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From: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
To: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	kernel-team@fb.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/5] mm: vmscan: kick flushers when we encounter dirty pages on the LRU
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2017 12:47:39 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20170126174739.GA30636@cmpxchg.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20170126095745.ueigbrsop5vgmwzj@suse.de>

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 09:57:45AM +0000, Mel Gorman wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 01:16:38PM -0500, Johannes Weiner wrote:
> > Memory pressure can put dirty pages at the end of the LRU without
> > anybody running into dirty limits. Don't start writing individual
> > pages from kswapd while the flushers might be asleep.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
> 
> I don't understand the motivation for checking the wb_reason name. Maybe
> it was easier to eyeball while reading ftraces. The comment about the
> flusher not doing its job could also be as simple as the writes took
> place and clean pages were reclaimed before dirty_expire was reached.
> Not impossible if there was a light writer combined with a heavy reader
> or a large number of anonymous faults.

The name change was only because try_to_free_pages() wasn't the only
function doing this flusher wakeup anymore. I associate that name with
direct reclaim rather than reclaim in general, so I figured this makes
more sense. No strong feelings either way, but I doubt this will break
anything in userspace.

The comment on dirty expiration is a good point. Let's add this to the
list of reasons why reclaim might run into dirty data. Fixlet below.

> Acked-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>

Thanks!

---

>From 44c4289ab85c0af66cb06de6d1bb72a5c67fd755 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2017 12:41:39 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] mm: vmscan: kick flushers when we encounter dirty pages on
 the LRU fix

Mention dirty expiration as a condition: we need dirty data that is
too recent for periodic flushing and not large enough for waking up
limit flushing. As per Mel.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
---
 mm/vmscan.c | 16 ++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 56ea8d24041f..ccd4bf952cb3 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -1799,15 +1799,14 @@ shrink_inactive_list(unsigned long nr_to_scan, struct lruvec *lruvec,
 		/*
 		 * If dirty pages are scanned that are not queued for IO, it
 		 * implies that flushers are not doing their job. This can
-		 * happen when memory pressure pushes dirty pages to the end
-		 * of the LRU without the dirty limits being breached. It can
-		 * also happen when the proportion of dirty pages grows not
-		 * through writes but through memory pressure reclaiming all
-		 * the clean cache. And in some cases, the flushers simply
-		 * cannot keep up with the allocation rate. Nudge the flusher
-		 * threads in case they are asleep, but also allow kswapd to
-		 * start writing pages during reclaim.
+		 * happen when memory pressure pushes dirty pages to the end of
+		 * the LRU before the dirty limits are breached and the dirty
+		 * data has expired. It can also happen when the proportion of
+		 * dirty pages grows not through writes but through memory
+		 * pressure reclaiming all the clean cache. And in some cases,
+		 * the flushers simply cannot keep up with the allocation
+		 * rate. Nudge the flusher threads in case they are asleep, but
+		 * also allow kswapd to start writing pages during reclaim.
 		 */
 		if (stat.nr_unqueued_dirty == nr_taken) {
 			wakeup_flusher_threads(0, WB_REASON_VMSCAN);
-- 
2.11.0

  reply	other threads:[~2017-01-26 17:48 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 30+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2017-01-23 18:16 [PATCH 0/5] mm: vmscan: fix kswapd writeback regression Johannes Weiner
2017-01-23 18:16 ` [PATCH 1/5] mm: vmscan: scan dirty pages even in laptop mode Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26  1:27   ` Minchan Kim
2017-01-26  9:52   ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 13:13   ` Michal Hocko
2017-01-23 18:16 ` [PATCH 2/5] mm: vmscan: kick flushers when we encounter dirty pages on the LRU Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26  1:35   ` Minchan Kim
2017-01-26  9:57   ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 17:47     ` Johannes Weiner [this message]
2017-01-26 18:47       ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 13:16   ` Michal Hocko
2017-01-23 18:16 ` [PATCH 3/5] mm: vmscan: remove old flusher wakeup from direct reclaim path Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26  1:38   ` Minchan Kim
2017-01-26 10:05   ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 18:50     ` Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26 20:45       ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-27 12:01       ` Michal Hocko
2017-01-27 14:27         ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 13:21   ` Michal Hocko
2017-01-23 18:16 ` [PATCH 4/5] mm: vmscan: only write dirty pages that the scanner has seen twice Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26  1:42   ` Minchan Kim
2017-01-26 10:08   ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 13:29   ` Michal Hocko
2017-01-23 18:16 ` [PATCH 5/5] mm: vmscan: move dirty pages out of the way until they're flushed Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26  1:47   ` Minchan Kim
2017-01-26 10:19   ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 20:07     ` Johannes Weiner
2017-01-26 20:58       ` Mel Gorman
2017-01-26 13:52   ` Michal Hocko
2017-01-26  5:44 ` [PATCH 0/5] mm: vmscan: fix kswapd writeback regression Hillf Danton

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