<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux.git/mm/Makefile, branch v2.6.25</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel source tree</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>Memory controller: rename to Memory Resource Controller</title>
<updated>2008-03-05T00:35:12+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Balbir Singh</name>
<email>balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com</email>
</author>
<published>2008-03-04T22:28:39+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=00f0b8259e48979c37212995d798f3fbd0374690'/>
<id>00f0b8259e48979c37212995d798f3fbd0374690</id>
<content type='text'>
Rename Memory Controller to Memory Resource Controller.  Reflect the same
changes in the CONFIG definition for the Memory Resource Controller.  Group
together the config options for Resource Counters and Memory Resource
Controller.

Signed-off-by: Balbir Singh &lt;balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Cc: Paul Menage &lt;menage@google.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Rename Memory Controller to Memory Resource Controller.  Reflect the same
changes in the CONFIG definition for the Memory Resource Controller.  Group
together the config options for Resource Counters and Memory Resource
Controller.

Signed-off-by: Balbir Singh &lt;balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Cc: Paul Menage &lt;menage@google.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Memory controller: cgroups setup</title>
<updated>2008-02-07T16:42:18+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Balbir Singh</name>
<email>balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com</email>
</author>
<published>2008-02-07T08:13:50+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=8cdea7c05454260c0d4d83503949c358eb131d17'/>
<id>8cdea7c05454260c0d4d83503949c358eb131d17</id>
<content type='text'>
Setup the memory cgroup and add basic hooks and controls to integrate
and work with the cgroup.

Signed-off-by: Balbir Singh &lt;balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Cc: Pavel Emelianov &lt;xemul@openvz.org&gt;
Cc: Paul Menage &lt;menage@google.com&gt;
Cc: Peter Zijlstra &lt;a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl&gt;
Cc: "Eric W. Biederman" &lt;ebiederm@xmission.com&gt;
Cc: Nick Piggin &lt;nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au&gt;
Cc: Kirill Korotaev &lt;dev@sw.ru&gt;
Cc: Herbert Poetzl &lt;herbert@13thfloor.at&gt;
Cc: David Rientjes &lt;rientjes@google.com&gt;
Cc: Vaidyanathan Srinivasan &lt;svaidy@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Setup the memory cgroup and add basic hooks and controls to integrate
and work with the cgroup.

Signed-off-by: Balbir Singh &lt;balbir@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Cc: Pavel Emelianov &lt;xemul@openvz.org&gt;
Cc: Paul Menage &lt;menage@google.com&gt;
Cc: Peter Zijlstra &lt;a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl&gt;
Cc: "Eric W. Biederman" &lt;ebiederm@xmission.com&gt;
Cc: Nick Piggin &lt;nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au&gt;
Cc: Kirill Korotaev &lt;dev@sw.ru&gt;
Cc: Herbert Poetzl &lt;herbert@13thfloor.at&gt;
Cc: David Rientjes &lt;rientjes@google.com&gt;
Cc: Vaidyanathan Srinivasan &lt;svaidy@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Merge branch 'dmapool' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/willy/misc</title>
<updated>2008-02-06T03:05:48+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@woody.linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2008-02-06T03:05:48+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=b297d520b9af536d5580ac505dd316be4cf5560c'/>
<id>b297d520b9af536d5580ac505dd316be4cf5560c</id>
<content type='text'>
* 'dmapool' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/willy/misc:
  pool: Improve memory usage for devices which can't cross boundaries
  Change dmapool free block management
  dmapool: Tidy up includes and add comments
  dmapool: Validate parameters to dma_pool_create
  Avoid taking waitqueue lock in dmapool
  dmapool: Fix style problems
  Move dmapool.c to mm/ directory
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
* 'dmapool' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/willy/misc:
  pool: Improve memory usage for devices which can't cross boundaries
  Change dmapool free block management
  dmapool: Tidy up includes and add comments
  dmapool: Validate parameters to dma_pool_create
  Avoid taking waitqueue lock in dmapool
  dmapool: Fix style problems
  Move dmapool.c to mm/ directory
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>maps4: make page monitoring /proc file optional</title>
<updated>2008-02-05T17:44:17+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Matt Mackall</name>
<email>mpm@selenic.com</email>
</author>
<published>2008-02-05T06:29:07+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=1e88328111aae3ea408f346763ba9f9bad71f876'/>
<id>1e88328111aae3ea408f346763ba9f9bad71f876</id>
<content type='text'>
Make /proc/ page monitoring configurable

This puts the following files under an embedded config option:

/proc/pid/clear_refs
/proc/pid/smaps
/proc/pid/pagemap
/proc/kpagecount
/proc/kpageflags

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: Kconfig fix]
Signed-off-by: Matt Mackall &lt;mpm@selenic.com&gt;
Cc: Dave Hansen &lt;haveblue@us.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Make /proc/ page monitoring configurable

This puts the following files under an embedded config option:

/proc/pid/clear_refs
/proc/pid/smaps
/proc/pid/pagemap
/proc/kpagecount
/proc/kpageflags

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: Kconfig fix]
Signed-off-by: Matt Mackall &lt;mpm@selenic.com&gt;
Cc: Dave Hansen &lt;haveblue@us.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>maps4: introduce a generic page walker</title>
<updated>2008-02-05T17:44:16+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Matt Mackall</name>
<email>mpm@selenic.com</email>
</author>
<published>2008-02-05T06:29:01+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=e6473092bd9116583ce9ab8cf1b6570e1aa6fc83'/>
<id>e6473092bd9116583ce9ab8cf1b6570e1aa6fc83</id>
<content type='text'>
Introduce a general page table walker

