linux-kernel - Re: [RFC] high system time & lock contention running large mixed workload

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Wed,  2 Dec 2009 11:41:55 +0900 (JST)
From:	KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com>
To:	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>
Cc:	kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com,
	Larry Woodman <lwoodman@...hat.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
	Hugh Dickins <hugh.dickins@...cali.co.uk>,
	KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@...fujitsu.com>,
	Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC] high system time & lock contention running large mixed workload

> On 12/01/2009 11:41 AM, Larry Woodman wrote:
> >
> > Agreed.  The attached updated patch only does a trylock in the
> > page_referenced() call from shrink_inactive_list() and only for
> > anonymous pages when the priority is either 10, 11 or
> > 12(DEF_PRIORITY-2).  I have never seen a problem like this with active
> > pagecache pages and it does not alter the existing shrink_page_list
> > behavior.  What do you think about this???
> This is reasonable, except for the fact that pages that are moved
> to the inactive list without having the referenced bit cleared are
> guaranteed to be moved back to the active list.
> 
> You'll be better off without that excess list movement, by simply
> moving pages directly back onto the active list if the trylock
> fails.
> 
> Yes, this means that page_referenced can now return 3 different
> return values (not accessed, accessed, lock contended), which
> should probably be an enum so we can test for the values
> symbolically in the calling functions.
> 
> That way only pages where we did manage to clear the referenced bit
> will be moved onto the inactive list.  This not only reduces the
> amount of excess list movement, it also makes sure that the pages
> which do get onto the inactive list get a fair chance at being
> referenced again, instead of potentially being flooded out by pages
> where the trylock failed.

Agreed.


> A minor nitpick: maybe it would be good to rename the "try" parameter
> to "noblock".  That more closely matches the requested behaviour.

Another minor nit: probably we have to rename page_referenced(). it imply test
reference bit. but we use it for clear reference bit in shrink_active_list.



--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/