linux.git/mm/Makefile, branch v2.6.24

memory unplug: page isolation

2007-10-16T16:43:02+00:00

Implement generic chunk-of-pages isolation method by using page grouping ops.

This patch add MIGRATE_ISOLATE to MIGRATE_TYPES. By this
 - MIGRATE_TYPES increases.
 - bitmap for migratetype is enlarged.

pages of MIGRATE_ISOLATE migratetype will not be allocated even if it is free.
By this, you can isolated *freed* pages from users. How-to-free pages is not
a purpose of this patch. You may use reclaim and migrate codes to free pages.

If start_isolate_page_range(start,end) is called,
 - migratetype of the range turns to be MIGRATE_ISOLATE  if
   its type is MIGRATE_MOVABLE. (*) this check can be updated if other
   memory reclaiming works make progress.
 - MIGRATE_ISOLATE is not on migratetype fallback list.
 - All free pages and will-be-freed pages are isolated.
To check all pages in the range are isolated or not,  use test_pages_isolated(),
To cancel isolation, use undo_isolate_page_range().

Changes V6 -> V7
 - removed unnecessary #ifdef

There are HOLES_IN_ZONE handling codes...I'm glad if we can remove them..

Signed-off-by: Yasunori Goto 
Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

Generic Virtual Memmap support for SPARSEMEM

2007-10-16T16:42:51+00:00

SPARSEMEM is a pretty nice framework that unifies quite a bit of code over all
the arches.  It would be great if it could be the default so that we can get
rid of various forms of DISCONTIG and other variations on memory maps.  So far
what has hindered this are the additional lookups that SPARSEMEM introduces
for virt_to_page and page_address.  This goes so far that the code to do this
has to be kept in a separate function and cannot be used inline.

This patch introduces a virtual memmap mode for SPARSEMEM, in which the memmap
is mapped into a virtually contigious area, only the active sections are
physically backed.  This allows virt_to_page page_address and cohorts become
simple shift/add operations.  No page flag fields, no table lookups, nothing
involving memory is required.

The two key operations pfn_to_page and page_to_page become:

   #define __pfn_to_page(pfn)      (vmemmap + (pfn))
   #define __page_to_pfn(page)     ((page) - vmemmap)

By having a virtual mapping for the memmap we allow simple access without
wasting physical memory.  As kernel memory is typically already mapped 1:1
this introduces no additional overhead.  The virtual mapping must be big
enough to allow a struct page to be allocated and mapped for all valid
physical pages.  This vill make a virtual memmap difficult to use on 32 bit
platforms that support 36 address bits.

However, if there is enough virtual space available and the arch already maps
its 1-1 kernel space using TLBs (f.e.  true of IA64 and x86_64) then this
technique makes SPARSEMEM lookups even more efficient than CONFIG_FLATMEM.
FLATMEM needs to read the contents of the mem_map variable to get the start of
the memmap and then add the offset to the required entry.  vmemmap is a
constant to which we can simply add the offset.

This patch has the potential to allow us to make SPARSMEM the default (and
even the only) option for most systems.  It should be optimal on UP, SMP and
NUMA on most platforms.  Then we may even be able to remove the other memory
models: FLATMEM, DISCONTIG etc.

[apw@shadowen.org: config cleanups, resplit code etc]
[kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com: Fix sparsemem_vmemmap init]
[apw@shadowen.org: vmemmap: remove excess debugging]
[apw@shadowen.org: simplify initialisation code and reduce duplication]
[apw@shadowen.org: pull out the vmemmap code into its own file]
Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter 
Signed-off-by: Andy Whitcroft 
Acked-by: Mel Gorman 
Cc: "Luck, Tony" 
Cc: Andi Kleen 
Cc: "David S. Miller" 
Cc: Paul Mackerras 
Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt 
Cc: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki 
Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

CONFIG_BOUNCE to avoid useless inclusion of bounce buffer logic

2007-07-17T17:23:02+00:00

The bounce buffer logic is included on systems that do not need it.  If a
system does not have zones like ZONE_DMA and ZONE_HIGHMEM that can lead to
the use of bounce buffers then there is no need to reserve memory pools etc
etc.  This is true f.e.  for SGI Altix.

