linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/8] v5 De-couple sysfs memory directories from memory sections

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 for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

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

Message-Id: <20100812120816.e97d8b9e.akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Date:	Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:08:16 -0700
From:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Nathan Fontenot <nfont@...tin.ibm.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	linuxppc-dev@...abs.org,
	KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@...fujitsu.com>,
	Dave Hansen <dave@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/8] v5 De-couple sysfs memory directories from memory
 sections

On Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:53:00 -0500
Nathan Fontenot <nfont@...tin.ibm.com> wrote:

> This set of patches de-couples the idea that there is a single
> directory in sysfs for each memory section.  The intent of the
> patches is to reduce the number of sysfs directories created to
> resolve a boot-time performance issue.  On very large systems
> boot time are getting very long (as seen on powerpc hardware)
> due to the enormous number of sysfs directories being created.
> On a system with 1 TB of memory we create ~63,000 directories.
> For even larger systems boot times are being measured in hours.

And those "hours" are mainly due to this problem, I assume.

> This set of patches allows for each directory created in sysfs
> to cover more than one memory section.  The default behavior for
> sysfs directory creation is the same, in that each directory
> represents a single memory section.  A new file 'end_phys_index'
> in each directory contains the physical_id of the last memory
> section covered by the directory so that users can easily
> determine the memory section range of a directory.

What you're proposing appears to be a non-back-compatible
userspace-visible change.  This is a big issue!

It's not an unresolvable issue, as this is a must-fix problem.  But you
should tell us what your proposal is to prevent breakage of existing
installations.  A Kconfig option would be good, but a boot-time kernel
command line option which selects the new format would be much better.

However you didn't mention this issue at all, and it's the most
important one.


> Updates for version 5 of the patchset include the following:
> 
> Patch 4/8 Add mutex for add/remove of memory blocks
> - Define the mutex using DEFINE_MUTEX macro.
> 
> Patch 8/8 Update memory-hotplug documentation
> - Add information concerning memory holes in phys_index..end_phys_index.

And you forgot to tell us how long those machines boot with the
patchset applied, which is the entire point of the patchset!

--
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/