Re: [PATCH v3 03/19] mm: memcg: convert vmstat slab counters to bytes

From: Roman Gushchin
Date: Thu May 21 2020 - 17:14:29 EST


On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 11:57:12AM +0200, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> On 5/20/20 9:26 PM, Roman Gushchin wrote:
> > On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 02:25:22PM +0200, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> >>
> >> However __mod_node_page_state() and mode_node_state() will now branch always. I
> >> wonder if the "API clean" goal is worth it...
> >
> > You mean just adding a special write-side helper which will perform a conversion
> > and put VM_WARN_ON_ONCE() into generic write-side helpers?
>
> What I mean is that maybe node/global helpers should assume page granularity,
> and lruvec/memcg helpers do the check is they should convert from bytes to pages
> when calling node/global helpers. Then there would be no extra branches in
> node/global helpers. But maybe it's not worth saving those branches, dunno.

The problem is with helpers like mod_lruvec_state(), which do modify both global
and memcg-level counters. Also memcg- and global counters share idxes, so
it will be confusing to have NR_SLAB_RECLAIMABLE in bytes on one level and
in pages on the other.

So, idk, maybe there is a better way of organizing these counters in a less
complicated manner, but I've no ideas at the moment. But if you do, I'll appreciate it.

Thanks!