Also nicifies the Makefile and gets rid of the tricky "and" there.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter 
Acked-by: Jens Axboe 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

Quicklists for page table pages

2007-05-07T19:12:54+00:00

On x86_64 this cuts allocation overhead for page table pages down to a
fraction (kernel compile / editing load.  TSC based measurement of times spend
in each function):

no quicklist

pte_alloc               1569048 4.3s(401ns/2.7us/179.7us)
pmd_alloc                780988 2.1s(337ns/2.7us/86.1us)
pud_alloc                780072 2.2s(424ns/2.8us/300.6us)
pgd_alloc                260022 1s(920ns/4us/263.1us)

quicklist:

pte_alloc                452436 573.4ms(8ns/1.3us/121.1us)
pmd_alloc                196204 174.5ms(7ns/889ns/46.1us)
pud_alloc                195688 172.4ms(7ns/881ns/151.3us)
pgd_alloc                 65228 9.8ms(8ns/150ns/6.1us)

pgd allocations are the most complex and there we see the most dramatic
improvement (may be we can cut down the amount of pgds cached somewhat?).  But
even the pte allocations still see a doubling of performance.

1. Proven code from the IA64 arch.

	The method used here has been fine tuned for years and
	is NUMA aware. It is based on the knowledge that accesses
	to page table pages are sparse in nature. Taking a page
	off the freelists instead of allocating a zeroed pages
	allows a reduction of number of cachelines touched
	in addition to getting rid of the slab overhead. So
	performance improves. This is particularly useful if pgds
	contain standard mappings. We can save on the teardown
	and setup of such a page if we have some on the quicklists.
	This includes avoiding lists operations that are otherwise
	necessary on alloc and free to track pgds.

2. Light weight alternative to use slab to manage page size pages

	Slab overhead is significant and even page allocator use
	is pretty heavy weight. The use of a per cpu quicklist
	means that we touch only two cachelines for an allocation.
	There is no need to access the page_struct (unless arch code
	needs to fiddle around with it). So the fast past just
	means bringing in one cacheline at the beginning of the
	page. That same cacheline may then be used to store the
	page table entry. Or a second cacheline may be used
	if the page table entry is not in the first cacheline of
	the page. The current code will zero the page which means
	touching 32 cachelines (assuming 128 byte). We get down
	from 32 to 2 cachelines in the fast path.

3. x86_64 gets lightweight page table page management.

	This will allow x86_64 arch code to faster repopulate pgds
	and other page table entries. The list operations for pgds
	are reduced in the same way as for i386 to the point where
	a pgd is allocated from the page allocator and when it is
	freed back to the page allocator. A pgd can pass through
	the quicklists without having to be reinitialized.

64 Consolidation of code from multiple arches

	So far arches have their own implementation of quicklist
	management. This patch moves that feature into the core allowing
	an easier maintenance and consistent management of quicklists.

Page table pages have the characteristics that they are typically zero or in a
known state when they are freed.  This is usually the exactly same state as
needed after allocation.  So it makes sense to build a list of freed page
table pages and then consume the pages already in use first.  Those pages have
already been initialized correctly (thus no need to zero them) and are likely
already cached in such a way that the MMU can use them most effectively.  Page
table pages are used in a sparse way so zeroing them on allocation is not too
useful.

Such an implementation already exits for ia64.  Howver, that implementation
did not support constructors and destructors as needed by i386 / x86_64.  It
also only supported a single quicklist.  The implementation here has
constructor and destructor support as well as the ability for an arch to
specify how many quicklists are needed.

Quicklists are defined by an arch defining CONFIG_QUICKLIST.  If more than one
quicklist is necessary then we can define NR_QUICK for additional lists.  F.e.
 i386 needs two and thus has

config NR_QUICK
	int
	default 2

If an arch has requested quicklist support then pages can be allocated
from the quicklist (or from the page allocator if the quicklist is
empty) via:

quicklist_alloc(, , )

Page table pages can be freed using:

quicklist_free(, , )

Pages must have a definite state after allocation and before
they are freed. If no constructor is specified then pages
will be zeroed on allocation and must be zeroed before they are
freed.

If a constructor is used then the constructor will establish
a definite page state. F.e. the i386 and x86_64 pgd constructors
establish certain mappings.

Constructors and destructors can also be used to track the pages.
i386 and x86_64 use a list of pgds in order to be able to dynamically
update standard mappings.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter 
Cc: "David S. Miller" 
Cc: Andi Kleen 
Cc: "Luck, Tony" 
Cc: William Lee Irwin III 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

SLUB core

2007-05-07T19:12:53+00:00

This is a new slab allocator which was motivated by the complexity of the
existing code in mm/slab.c. It attempts to address a variety of concerns
with the existing implementation.

A. Management of object queues

   A particular concern was the complex management of the numerous object
   queues in SLAB. SLUB has no such queues. Instead we dedicate a slab for
   each allocating CPU and use objects from a slab directly instead of
   queueing them up.

B. Storage overhead of object queues

   SLAB Object queues exist per node, per CPU. The alien cache queue even
   has a queue array that contain a queue for each processor on each
   node. For very large systems the number of queues and the number of
   objects that may be caught in those queues grows exponentially. On our
   systems with 1k nodes / processors we have several gigabytes just tied up
   for storing references to objects for those queues  This does not include
   the objects that could be on those queues. One fears that the whole
   memory of the machine could one day be consumed by those queues.

