linux-kernel - Re: MPOL_BIND on memory only nodes

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Date:   Thu, 13 Oct 2016 15:24:54 +0530
From:   Anshuman Khandual <khandual@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:     Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>, Mel Gorman <mgorman@...e.de>
CC:     Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux Memory Management List <linux-mm@...ck.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        "Aneesh Kumar K.V" <aneesh.kumar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        Balbir Singh <bsingharora@...il.com>,
        Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
        Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: MPOL_BIND on memory only nodes

On 10/12/2016 06:46 PM, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Wed 12-10-16 11:43:37, Michal Hocko wrote:
>> On Wed 12-10-16 14:55:24, Anshuman Khandual wrote:
> [...]
>>> Why we insist on __GFP_THISNODE ?
>>
>> AFAIU __GFP_THISNODE just overrides the given node to the policy
>> nodemask in case the current node is not part of that node mask. In
>> other words we are ignoring the given node and use what the policy says. 
>> I can see how this can be confusing especially when confronting the
>> documentation:
>>
>>  * __GFP_THISNODE forces the allocation to be satisified from the requested
>>  *   node with no fallbacks or placement policy enforcements.
> 
> You made me think and look into this deeper. I came to the conclusion
> that this is actually a relict from the past. policy_zonelist is called
> only from 3 places:
> - huge_zonelist - never should do __GFP_THISNODE when going this path
> - alloc_pages_vma - which shouldn't depend on __GFP_THISNODE either
> - alloc_pages_current - which uses default_policy id __GFP_THISNODE is
>   used
> 
> So AFAICS this is essentially a dead code or I am missing something. Mel
> do you remember why we needed it in the past? I would be really tempted
> to just get rid of this confusing code and this instead:
> ---
> diff --git a/mm/mempolicy.c b/mm/mempolicy.c
> index ad1c96ac313c..98beec47bba9 100644
> --- a/mm/mempolicy.c
> +++ b/mm/mempolicy.c
> @@ -1679,25 +1679,17 @@ static nodemask_t *policy_nodemask(gfp_t gfp, struct mempolicy *policy)
>  static struct zonelist *policy_zonelist(gfp_t gfp, struct mempolicy *policy,
>  	int nd)
>  {
> -	switch (policy->mode) {
> -	case MPOL_PREFERRED:
> -		if (!(policy->flags & MPOL_F_LOCAL))
> -			nd = policy->v.preferred_node;
> -		break;
> -	case MPOL_BIND:
> +	if (policy->mode == MPOL_PREFERRED && !(policy->flags & MPOL_F_LOCAL))
> +		nd = policy->v.preferred_node;
> +	else {
>  		/*
> -		 * Normally, MPOL_BIND allocations are node-local within the
> -		 * allowed nodemask.  However, if __GFP_THISNODE is set and the
> -		 * current node isn't part of the mask, we use the zonelist for
> -		 * the first node in the mask instead.
> +		 * __GFP_THISNODE shouldn't even be used with the bind policy because
> +		 * we might easily break the expectation to stay on the requested node
> +		 * and not break the policy.
>  		 */
> -		if (unlikely(gfp & __GFP_THISNODE) &&
> -				unlikely(!node_isset(nd, policy->v.nodes)))
> -			nd = first_node(policy->v.nodes);
> -		break;
> -	default:
> -		BUG();
> +		WARN_ON_ONCE(polic->mode == MPOL_BIND && (gfp && __GFP_THISNODE));
>  	}
> +
>  	return node_zonelist(nd, gfp);
>  }

Which makes the function look like this. Even with these changes, MPOL_BIND is
still going to pick up the local node's zonelist instead of the first node in
policy->v.nodes nodemask. It completely ignores policy->v.nodes which it should
not.

/* Return a zonelist indicated by gfp for node representing a mempolicy */
static struct zonelist *policy_zonelist(gfp_t gfp, struct mempolicy *policy,
        int nd)
{
        if (policy->mode == MPOL_PREFERRED && !(policy->flags & MPOL_F_LOCAL))
                nd = policy->v.preferred_node;
        else {
                /*
                 * __GFP_THISNODE shouldn't even be used with the bind policy because
                 * we might easily break the expectation to stay on the requested node
                 * and not break the policy.
                 */
                WARN_ON_ONCE(polic->mode == MPOL_BIND && (gfp && __GFP_THISNODE));
        }

        return node_zonelist(nd, gfp);
}