From 09ea6220d4db6762ee7f4efd26028fcc5d37015f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mel Gorman Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:50:07 +1000 Subject: [PATCH] mm-vmscan-throttle-reclaim-if-encountering-too-many-dirty-pages-under-writeback-update This patch expands on a comment on how we throttle from reclaim context. It should be merged with mm-vmscan-throttle-reclaim-if-encountering-too-many-dirty-pages-under-writeback.patch Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <> --- mm/vmscan.c | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c index c3aefa7fb600..7b0573f33a27 100644 --- a/mm/vmscan.c +++ b/mm/vmscan.c @@ -1538,11 +1538,27 @@ shrink_inactive_list(unsigned long nr_to_scan, struct zone *zone, putback_lru_pages(zone, sc, nr_anon, nr_file, &page_list); /* - * If we have encountered a high number of dirty pages under writeback - * then we are reaching the end of the LRU too quickly and global - * limits are not enough to throttle processes due to the page - * distribution throughout zones. Scale the number of dirty pages that - * must be under writeback before being throttled to priority. + * If reclaim is isolating dirty pages under writeback, it implies + * that the long-lived page allocation rate is exceeding the page + * laundering rate. Either the global limits are not being effective + * at throttling processes due to the page distribution throughout + * zones or there is heavy usage of a slow backing device. The + * only option is to throttle from reclaim context which is not ideal + * as there is no guarantee the dirtying process is throttled in the + * same way balance_dirty_pages() manages. + * + * This scales the number of dirty pages that must be under writeback + * before throttling depending on priority. It is a simple backoff + * function that has the most effect in the range DEF_PRIORITY to + * DEF_PRIORITY-2 which is the priority reclaim is considered to be + * in trouble and reclaim is considered to be in trouble. + * + * DEF_PRIORITY 100% isolated pages must be PageWriteback to throttle + * DEF_PRIORITY-1 50% must be PageWriteback + * DEF_PRIORITY-2 25% must be PageWriteback, kswapd in trouble + * ... + * DEF_PRIORITY-6 For SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX isolated pages, throttle if any + * isolated page is PageWriteback */ if (nr_writeback && nr_writeback >= (nr_taken >> (DEF_PRIORITY-priority))) wait_iff_congested(zone, BLK_RW_ASYNC, HZ/10); -- 2.39.5