C. SLAB meta data overhead

   SLAB has overhead at the beginning of each slab. This means that data
   cannot be naturally aligned at the beginning of a slab block. SLUB keeps
   all meta data in the corresponding page_struct. Objects can be naturally
   aligned in the slab. F.e. a 128 byte object will be aligned at 128 byte
   boundaries and can fit tightly into a 4k page with no bytes left over.
   SLAB cannot do this.

D. SLAB has a complex cache reaper

   SLUB does not need a cache reaper for UP systems. On SMP systems
   the per CPU slab may be pushed back into partial list but that
   operation is simple and does not require an iteration over a list
   of objects. SLAB expires per CPU, shared and alien object queues
   during cache reaping which may cause strange hold offs.

E. SLAB has complex NUMA policy layer support

   SLUB pushes NUMA policy handling into the page allocator. This means that
   allocation is coarser (SLUB does interleave on a page level) but that
   situation was also present before 2.6.13. SLABs application of
   policies to individual slab objects allocated in SLAB is
   certainly a performance concern due to the frequent references to
   memory policies which may lead a sequence of objects to come from
   one node after another. SLUB will get a slab full of objects
   from one node and then will switch to the next.

F. Reduction of the size of partial slab lists

   SLAB has per node partial lists. This means that over time a large
   number of partial slabs may accumulate on those lists. These can
   only be reused if allocator occur on specific nodes. SLUB has a global
   pool of partial slabs and will consume slabs from that pool to
   decrease fragmentation.

G. Tunables

   SLAB has sophisticated tuning abilities for each slab cache. One can
   manipulate the queue sizes in detail. However, filling the queues still
   requires the uses of the spin lock to check out slabs. SLUB has a global
   parameter (min_slab_order) for tuning. Increasing the minimum slab
   order can decrease the locking overhead. The bigger the slab order the
   less motions of pages between per CPU and partial lists occur and the
   better SLUB will be scaling.

G. Slab merging

   We often have slab caches with similar parameters. SLUB detects those
   on boot up and merges them into the corresponding general caches. This
   leads to more effective memory use. About 50% of all caches can
   be eliminated through slab merging. This will also decrease
   slab fragmentation because partial allocated slabs can be filled
   up again. Slab merging can be switched off by specifying
   slub_nomerge on boot up.

   Note that merging can expose heretofore unknown bugs in the kernel
   because corrupted objects may now be placed differently and corrupt
   differing neighboring objects. Enable sanity checks to find those.

H. Diagnostics

   The current slab diagnostics are difficult to use and require a
   recompilation of the kernel. SLUB contains debugging code that
   is always available (but is kept out of the hot code paths).
   SLUB diagnostics can be enabled via the "slab_debug" option.
   Parameters can be specified to select a single or a group of
   slab caches for diagnostics. This means that the system is running
   with the usual performance and it is much more likely that
   race conditions can be reproduced.

I. Resiliency

   If basic sanity checks are on then SLUB is capable of detecting
   common error conditions and recover as best as possible to allow the
   system to continue.

J. Tracing

   Tracing can be enabled via the slab_debug=T, option
   during boot. SLUB will then protocol all actions on that slabcache
   and dump the object contents on free.

K. On demand DMA cache creation.

   Generally DMA caches are not needed. If a kmalloc is used with
   __GFP_DMA then just create this single slabcache that is needed.
   For systems that have no ZONE_DMA requirement the support is
   completely eliminated.

L. Performance increase

   Some benchmarks have shown speed improvements on kernbench in the
   range of 5-10%. The locking overhead of slub is based on the
   underlying base allocation size. If we can reliably allocate
   larger order pages then it is possible to increase slub
   performance much further. The anti-fragmentation patches may
   enable further performance increases.

Tested on:
i386 UP + SMP, x86_64 UP + SMP + NUMA emulation, IA64 NUMA + Simulator

SLUB Boot options

slub_nomerge		Disable merging of slabs
slub_min_order=x	Require a minimum order for slab caches. This
			increases the managed chunk size and therefore
			reduces meta data and locking overhead.
slub_min_objects=x	Mininum objects per slab. Default is 8.
slub_max_order=x	Avoid generating slabs larger than order specified.
slub_debug		Enable all diagnostics for all caches
slub_debug=	Enable selective options for all caches
slub_debug=,	Enable selective options for a certain set of
			caches

Available Debug options
F		Double Free checking, sanity and resiliency
R		Red zoning
P		Object / padding poisoning
U		Track last free / alloc
T		Trace all allocs / frees (only use for individual slabs).

