From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.cz>
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org, Dave Hansen <dave@linux.vnet.ibm.com>,
KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com>,
KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com>,
LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] add some drop_caches documentation and info messsge
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:54:39 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20121024125439.c17a510e.akpm@linux-foundation.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20121024062938.GA6119@dhcp22.suse.cz>
On Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:29:45 +0200
Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.cz> wrote:
> > >
> > > + printk(KERN_NOTICE "%s (%d): dropped kernel caches: %d\n",
> > > + current->comm, task_pid_nr(current), sysctl_drop_caches);
> >
> > urgh. Are we really sure we want to do this? The system operators who
> > are actually using this thing will hate us :(
>
> I have no problems with lowering the priority (how do you see
> KERN_INFO?) but shouldn't this message kick them that they are doing
> something wrong? Or if somebody uses that for "benchmarking" to have a
> clean table before start is this really that invasive?
hmpf. This patch worries me. If there are people out there who are
regularly using drop_caches because the VM sucks, it seems pretty
obnoxious of us to go dumping stuff into their syslog. What are they
supposed to do? Stop using drop_caches? But that would unfix the
problem which they fixed with drop_caches in the first case.
And they might not even have control over the code - they need to go
back to their supplier and say "please send me a new version", along
with all the additional costs and risks involed in an update.
> > More friendly alternatives might be:
> >
> > - Taint the kernel. But that will only become apparent with an oops
> > trace or similar.
> >
> > - Add a drop_caches counter and make that available in /proc/vmstat,
> > show_mem() output and perhaps other places.
>
> We would loose timing and originating process name in both cases which
> can be really helpful while debugging. It is fair to say that we could
> deduce the timing if we are collecting /proc/meminfo or /proc/vmstat
> already and we do collect them often but this is not the case all of the
> time and sometimes it is important to know _who_ is doing all this.
But how important is all that? The main piece of information the
kernel developer wants is "this guy is using drop_caches a lot". All
the other info is peripheral and can be gathered by other means if so
desired.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-10-24 19:54 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 33+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-10-12 12:57 [PATCH] add some drop_caches documentation and info messsge Michal Hocko
2012-10-12 18:54 ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2012-10-15 9:04 ` Kamezawa Hiroyuki
2012-10-15 14:05 ` Dave Hansen
2012-10-23 23:45 ` Andrew Morton
2012-10-24 6:29 ` Michal Hocko
2012-10-24 19:54 ` Andrew Morton [this message]
2012-10-24 20:28 ` Dave Hansen
2012-10-24 20:48 ` Andrew Morton
2012-10-24 21:06 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-24 21:13 ` Andrew Morton
2012-10-24 22:04 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2012-10-25 1:17 ` Andrew Morton
2012-10-25 20:16 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2012-10-29 8:59 ` Jiri Kosina
2012-10-29 9:58 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-29 10:01 ` Jiri Kosina
2012-10-29 10:11 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-31 17:31 ` Pavel Machek
2012-10-31 17:46 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-24 22:35 ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2012-10-25 14:21 ` Michal Hocko
2012-10-24 21:18 ` Dave Hansen
2012-10-24 22:48 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-24 22:57 ` Dave Hansen
2012-10-25 0:56 ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2012-10-25 9:24 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-25 11:57 ` Dave Hansen
2012-10-25 14:24 ` Borislav Petkov
2012-10-25 14:25 ` Michal Hocko
2012-10-26 7:45 ` Mika Boström
2012-11-01 20:26 ` Pavel Machek
2012-10-25 14:09 ` Michal Hocko
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