linux-kernel - Re: thousands of kworker processes with 4.7.x and 4.8-rc*

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Date:   Sun, 25 Sep 2016 21:40:20 +0900
From:   Tomasz Chmielewski <mangoo@...g.org>
To:     Mike Galbraith <umgwanakikbuti@...il.com>
Cc:     LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: thousands of kworker processes with 4.7.x and 4.8-rc*

On 2016-09-25 18:29, Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:

>> I'll try to bisect.
> 
> OK, not a kernel regression, but some config change caused it.
> However, I'm not able to locate which change exactly.
> 
> I'm attaching two configs which I've tried with 4.7.3 - one results in
> thousands of kworkers, and the other doesn't. Also included a diff
> between them.
> 
> Any obvious changes I should try?

The problem is the allocator.

-CONFIG_SLUB=y
+CONFIG_SLAB=y


With SLUB, I'm getting a handful of kworker processes, as expected.

With SLAB, I'm getting thousands of kworker processes.


Not sure if that's expected behaviour or not.


Tomasz Chmielewski
https://lxadm.com