To use SLUB: Apply this patch and then select SLUB as the default slab
allocator.

[hugh@veritas.com: fix an oops-causing locking error]
[akpm@linux-foundation.org: various stupid cleanups and small fixes]
Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter 
Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

[PATCH] separate bdi congestion functions from queue congestion functions

2006-10-20T17:26:35+00:00

Separate out the concept of "queue congestion" from "backing-dev congestion".
Congestion is a backing-dev concept, not a queue concept.

The blk_* congestion functions are retained, as wrappers around the core
backing-dev congestion functions.

This proper layering is needed so that NFS can cleanly use the congestion
functions, and so that CONFIG_BLOCK=n actually links.

Cc: "Thomas Maier" 
Cc: "Jens Axboe" 
Cc: Trond Myklebust 
Cc: David Howells 
Cc: Peter Osterlund 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

[PATCH] BLOCK: Make it possible to disable the block layer [try #6]

2006-09-30T18:52:31+00:00

Make it possible to disable the block layer.  Not all embedded devices require
it, some can make do with just JFFS2, NFS, ramfs, etc - none of which require
the block layer to be present.

This patch does the following:

 (*) Introduces CONFIG_BLOCK to disable the block layer, buffering and blockdev
     support.

 (*) Adds dependencies on CONFIG_BLOCK to any configuration item that controls
     an item that uses the block layer.  This includes:

     (*) Block I/O tracing.

     (*) Disk partition code.

     (*) All filesystems that are block based, eg: Ext3, ReiserFS, ISOFS.

     (*) The SCSI layer.  As far as I can tell, even SCSI chardevs use the
     	 block layer to do scheduling.  Some drivers that use SCSI facilities -
     	 such as USB storage - end up disabled indirectly from this.

     (*) Various block-based device drivers, such as IDE and the old CDROM
     	 drivers.

     (*) MTD blockdev handling and FTL.

     (*) JFFS - which uses set_bdev_super(), something it could avoid doing by
     	 taking a leaf out of JFFS2's book.

 (*) Makes most of the contents of linux/blkdev.h, linux/buffer_head.h and
     linux/elevator.h contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK being set.  sector_div() is,
     however, still used in places, and so is still available.

 (*) Also made contingent are the contents of linux/mpage.h, linux/genhd.h and
     parts of linux/fs.h.

 (*) Makes a number of files in fs/ contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

 (*) Makes mm/bounce.c (bounce buffering) contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

 (*) set_page_dirty() doesn't call __set_page_dirty_buffers() if CONFIG_BLOCK
     is not enabled.

 (*) fs/no-block.c is created to hold out-of-line stubs and things that are
     required when CONFIG_BLOCK is not set:

     (*) Default blockdev file operations (to give error ENODEV on opening).

 (*) Makes some /proc changes:

     (*) /proc/devices does not list any blockdevs.

     (*) /proc/diskstats and /proc/partitions are contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

 (*) Makes some compat ioctl handling contingent on CONFIG_BLOCK.

 (*) If CONFIG_BLOCK is not defined, makes sys_quotactl() return -ENODEV if
     given command other than Q_SYNC or if a special device is specified.

 (*) In init/do_mounts.c, no reference is made to the blockdev routines if
     CONFIG_BLOCK is not defined.  This does not prohibit NFS roots or JFFS2.

 (*) The bdflush, ioprio_set and ioprio_get syscalls can now be absent (return
     error ENOSYS by way of cond_syscall if so).

 (*) The seclvl_bd_claim() and seclvl_bd_release() security calls do nothing if
     CONFIG_BLOCK is not set, since they can't then happen.

Signed-Off-By: David Howells 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

[PATCH] BLOCK: Separate the bounce buffering code from the highmem code [try #6]

2006-09-30T18:32:11+00:00

Move the bounce buffer code from mm/highmem.c to mm/bounce.c so that it can be
more easily disabled when the block layer is disabled.

!!!NOTE!!! There may be a bug in this code: Should init_emergency_pool() be
	   contingent on CONFIG_HIGHMEM?

Signed-Off-By: David Howells 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

[PATCH] Access Control Lists for tmpfs

2006-09-29T16:18:24+00:00

Add access control lists for tmpfs.

Signed-off-by: Andreas Gruenbacher 
Cc: Hugh Dickins 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

[PATCH] Extract the allocpercpu functions from the slab allocator

2006-09-26T15:48:51+00:00

The allocpercpu functions __alloc_percpu and __free_percpu() are heavily
using the slab allocator.  However, they are conceptually slab.  This also
simplifies SLOB (at this point slob may be broken in mm.  This should fix
it).

Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter 
Cc: Matt Mackall 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds