linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] vmpressure: implement strict mode

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Message-Id: <20130627173433.d0fc6ecd.akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Date:	Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:34:33 -0700
From:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>
Cc:	Luiz Capitulino <lcapitulino@...hat.com>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, mhocko@...e.cz, anton@...msg.org,
	kmpark@...radead.org, hyunhee.kim@...sung.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] vmpressure: implement strict mode

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 09:02:01 +0900 Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org> wrote:

> Hi Andrew,
> 
> On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 03:02:31PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > On Wed, 26 Jun 2013 23:17:12 -0400 Luiz Capitulino <lcapitulino@...hat.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > Currently, an eventfd is notified for the level it's registered for
> > > _plus_ higher levels.
> > > 
> > > This is a problem if an application wants to implement different
> > > actions for different levels. For example, an application might want
> > > to release 10% of its cache on level low, 50% on medium and 100% on
> > > critical. To do this, an application has to register a different
> > > eventfd for each pressure level. However, fd low is always going to
> > > be notified and and all fds are going to be notified on level critical.
> > > 
> > > Strict mode solves this problem by strictly notifiying an eventfd
> > > for the pressure level it registered for. This new mode is optional,
> > > by default we still notify eventfds on higher levels too.
> > > 
> > 
> > It didn't take long for this simple interface to start getting ugly :(
> > And having the fd operate in different modes is ugly.
> > 
> > Can we instead pass the level in the event payload?
> 
> You mean userland have to look the result of read(2) to confirm what
> current level is and if it's no interest for us, we don't do any reaction.

Something like that.  It's flexible, simple, keeps policy in userspace.

> If so, userland daemon would receive lots of events which are no interest.

"lots"?  If vmpressure is generating events at such a high frequency that
this matters then it's already busted?

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