linux-kernel - [PATCH 0/1] mm: Remove the SLAB allocator

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Date:   Wed, 10 Apr 2019 12:47:13 +1000
From:   "Tobin C. Harding" <tobin@...nel.org>
To:     Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     "Tobin C. Harding" <tobin@...nel.org>,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
        Pekka Enberg <penberg@...nel.org>,
        David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
        Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@....com>,
        Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>, Qian Cai <cai@....pw>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH 0/1] mm: Remove the SLAB allocator

Recently a 2 year old bug was found in the SLAB allocator that crashes
the kernel.  This seems to imply that not that many people are using the
SLAB allocator.

Currently we have 3 slab allocators.  Two is company three is a crowd -
let's get rid of one. 

 - The SLUB allocator has been the default since 2.6.23
 - The SLOB allocator is kinda sexy.  Its only 664 LOC, the general
   design is outlined in KnR, and there is an optimisation taken from
   Knuth - say no more.

If you are using the SLAB allocator please speak now or forever hold your peace ...

Testing:

Build kernel with `make defconfig` (on x86_64 machine) followed by `make
kvmconfig`.  Then do the same and manually select SLOB.  Boot both
kernels in Qemu.

thanks,
Tobin.

Tobin C. Harding (1):
  mm: Remove SLAB allocator

 include/linux/slab.h |   26 -
 kernel/cpu.c         |    5 -
 mm/slab.c            | 4493 ------------------------------------------
 mm/slab.h            |   31 +-
 mm/slab_common.c     |   20 +-
 5 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 4570 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 mm/slab.c

-- 
2.21.0