linux-ext4 - Re: [patch 1/5] mm: add nofail variants of kmalloc kcalloc and kzalloc

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Date:	Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:35:32 +0200
From:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To:	Ted Ts'o <tytso@....edu>
Cc:	David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
	Jens Axboe <jaxboe@...ionio.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Neil Brown <neilb@...e.de>, Alasdair G Kergon <agk@...hat.com>,
	Chris Mason <chris.mason@...cle.com>,
	Steven Whitehouse <swhiteho@...hat.com>,
	Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
	Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	"linux-raid@...r.kernel.org" <linux-raid@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-btrfs@...r.kernel.org" <linux-btrfs@...r.kernel.org>,
	"cluster-devel@...hat.com" <cluster-devel@...hat.com>,
	"linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org" <linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org>,
	"reiserfs-devel@...r.kernel.org" <reiserfs-devel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [patch 1/5] mm: add nofail variants of kmalloc kcalloc and
 kzalloc

On Wed, 2010-08-25 at 07:24 -0400, Ted Ts'o wrote:
> Part of the problem is that we have a few places in the kernel where
> failure is really not an option --- or rather, if we're going to fail
> while we're in the middle of doing a commit, our choices really are
> (a) retry the loop in the jbd layer (which Andrew really doesn't
> like), (b) keep our own private cache of free memory so we don't fail
> and/or loop, (c) fail the file system and mark it read-only, or (d)
> panic. 

d) do the allocation before you're committed to going fwd and can still
fail and back out.
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