sc->may_writepage = 1; } } while (--sc->priority >= 0); _ Patches currently in -mm which might be from hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx are mm-vmscan-scan-dirty-pages-even-in-laptop-mode.patch mm-vmscan-kick-flushers-when-we-encounter-dirty-pages-on-the-lru.patch mm-vmscan-remove-old-flusher-wakeup-from-direct-reclaim-path.patch mm-vmscan-only-write-dirty-pages-that-the-scanner-has-seen-twice.patch mm-vmscan-move-dirty-pages-out-of-the-way-until-theyre-flushed.patch -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe mm-commits" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html