linux-kernel - RFC: dirty_ratio back to 40%

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-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Thu, 20 May 2010 07:20:42 -0400
From:	Larry Woodman <lwoodman@...hat.com>
To:	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, linux-mm <linux-mm@...ck.org>
Subject: RFC: dirty_ratio back to 40%

We've seen multiple performance regressions linked to the lower(20%)
dirty_ratio.  When performing enough IO to overwhelm the background  
flush daemons the percent of dirty pagecache memory quickly climbs 
to the new/lower dirty_ratio value of 20%.  At that point all writing 
processes are forced to stop and write dirty pagecache pages back to disk.  
This causes performance regressions in several benchmarks as well as causing
a noticeable overall sluggishness.  We all know that the dirty_ratio is
an integrity vs performance trade-off but the file system journaling
will cover any devastating effects in the event of a system crash.

Increasing the dirty_ratio to 40% will regain the performance loss seen
in several benchmarks.  Whats everyone think about this???

------------------------------------------------------------------------

diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index ef27e73..645a462 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ int vm_highmem_is_dirtyable;
 /*
  * The generator of dirty data starts writeback at this percentage
  */
-int vm_dirty_ratio = 20;
+int vm_dirty_ratio = 40;

 /*
  * vm_dirty_bytes starts at 0 (disabled) so that it is a function of

--
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/