Signed-off-by: Matt Mackall &lt;mpm@selenic.com&gt;
Cc: Dave Hansen &lt;haveblue@us.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Introduce a general page table walker

Signed-off-by: Matt Mackall &lt;mpm@selenic.com&gt;
Cc: Dave Hansen &lt;haveblue@us.ibm.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Move dmapool.c to mm/ directory</title>
<updated>2007-12-04T15:39:54+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Matthew Wilcox</name>
<email>matthew@wil.cx</email>
</author>
<published>2007-12-03T16:57:48+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=141e9d4b5492499c4735d764b599c21e83dac154'/>
<id>141e9d4b5492499c4735d764b599c21e83dac154</id>
<content type='text'>
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox &lt;willy@linux.intel.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox &lt;willy@linux.intel.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>memory unplug: page isolation</title>
<updated>2007-10-16T16:43:02+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki</name>
<email>kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com</email>
</author>
<published>2007-10-16T08:26:11+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=a5d76b54a3f3a40385d7f76069a2feac9f1bad63'/>
<id>a5d76b54a3f3a40385d7f76069a2feac9f1bad63</id>
<content type='text'>
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 -&gt; V7
 - removed unnecessary #ifdef

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

Signed-off-by: Yasunori Goto &lt;y-goto@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki &lt;kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
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 -&gt; V7
 - removed unnecessary #ifdef

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

Signed-off-by: Yasunori Goto &lt;y-goto@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki &lt;kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Generic Virtual Memmap support for SPARSEMEM</title>
<updated>2007-10-16T16:42:51+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christoph Lameter</name>
<email>clameter@sgi.com</email>
</author>
<published>2007-10-16T08:24:13+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=8f6aac419bd590f535fb110875a51f7db2b62b5b'/>
<id>8f6aac419bd590f535fb110875a51f7db2b62b5b</id>
<content type='text'>
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 &lt;clameter@sgi.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andy Whitcroft &lt;apw@shadowen.org&gt;
Acked-by: Mel Gorman &lt;mel@csn.ul.ie&gt;
Cc: "Luck, Tony" &lt;tony.luck@intel.com&gt;
Cc: Andi Kleen &lt;ak@suse.de&gt;
Cc: "David S. Miller" &lt;davem@davemloft.net&gt;
Cc: Paul Mackerras &lt;paulus@samba.org&gt;
Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt &lt;benh@kernel.crashing.org&gt;
Cc: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki &lt;kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki &lt;kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
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 &lt;clameter@sgi.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andy Whitcroft &lt;apw@shadowen.org&gt;
Acked-by: Mel Gorman &lt;mel@csn.ul.ie&gt;
Cc: "Luck, Tony" &lt;tony.luck@intel.com&gt;
Cc: Andi Kleen &lt;ak@suse.de&gt;
Cc: "David S. Miller" &lt;davem@davemloft.net&gt;
Cc: Paul Mackerras &lt;paulus@samba.org&gt;
Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt &lt;benh@kernel.crashing.org&gt;
Cc: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki &lt;kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki &lt;kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>CONFIG_BOUNCE to avoid useless inclusion of bounce buffer logic</title>
<updated>2007-07-17T17:23:02+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christoph Lameter</name>
<email>clameter@sgi.com</email>
</author>
<published>2007-07-17T11:03:37+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=2a7326b5bbafac4c96bcdb944b2a773593030b96'/>
<id>2a7326b5bbafac4c96bcdb944b2a773593030b96</id>
<content type='text'>
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 &lt;clameter@sgi.com&gt;
Acked-by: Jens Axboe &lt;jens.axboe@oracle.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
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 &lt;clameter@sgi.com&gt;
Acked-by: Jens Axboe &lt;jens.axboe@oracle.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Quicklists for page table pages</title>
<updated>2007-05-07T19:12:54+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Christoph Lameter</name>
<email>clameter@sgi.com</email>
</author>
<published>2007-05-06T21:49:50+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux.git/commit/?id=6225e93735acaa09865bce746958f1046c2e0bc3'/>
<id>6225e93735acaa09865bce746958f1046c2e0bc3</id>
<content type='text'>
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(&lt;quicklist-nr&gt;, &lt;gfpflags&gt;, &lt;constructor&gt;)

Page table pages can be freed using:

quicklist_free(&lt;quicklist-nr&gt;, &lt;destructor&gt;, &lt;page&gt;)

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 &lt;clameter@sgi.com&gt;
Cc: "David S. Miller" &lt;davem@davemloft.net&gt;
Cc: Andi Kleen &lt;ak@suse.de&gt;
Cc: "Luck, Tony" &lt;tony.luck@intel.com&gt;
Cc: William Lee Irwin III &lt;wli@holomorphy.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
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(&lt;quicklist-nr&gt;, &lt;gfpflags&gt;, &lt;constructor&gt;)

Page table pages can be freed using:

quicklist_free(&lt;quicklist-nr&gt;, &lt;destructor&gt;, &lt;page&gt;)

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 &lt;clameter@sgi.com&gt;
Cc: "David S. Miller" &lt;davem@davemloft.net&gt;
Cc: Andi Kleen &lt;ak@suse.de&gt;
Cc: "Luck, Tony" &lt;tony.luck@intel.com&gt;
Cc: William Lee Irwin III &lt;wli@holomorphy.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
