[PATCH v2 0/2] Memory notification pseudo-device module

From: Leonid Moiseichuk
Date: Tue Jan 17 2012 - 08:23:53 EST


Hello,

That is a continuation of Used Memory Meter (UMM) started as [1] and re-designed
according to inputs I can implement.

The main idea of memnotify is to provide low-cost interface for user-space to
update with specified granularity and timeout required memory usulization values
in specified moment of time. It is not a low memory interface as [2] nor OOM killer
but it could be used for situations related to "close-to-OOM" handling. The examples
of usage could be discovered in libmemnotify [3] or test case code below this intro.

During the previous discussion two biggest disappointments were discovered:
1. hooking MM -- now it is removed, the new solution has 0 MM changes, only extra
shrinker added to re-enforce timer to re-check memory situation as soon as possible
2. extendability -- to add any other tracked value you need to modify 2 places in
code (memtypes[] and get_memory_status() function).

As Kosaki-san said for activity tracking I added "active" page set. You can subscribe
for one or several values for tracking simultaneously.

To periodic re-read vm_stat (using global_page_state() interface) I use deferred timer,
expecting if cpu sleeps timer could be delayed and use-time will be not affected.
If this assumption is not correct I can add register_cpu_notifier() call. Otherwise,
when no clients connected - no activity or subscription in module performed.

The number of module parameters could be specified to adjust reaction time or
granularity of changes. The interface pseudo-device hardcoded as /dev/memnotify.

As in previous time module tested using arm, x86-32 and x86-64 for typical (10 clients)
and stress (10K clients) cases.

With Best Regards,
Leonid

References:
1. https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/1/4/208
2. https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/1/17/34
3. http://maemo.gitorious.org/maemo-tools/libmemnotify

Leonid Moiseichuk (2):
Making si_swapinfo exportable
Memory notification pseudo-device module

drivers/misc/Kconfig | 11 +
drivers/misc/Makefile | 1 +
drivers/misc/memnotify.c | 582 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
mm/swapfile.c | 3 +
4 files changed, 597 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 drivers/misc/memnotify.c

--
1.7.7.3

/*
* mn_test.c - test for system-wide memory notification/meter implementation
*
* Usage:
* $gcc -o mn_test mn_test.c
* $mn_test
* or with pointing pages as threshold(s)
* $mn_test "used 5000"
* or
* $mn_test "active 8000 used 16000"
*
* Copyright (C) 2012 Nokia Corporation.
* Leonid Moiseichuk
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
* published by the Free Software Foundation.
*
* This program is distributed "as is" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY of any
* kind, whether express or implied; without even the implied warranty
* of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*/

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <poll.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(const int argc, const char* argv[])
{
const char *dev = "/dev/memnotify";
const int fd = open(dev,O_RDWR);
const char *lim = (2 == argc && argv[1] ? argv[1] : NULL);
ssize_t ret;
struct pollfd fds[1];
char tmp[256];

printf ("%s -- test for system-wide memory notification/meter %s\n", argv[0], dev);
if (lim && 0 == strcmp(lim, "--help")) {
printf ("usage: %s [threshold(s)_in_pages]\n", argv[0]);
printf ("example of threshold(s) available in %s\n", dev);
return -1;
}

if (fd < 0) {
printf ("cannot open device %s, do you have memnotify.ko loaded?\n", dev);
return -1;
} else {
printf ("device %s opened successfuly with fd = %d\n", dev, fd);
}

if ((ret = read(fd, tmp, sizeof(tmp))) < 0) {
printf ("reading from %s failed\n", dev);
return -1;
}
tmp[ret - 1] = 0;
printf ("read from %s %d bytes: '%s'\n", dev, ret, tmp);

/* do we have a threshold? */
if ( !lim )
return 0;

printf ("establishing threshold '%s' and waiting\n", lim);
if ((ret = write(fd, argv[1], strlen(argv[1]))) < 0) {
printf ("cannot set threshold '%s' for device %s\n", lim, dev);
return -1;
}

printf ("polling for threshold '%s' to be changed to up/down\n", lim);
fds->fd = fd;
fds->events = POLLIN;
fds->revents = 0;
ret = poll(fds, 1, -1);
printf ("poll(%d) returned %d\n", fd, ret);

if ((ret = read(fd, tmp, sizeof(tmp))) < 0) {
printf ("reading from %s failed\n", dev);
return -1;
}
tmp[ret - 1] = 0;
printf ("--> memory figures reached '%s'\n", tmp);

return 0;
}
/* ---< end of mn_test.c >---- */
--
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