Re: [DOC][for -mm] update Documentation/controller/memory.txt

From: Balbir Singh
Date: Tue Dec 11 2007 - 00:12:39 EST


KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki wrote:
> Balbir-san, could you review this update ?
>
> --
> Documentation updates for memory controller.
>
> Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Index: linux-2.6.24-rc4-mm1/Documentation/controllers/memory.txt
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6.24-rc4-mm1.orig/Documentation/controllers/memory.txt
> +++ linux-2.6.24-rc4-mm1/Documentation/controllers/memory.txt
> @@ -9,8 +9,7 @@ d. Provides a double LRU: global memory
> global LRU; a cgroup on hitting a limit, reclaims from the per
> cgroup LRU
>
> -NOTE: Page Cache (unmapped) also includes Swap Cache pages as a subset
> -and will not be referred to explicitly in the rest of the documentation.
> +NOTE: Swap Cache (unmapped) is not accounted now.
>
> Benefits and Purpose of the memory controller
>
> @@ -144,7 +143,7 @@ list.
> The memory controller uses the following hierarchy
>
> 1. zone->lru_lock is used for selecting pages to be isolated
> -2. mem->lru_lock protects the per cgroup LRU
> +2. mem->per_zone->lru_lock protects the per cgroup LRU (per zone)
> 3. lock_page_cgroup() is used to protect page->page_cgroup
>
> 3. User Interface
> @@ -193,6 +192,15 @@ this file after a write to guarantee the
> The memory.failcnt field gives the number of times that the cgroup limit was
> exceeded.
>
> +The memory.stat file gives accounting information. Now, the number of
> +caches, RSS and Active pages/Inactive pages are shown.
> +
> +The memory.force_empty gives an interface to drop *all* charges by force.
> +
> +# echo -n 1 > memory.force_empty
> +
> +will drop all charges in cgroup. Currently, this is maintained for test.
> +
> 4. Testing
>
> Balbir posted lmbench, AIM9, LTP and vmmstress results [10] and [11].
> @@ -222,11 +230,8 @@ reclaimed.
>
> A cgroup can be removed by rmdir, but as discussed in sections 4.1 and 4.2, a
> cgroup might have some charge associated with it, even though all
> -tasks have migrated away from it. If some pages are still left, after following
> -the steps listed in sections 4.1 and 4.2, check the Swap Cache usage in
> -/proc/meminfo to see if the Swap Cache usage is showing up in the
> -cgroups memory.usage_in_bytes counter. A simple test of swapoff -a and
> -swapon -a should free any pending Swap Cache usage.
> +tasks have migrated away from it. Such charges are automatically dropped at
> +rmdir() if there are no tasks.
>
> 4.4 Choosing what to account -- Page Cache (unmapped) vs RSS (mapped)?
>
> @@ -238,15 +243,11 @@ echo -n 1 > memory.control_type
> 5. TODO
>
> 1. Add support for accounting huge pages (as a separate controller)
> -2. Improve the user interface to accept/display memory limits in KB or MB
> - rather than pages (since page sizes can differ across platforms/machines).
> -3. Make cgroup lists per-zone
> -4. Make per-cgroup scanner reclaim not-shared pages first
> -5. Teach controller to account for shared-pages
> -6. Start reclamation when the limit is lowered
> -7. Start reclamation in the background when the limit is
> +2. Make per-cgroup scanner reclaim not-shared pages first
> +3. Teach controller to account for shared-pages
> +4. Start reclamation when the limit is lowered
> +5. Start reclamation in the background when the limit is
> not yet hit but the usage is getting closer
> -8. Create per zone LRU lists per cgroup
>

Looks very good to me!

Reviewed-by: Balbir Singh <balbir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

--
Warm Regards,
Balbir Singh
Linux Technology Center
IBM, ISTL
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