We can avoid deactivate slab in special cases if we do the deactivation of slabs in each code flow that leads to new_slab. Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter --- mm/slub.c | 11 +++++------ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) Index: linux-2.6/mm/slub.c =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.orig/mm/slub.c 2011-05-31 14:27:11.362880110 -0500 +++ linux-2.6/mm/slub.c 2011-05-31 14:27:12.002880106 -0500 @@ -1965,8 +1965,10 @@ static void *__slab_alloc(struct kmem_ca if (!page) goto new_slab; - if (unlikely(!node_match(c, node))) - goto another_slab; + if (unlikely(!node_match(c, node))) { + deactivate_slab(s, c); + goto new_slab; + } stat(s, ALLOC_SLOWPATH); @@ -1986,7 +1988,7 @@ load_freelist: VM_BUG_ON(!page->frozen); if (unlikely(!object)) - goto another_slab; + goto new_slab; stat(s, ALLOC_REFILL); @@ -1995,9 +1997,6 @@ load_freelist: local_irq_restore(flags); return object; -another_slab: - deactivate_slab(s, c); - new_slab: page = get_partial(s, gfpflags, node); if (page) {