linux-kernel - Re: Can someone explain under what condition inode cache pages can be swapped out?

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Message-Id: <200608041744.42681.a1426z@gawab.com>
Date:	Fri, 4 Aug 2006 17:44:42 +0300
From:	Al Boldi <a1426z@...ab.com>
To:	Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@...ux01.gwdg.de>
Cc:	linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, Xin Zhao <uszhaoxin@...il.com>
Subject: Re: Can someone explain under what condition inode cache pages can be swapped out?

Jan Engelhardt wrote:
> > If my understanding is right, inode cache shrinker only frees the
> > reclaimable inodes, which means, if a lot of files are opened when
> > shrinker is activated, the shrinker may not find sufficient
> > reclaimable inodes to free enough space. What will Linux do under such
> > condition?
>
> Userspace will start to be swapped out to make room for kernel memory.
> And if the swap is full, the OOM killer comes into action and will kill
> programs.

The OOM-killing spree starts way before swap is full :(
see "swapping and oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x201d2, order=0" thread.


Thanks!

--
Al

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