Re: [PATCH RFC v1] mm: is_mem_section_removable() overhaul

[David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>]

On 17.01.20 16:54, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 7:30 AM Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri 17-01-20 15:58:26, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>> On 17.01.20 15:52, Michal Hocko wrote:
>>>> On Fri 17-01-20 14:08:06, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>>> On 17.01.20 12:33, Michal Hocko wrote:
>>>>>> On Fri 17-01-20 11:57:59, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>>>>> Let's refactor that code. We want to check if we can offline memory
>>>>>>> blocks. Add a new function is_mem_section_offlineable() for that and
>>>>>>> make it call is_mem_section_offlineable() for each contained section.
>>>>>>> Within is_mem_section_offlineable(), add some more sanity checks and
>>>>>>> directly bail out if the section contains holes or if it spans multiple
>>>>>>> zones.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I didn't read the patch (yet) but I am wondering. If we want to touch
>>>>>> this code, can we simply always return true there? I mean whoever
>>>>>> depends on this check is racy and the failure can happen even after
>>>>>> the sysfs says good to go, right? The check is essentially as expensive
>>>>>> as calling the offlining code itself. So the only usecase I can think of
>>>>>> is a dumb driver to crawl over blocks and check which is removable and
>>>>>> try to hotremove it. But just trying to offline one block after another
>>>>>> is essentially going to achieve the same.
>>>>>
>>>>> Some thoughts:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. It allows you to check if memory is likely to be offlineable without
>>>>> doing expensive locking and trying to isolate pages (meaning:
>>>>> zone->lock, mem_hotplug_lock. but also, calling drain_all_pages()
>>>>> when isolating)
>>>>>
>>>>> 2. There are use cases that want to identify a memory block/DIMM to
>>>>> unplug. One example is PPC DLPAR code (see this patch). Going over all
>>>>> memory block trying to offline them is an expensive operation.
>>>>>
>>>>> 3. powerpc-utils (https://github.com/ibm-power-utilities/powerpc-utils)
>>>>> makes use of /sys/.../removable to speed up the search AFAIK.
>>>>
>>>> Well, while I do see those points I am not really sure they are worth
>>>> having a broken (by-definition) interface.
>>>
>>> It's a pure speedup. And for that, the interface has been working
>>> perfectly fine for years?
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 4. lsmem displays/groups by "removable".
>>>>
>>>> Is anybody really using that?
>>>
>>> Well at least I am using that when testing to identify which
>>> (ZONE_NORMAL!) block I can easily offline/re-online (e.g., to validate
>>> all the zone shrinking stuff I have been fixing)
>>>
>>> So there is at least one user ;)
>>
>> Fair enough. But I would argue that there are better ways to do the same
>> solely for testing purposes. Rather than having a subtly broken code to
>> maintain.
>>
>>>>
>>>>>> Or does anybody see any reasonable usecase that would break if we did
>>>>>> that unconditional behavior?
>>>>>
>>>>> If we would return always "true", then the whole reason the
>>>>> interface originally was introduced would be "broken" (meaning, less
>>>>> performant as you would try to offline any memory block).
>>>>
>>>> I would argue that the whole interface is broken ;). Not the first time
>>>> in the kernel development history and not the last time either. What I
>>>> am trying to say here is that unless there are _real_ usecases depending
>>>> on knowing that something surely is _not_ offlineable then I would just
>>>> try to drop the functionality while preserving the interface and see
>>>> what happens.
>>>
>>> I can see that, but I can perfectly well understand why - especially
>>> powerpc - wants a fast way to sense which blocks actually sense to try
>>> to online.
>>>
>>> The original patch correctly states
>>>    "which sections of
>>>     memory are likely to be removable before attempting the potentially
>>>     expensive operation."
>>>
>>> It works as designed I would say.
>>
>> Then I would just keep it crippled the same way it has been for years
>> without anybody noticing.
> 
> I tend to agree. At least the kmem driver that wants to unplug memory
> could not use an interface that does not give stable answers. It just
> relies on remove_memory() to return a definitive error.
> 

Just because kmem cannot reuse such an interface doesn't mean we should
not touch it (or I am not getting your point). Especially, this
interface is about "can it be likely be offlined and then eventually be
removed (if there is a HW interface for that)" (as documented), not
about "will remove_memory()" work.

We do have users and if we agree to keep it (what I think we should as I
expressed) then I think we should un-cripple and fix it. After all we
have to maintain it. The current interface provides what was documented
- "likely to be offlineable". (the chosen name was just horribly bad -
as I expressed a while ago already :) )

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb