The patch titled Subject: mm: vmscan: fix not scanning anonymous pages when detecting file refaults has been removed from the -mm tree. Its filename was mm-vmscan-fix-not-scanning-anonymous-pages-when-detecting-file-refaults.patch This patch was dropped because an updated version will be merged ------------------------------------------------------ From: Kuo-Hsin Yang <vovoy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: mm: vmscan: fix not scanning anonymous pages when detecting file refaults When file refaults are detected and there are many inactive file pages, the system never reclaim anonymous pages, the file pages are dropped aggressively when there are still a lot of cold anonymous pages and system thrashes. This issue impacts the performance of applications with large executable, e.g. chrome. When file refaults are detected. inactive_list_is_low() may return different values depends on the actual_reclaim parameter, the following 2 conditions could be satisfied at the same time. 1) inactive_list_is_low() returns false in get_scan_count() to trigger scanning file lists only. 2) inactive_list_is_low() returns true in shrink_list() to allow scanning active file list. In that case vmscan would only scan file lists, and as active file list is also scanned, inactive_list_is_low() may keep returning false in get_scan_count() until file cache is very low. Before 2a2e48854d70 ("mm: vmscan: fix IO/refault regression in cache workingset transition"), inactive_list_is_low() never returns different value in get_scan_count() and shrink_list() in one shrink_node_memcg() run. The original design should be that when inactive_list_is_low() returns false for file lists, vmscan only scan inactive file list. As only inactive file list is scanned, inactive_list_is_low() would soon return true. This patch makes the return value of inactive_list_is_low() independent of actual_reclaim. The problem can be reproduced by the following test program. ---8<--- void fallocate_file(const char *filename, off_t size) { struct stat st; int fd; if (!stat(filename, &st) && st.st_size >= size) return; fd = open(filename, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, 0600); if (fd < 0) { perror("create file"); exit(1); } if (posix_fallocate(fd, 0, size)) { perror("fallocate"); exit(1); } close(fd); } long *alloc_anon(long size) { long *start = malloc(size); memset(start, 1, size); return start; } long access_file(const char *filename, long size, long rounds) { int fd, i; volatile char *start1, *end1, *start2; const int page_size = getpagesize(); long sum = 0; fd = open(filename, O_RDONLY); if (fd == -1) { perror("open"); exit(1); } /* * Some applications, e.g. chrome, use a lot of executable file * pages, map some of the pages with PROT_EXEC flag to simulate * the behavior. */ start1 = mmap(NULL, size / 2, PROT_READ | PROT_EXEC, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0); if (start1 == MAP_FAILED) { perror("mmap"); exit(1); } end1 = start1 + size / 2; start2 = mmap(NULL, size / 2, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, fd, size / 2); if (start2 == MAP_FAILED) { perror("mmap"); exit(1); } for (i = 0; i < rounds; ++i) { struct timeval before, after; volatile char *ptr1 = start1, *ptr2 = start2; gettimeofday(&before, NULL); for (; ptr1 < end1; ptr1 += page_size, ptr2 += page_size) sum += *ptr1 + *ptr2; gettimeofday(&after, NULL); printf("File access time, round %d: %f (sec) ", i, (after.tv_sec - before.tv_sec) + (after.tv_usec - before.tv_usec) / 1000000.0); } return sum; } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { const long MB = 1024 * 1024; long anon_mb, file_mb, file_rounds; const char filename[] = "large"; long *ret1; long ret2; if (argc != 4) { printf("usage: thrash ANON_MB FILE_MB FILE_ROUNDS "); exit(0); } anon_mb = atoi(argv[1]); file_mb = atoi(argv[2]); file_rounds = atoi(argv[3]); fallocate_file(filename, file_mb * MB); printf("Allocate %ld MB anonymous pages ", anon_mb); ret1 = alloc_anon(anon_mb * MB); printf("Access %ld MB file pages ", file_mb); ret2 = access_file(filename, file_mb * MB, file_rounds); printf("Print result to prevent optimization: %ld ", *ret1 + ret2); return 0; } ---8<--- Running the test program on 2GB RAM VM with kernel 5.2.0-rc5, the program fills ram with 2048 MB memory, access a 200 MB file for 10 times. Without this patch, the file cache is dropped aggresively and every access to the file is from disk. $ ./thrash 2048 200 10 Allocate 2048 MB anonymous pages Access 200 MB file pages File access time, round 0: 2.489316 (sec) File access time, round 1: 2.581277 (sec) File access time, round 2: 2.487624 (sec) File access time, round 3: 2.449100 (sec) File access time, round 4: 2.420423 (sec) File access time, round 5: 2.343411 (sec) File access time, round 6: 2.454833 (sec) File access time, round 7: 2.483398 (sec) File access time, round 8: 2.572701 (sec) File access time, round 9: 2.493014 (sec) With this patch, these file pages can be cached. $ ./thrash 2048 200 10 Allocate 2048 MB anonymous pages Access 200 MB file pages File access time, round 0: 2.475189 (sec) File access time, round 1: 2.440777 (sec) File access time, round 2: 2.411671 (sec) File access time, round 3: 1.955267 (sec) File access time, round 4: 0.029924 (sec) File access time, round 5: 0.000808 (sec) File access time, round 6: 0.000771 (sec) File access time, round 7: 0.000746 (sec) File access time, round 8: 0.000738 (sec) File access time, round 9: 0.000747 (sec) Johannes: : The problem of forcing cache trimming while there is enough page cache : is older than the commit you refer to. It could be argued that this : commit is incomplete - it could have added refault detection not just : to inactive:active file balancing, but also the file:anon balancing; : but it didn't *cause* this problem. Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20190619080835.GA68312@xxxxxxxxxx Fixes: 2a2e48854d70 ("mm: vmscan: fix IO/refault regression in cache workingset transition") Signed-off-by: Kuo-Hsin Yang <vovoy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx> Cc: Sonny Rao <sonnyrao@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov.dev@xxxxxxxxx> Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- mm/vmscan.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) --- a/mm/vmscan.c~mm-vmscan-fix-not-scanning-anonymous-pages-when-detecting-file-refaults +++ a/mm/vmscan.c @@ -2151,7 +2151,7 @@ static bool inactive_list_is_low(struct * rid of the stale workingset quickly. */ refaults = lruvec_page_state_local(lruvec, WORKINGSET_ACTIVATE); - if (file && actual_reclaim && lruvec->refaults != refaults) { + if (file && lruvec->refaults != refaults) { inactive_ratio = 0; } else { gb = (inactive + active) >> (30 - PAGE_SHIFT); _ Patches currently in -mm which might be from vovoy@xxxxxxxxxxxx are mm-vmscan-scan-anonymous-pages-on-file-refaults.patch