Re: [PATCH] Avoid useless inodes and dentries reclamation

From: Dave Hansen
Date: Thu Aug 29 2013 - 14:36:31 EST


The new shrinker infrastructure in mmotm looks like it will make this
problem worse.

old code:
shrink_slab()
for_each_shrinker {
do_shrinker_shrink(); // one per batch
prune_super()
grab_super_passive()
}
}

Which means we've got at _most_ one grab_super_passive() per batch. The
new code is something like this:

shrink_slab()
{
list_for_each_entry(shrinker, &shrinker_list, list) {
for_each_node_mask(... shrinkctl->nodes_to_scan) {
shrink_slab_node()
}
}
}

shrink_slab_node()
{
max_pass = shrinker->count_objects(shrinker, shrinkctl);
// ^^ does grab_super_passive()
...
while (total_scan >= batch_size) {
ret = shrinker->scan_objects(shrinker, shrinkctl);
// ^^ does grab_super_passive()
}
}

We've got an extra grab_super_passive()s in the case where we are
actually doing a scan, plus we've got the extra for_each_node_mask()
loop. That means even more lock acquisitions in the multi-node NUMA
case, which is exactly where we want to get rid of global lock acquisitions.

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/