linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 2/4] mm: introduce cma_alloc

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Date:   Thu, 3 Dec 2020 12:57:39 +0100
From:   David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
To:     Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
Cc:     Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-mm <linux-mm@...ck.org>, hyesoo.yu@...sung.com,
        willy@...radead.org, iamjoonsoo.kim@....com, vbabka@...e.cz,
        surenb@...gle.com, pullip.cho@...sung.com, joaodias@...gle.com,
        hridya@...gle.com, sumit.semwal@...aro.org, john.stultz@...aro.org,
        Brian.Starkey@....com, linux-media@...r.kernel.org,
        devicetree@...r.kernel.org, robh@...nel.org,
        christian.koenig@....com, linaro-mm-sig@...ts.linaro.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/4] mm: introduce cma_alloc_bulk API

On 03.12.20 12:47, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Thu 03-12-20 10:47:02, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>> On 03.12.20 09:28, Michal Hocko wrote:
> [...]
>>> I think we should aim at easy and very highlevel behavior:
>>> - GFP_NOWAIT - unsupported currently IIRC but something that something
>>>   that should be possible to implement. Isolation is non blocking,
>>>   migration could be skipped
>>> - GFP_KERNEL - default behavior whatever that means
>>> - GFP_NORETRY - opportunistic allocation as lightweight as we can get.
>>>   Failures to be expected also for transient reasons.
>>> - GFP_RETRY_MAYFAIL - try hard but not as hard as to trigger disruption
>>>   (e.g. via oom killer).
>>
>> I think we currently see demand for 3 modes for alloc_contig_range()
>>
>> a) normal
>>
>> As is. Try, but don't try too hard. E.g., drain LRU, drain PCP, retry a
>> couple of times. Failures in some cases (short-term pinning, PCP races)
>> are still possible and acceptable.
>>
>> GFP_RETRY_MAYFAIL ?
> 
> normal shouldn't really require anybody to think about gfp flags hard.
> That to most people really means GFP_KERNEL.
> 
>> E.g., "Allocations with this flag may fail, but only when there is
>> genuinely little unused memory." - current description does not match at
>> all. When allocating ranges things behave completely different.
>>
>>
>> b) fast
>>
>> Try, but fail fast. Leave optimizations that can improve the result to
>> the caller. E.g., don't drain LRU, don't drain PCP, don't retry.
>> Frequent failures are expected and acceptable.
>>
>> __GFP_NORETRY ?
>>
>> E.g., "The VM implementation will try only very lightweight memory
>> direct reclaim to get some memory under memory pressure" - again, I
>> think current description does not really match.
> 
> Agreed. As mentioned above this would be an opportunistic allocation
> mode.
> 
>  
>> c) hard
>>
>> Try hard, E.g., temporarily disabling the PCP. Certainly not
>> __GFP_NOFAIL, that would be highly dangerous. So no flags / GFP_KERNEL?
> 
> NOFAIL semantic is out of question. Should we have a mode to try harder
> than the default? I dunno. Do we have users? I think RETRY_MAYFAIL is a
> middle ground between the default and NORETRY which is just too easy to
> fail. This is the case for the allocator as well. And from what I have
> seen people are already using MAYFAIL in order to prevent oom killer so
> this is a generally recognized pattern.

virtio-mem might be one user. It might first try in normal mode to get
as much memory out as possible, but switch to hard mode when it might
make sense.

> 
>>> - __GFP_THIS_NODE - stick to a node without fallback
>>> - we can support zone modifiers although there is no existing user.
>>> - __GFP_NOWARN - obvious
>>>
>>> And that is it. Or maybe I am seeing that oversimplified.
>>>
>>
>> Again, I think most flags make sense for the migration target allocation
>>  path and mainly deal with OOM situations and reclaim. For the migration
>> path - which is specific to the alloc_contig_range() allocater - they
>> don't really apply and create more confusion than they actually help - IMHO.
> 
> Migration is really an implementation detail of this interface. You
> shouldn't be even thinking that there is a migration underneath not even
> mention to actually trying to control it. 

CMA? I tend to agree.
alloc_contig_range? I disagree.

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb