From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932478Ab1EFTOo (ORCPT ); Fri, 6 May 2011 15:14:44 -0400 Received: from cantor.suse.de ([195.135.220.2]:43587 "EHLO mx1.suse.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751096Ab1EFTOn (ORCPT ); Fri, 6 May 2011 15:14:43 -0400 Subject: Re: [BUG] fatal hang untarring 90GB file, possibly writeback related. From: James Bottomley To: Mel Gorman Cc: Mel Gorman , Jan Kara , colin.king@canonical.com, Chris Mason , linux-fsdevel , linux-mm , linux-kernel , linux-ext4 In-Reply-To: <20110506154444.GG6591@suse.de> References: <20110428171826.GZ4658@suse.de> <1304015436.2598.19.camel@mulgrave.site> <20110428192104.GA4658@suse.de> <1304020767.2598.21.camel@mulgrave.site> <1304025145.2598.24.camel@mulgrave.site> <1304030629.2598.42.camel@mulgrave.site> <20110503091320.GA4542@novell.com> <1304431982.2576.5.camel@mulgrave.site> <1304432553.2576.10.camel@mulgrave.site> <20110506074224.GB6591@suse.de> <20110506154444.GG6591@suse.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Fri, 06 May 2011 14:14:37 -0500 Message-ID: <1304709277.12427.29.camel@mulgrave.site> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.32.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 2011-05-06 at 16:44 +0100, Mel Gorman wrote: > Colin and James: Did you happen to switch from SLAB to SLUB between > 2.6.37 and 2.6.38? My own tests were against SLAB which might be why I > didn't see the problem. Am restarting the tests with SLUB. Aargh ... I'm an idiot. I should have thought of SLUB immediately ... it's been causing oopses since debian switched to it. So I recompiled the 2.6.38.4 stable kernel with SLAB instead of SLUB and the problem goes away ... at least from three untar runs on a loaded box ... of course it could manifest a few ms after I send this email ... There are material differences, as well: SLAB isn't taking my system down to very low memory on the untar ... it's keeping about 0.5Gb listed as free. SLUB took that to under 100kb, so it could just be that SLAB isn't wandering as close to the cliff edge? James From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail144.messagelabs.com (mail144.messagelabs.com [216.82.254.51]) by kanga.kvack.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 28D8F6B0011 for ; Fri, 6 May 2011 15:14:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: [BUG] fatal hang untarring 90GB file, possibly writeback related. From: James Bottomley In-Reply-To: <20110506154444.GG6591@suse.de> References: <20110428171826.GZ4658@suse.de> <1304015436.2598.19.camel@mulgrave.site> <20110428192104.GA4658@suse.de> <1304020767.2598.21.camel@mulgrave.site> <1304025145.2598.24.camel@mulgrave.site> <1304030629.2598.42.camel@mulgrave.site> <20110503091320.GA4542@novell.com> <1304431982.2576.5.camel@mulgrave.site> <1304432553.2576.10.camel@mulgrave.site> <20110506074224.GB6591@suse.de> <20110506154444.GG6591@suse.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Fri, 06 May 2011 14:14:37 -0500 Message-ID: <1304709277.12427.29.camel@mulgrave.site> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org List-ID: To: Mel Gorman Cc: Mel Gorman , Jan Kara , colin.king@canonical.com, Chris Mason , linux-fsdevel , linux-mm , linux-kernel , linux-ext4 On Fri, 2011-05-06 at 16:44 +0100, Mel Gorman wrote: > Colin and James: Did you happen to switch from SLAB to SLUB between > 2.6.37 and 2.6.38? My own tests were against SLAB which might be why I > didn't see the problem. Am restarting the tests with SLUB. Aargh ... I'm an idiot. I should have thought of SLUB immediately ... it's been causing oopses since debian switched to it. So I recompiled the 2.6.38.4 stable kernel with SLAB instead of SLUB and the problem goes away ... at least from three untar runs on a loaded box ... of course it could manifest a few ms after I send this email ... There are material differences, as well: SLAB isn't taking my system down to very low memory on the untar ... it's keeping about 0.5Gb listed as free. SLUB took that to under 100kb, so it could just be that SLAB isn't wandering as close to the cliff edge? James -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Fight unfair telecom internet charges in Canada: sign http://stopthemeter.ca/ Don't email: email@kvack.org