Re: [PATCH] page-allocator: Ensure that processes that have beenOOM killed exit the page allocator (resend)

From: Mel Gorman
Date: Thu Jul 16 2009 - 07:06:05 EST


On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 01:30:14PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:49:45 +0100
> Mel Gorman <mel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Processes that have been OOM killed set the thread flag TIF_MEMDIE. A process
> > such as this is expected to exit the page allocator but potentially, it
> > loops forever. This patch checks TIF_MEMDIE when deciding whether to loop
> > again in the page allocator. If set, and __GFP_NOFAIL is not specified
> > then the loop will exit on the assumption it's no longer important for the
> > process to make forward progress. Note that a process that has just been
> > OOM-killed will still loop at least one more time retrying the allocation
> > before the thread flag is checked.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mel@xxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > mm/page_alloc.c | 8 ++++++++
> > 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> > index f8902e7..5c98d02 100644
> > --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> > +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> > @@ -1547,6 +1547,14 @@ should_alloc_retry(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
> > if (gfp_mask & __GFP_NORETRY)
> > return 0;
> >
> > + /* Do not loop if OOM-killed unless __GFP_NOFAIL is specified */
> > + if (test_thread_flag(TIF_MEMDIE)) {
> > + if (gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL)
> > + WARN(1, "Potential infinite loop with __GFP_NOFAIL");
> > + else
> > + return 0;
> > + }
> > +
> > /*
> > * In this implementation, order <= PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER
> > * means __GFP_NOFAIL, but that may not be true in other
>
> This fixes a post-2.6.30 regression, yes?
>
> I dug out the commit ID a while back but lost it. Ho hum.
>

You made a note at the time "Offending commit 341ce06 handled the PF_MEMALLOC
case but forgot about the TIF_MEMDIE case."

--
Mel Gorman
Part-time Phd Student Linux Technology Center
University of Limerick IBM Dublin Software Lab
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