linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] mm: batch-free pcp list if possible

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Date:	Wed, 9 Feb 2011 22:33:38 +0100
From:	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Namhyung Kim <namhyung@...il.com>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Mel Gorman <mel@....ul.ie>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mm: batch-free pcp list if possible

On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 12:38:03PM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Wed,  9 Feb 2011 22:21:17 +0900
> Namhyung Kim <namhyung@...il.com> wrote:
> 
> > free_pcppages_bulk() frees pages from pcp lists in a round-robin
> > fashion by keeping batch_free counter. But it doesn't need to spin
> > if there is only one non-empty list. This can be checked by
> > batch_free == MIGRATE_PCPTYPES.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@...il.com>
> > ---
> >  mm/page_alloc.c |    4 ++++
> >  1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> > index a873e61e312e..470fb42e303c 100644
> > --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> > +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> > @@ -614,6 +614,10 @@ static void free_pcppages_bulk(struct zone *zone, int count,
> >  			list = &pcp->lists[migratetype];
> >  		} while (list_empty(list));
> >  
> > +		/* This is an only non-empty list. Free them all. */
> > +		if (batch_free == MIGRATE_PCPTYPES)
> > +			batch_free = to_free;
> > +
> >  		do {
> >  			page = list_entry(list->prev, struct page, lru);
> >  			/* must delete as __free_one_page list manipulates */
> 
> free_pcppages_bulk() hurts my brain.

Thanks for saying that ;-)

> What is it actually trying to do, and why?  It counts up the number of
> contiguous empty lists and then frees that number of pages from the
> first-encountered non-empty list and then advances onto the next list?
> 
> What's the point in that?  What relationship does the number of
> contiguous empty lists have with the number of pages to free from one
> list?

It at least recovers some of the otherwise wasted effort of looking at
an empty list, by flushing more pages once it encounters a non-empty
list.  After all, freeing to_free pages is the goal.

That breaks the round-robin fashion, though.  If list-1 has pages,
list-2 is empty and list-3 has pages, it will repeatedly free one page
from list-1 and two pages from list-3.

My initial response to Namhyung's patch was to write up a version that
used a bitmap for all lists.  It starts with all lists set and clears
their respective bit once the list is empty, so it would never
consider them again.  But it looked a bit over-engineered for 3 lists
and the resulting object code was bigger than what we have now.
Though, it would be more readable.  Attached for reference (untested
and all).

	Hannes

diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 60e58b0..c77ab28 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -590,8 +590,7 @@ static inline int free_pages_check(struct page *page)
 static void free_pcppages_bulk(struct zone *zone, int count,
 					struct per_cpu_pages *pcp)
 {
-	int migratetype = 0;
-	int batch_free = 0;
+	unsigned long listmap = (1 << MIGRATE_PCPTYPES) - 1;
 	int to_free = count;
 
 	spin_lock(&zone->lock);
@@ -599,31 +598,29 @@ static void free_pcppages_bulk(struct zone *zone, int count,
 	zone->pages_scanned = 0;
 
 	while (to_free) {
-		struct page *page;
-		struct list_head *list;
-
+		int migratetype;
 		/*
-		 * Remove pages from lists in a round-robin fashion. A
-		 * batch_free count is maintained that is incremented when an
-		 * empty list is encountered.  This is so more pages are freed
-		 * off fuller lists instead of spinning excessively around empty
-		 * lists
+		 * Remove pages from lists in a round-robin fashion.
+		 * Empty lists are excluded from subsequent rounds.
 		 */
-		do {
-			batch_free++;
-			if (++migratetype == MIGRATE_PCPTYPES)
-				migratetype = 0;
-			list = &pcp->lists[migratetype];
-		} while (list_empty(list));
+		for_each_set_bit (migratetype, &listmap, MIGRATE_PCPTYPES) {
+			struct list_head *list;
+			struct page *page;
 
-		do {
+			list = &pcp->lists[migratetype];
+			if (list_empty(list)) {
+				listmap &= ~(1 << migratetype);
+				continue;
+			}
+			if (!to_free--)
+				break;
 			page = list_entry(list->prev, struct page, lru);
 			/* must delete as __free_one_page list manipulates */
 			list_del(&page->lru);
 			/* MIGRATE_MOVABLE list may include MIGRATE_RESERVEs */
 			__free_one_page(page, zone, 0, page_private(page));
 			trace_mm_page_pcpu_drain(page, 0, page_private(page));
-		} while (--to_free && --batch_free && !list_empty(list));
+		}
 	}
 	__mod_zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES, count);
 	spin_unlock(&zone->lock);
--
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