linux-kernel - Re: what is the purpose of SLAB and SLUB (was: Re: [PATCH v3] mm/slab: Improve performance of gathering slabinfo) stats

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Date:   Wed, 24 Aug 2016 09:20:57 +0100
From:   Mel Gorman <mgorman@...e.de>
To:     Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>
Cc:     Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@....com>,
        Aruna Ramakrishna <aruna.ramakrishna@...cle.com>,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Mike Kravetz <mike.kravetz@...cle.com>,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
        Pekka Enberg <penberg@...nel.org>,
        David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Jiri Slaby <jslaby@...e.cz>
Subject: Re: what is the purpose of SLAB and SLUB (was: Re: [PATCH v3]
 mm/slab: Improve performance of gathering slabinfo) stats

On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 05:38:08PM +0200, Michal Hocko wrote:
> Do we have any documentation/study about which particular workloads
> benefit from which allocator? It seems that most users will use whatever
> the default or what their distribution uses. E.g. SLES kernel use SLAB
> because this is what we used to have for ages and there was no strong
> reason to change that default.

Yes, with the downside that a reliance on high-orders contended on the
zone lock which would not scale and could degrade over time. If there
were multiple compelling reasons then it would have been an easier
switch.

I did prototype high-order pcp caching up to PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER
but it pushed the size of per_cpu_pages over a cache line which could
be problematic in itself. I never finished off the work as fixing the
allocator for SLUB was not a priority. The prototype no longer applies as
it conflicts with the removal of the fair zone allocation policy.

If/when I get back to the page allocator, the priority would be a bulk
API for faster allocs of batches of order-0 pages instead of allocating
a large page and splitting.

-- 
Mel Gorman
SUSE Labs