The patch titled Subject: documentation: add recompression documentation has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch. Its filename is documentation-add-recompression-documentation.patch This patch will shortly appear at https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/documentation-add-recompression-documentation.patch This patch will later appear in the mm-unstable branch at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm 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/process/submit-checklist.rst when testing your code *** The -mm tree is included into linux-next via the mm-everything branch at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm and is updated there every 2-3 working days ------------------------------------------------------ From: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: documentation: add recompression documentation Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2022 13:55:29 +0900 Document user-space visible device attributes that are enabled by ZRAM_MULTI_COMP. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20221018045533.2396670-6-senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx Signed-off-by: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Minchan Kim <minchan@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Nitin Gupta <ngupta@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst | 55 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+) --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst~documentation-add-recompression-documentation +++ a/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 (in bytes) 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 =============== _ Patches currently in -mm which might be from senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx are zram-preparation-for-multi-zcomp-support.patch zram-add-recompression-algorithm-sysfs-knob.patch zram-factor-out-wb-and-non-wb-zram-read-functions.patch zram-introduce-recompress-sysfs-knob.patch documentation-add-recompression-documentation.patch zram-add-recompression-algorithm-choice-to-kconfig.patch zram-add-recompress-flag-to-read_block_state.patch zram-clarify-writeback_store-comment.patch zram-use-is_err_value-to-check-for-zs_malloc-errors.patch