2024-01-23 11:17:12

by Charan Teja Kalla

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Purpose of maple_node objects to be its size aligned

I am just curious about the purpose of maple node slab objects to be its
size aligned, but I can understand why they need to be cache aligned.

void __init maple_tree_init(void)
{
maple_node_cache = kmem_cache_create("maple_node",
sizeof(struct maple_node),
sizeof(struct maple_node),// Alignment of the slab object.
SLAB_PANIC, NULL);
}

Reason for the ask is, when slub debug enabled with option Z, the change
[1] makes the total object to be 256 * 3 (=768)bytes. This turns out to
be a problem in debug builds where the unreclaimable slab consumption
itself is very high thus exerting the memory pressure on the system.

maple_node:
orginal object size = 256b
after slub_debug enabled = 768b


If, there is no special requirement, other than just needs to be cache
aligned, thinking of the below:

--- a/lib/maple_tree.c
+++ b/lib/maple_tree.c
@@ -6283,8 +6283,8 @@ bool mas_nomem(struct ma_state *mas, gfp_t gfp)
void __init maple_tree_init(void)
{
maple_node_cache = kmem_cache_create("maple_node",
- sizeof(struct maple_node), sizeof(struct
maple_node),
- SLAB_PANIC, NULL);
+ sizeof(struct maple_node), 0,
+ SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC, NULL);
}


[1]d86bd1bece6f ("mm/slub: support left redzone")

Thanks,
charan


2024-01-23 13:29:40

by Matthew Wilcox

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Purpose of maple_node objects to be its size aligned

On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 04:33:51PM +0530, Charan Teja Kalla wrote:
> I am just curious about the purpose of maple node slab objects to be its
> size aligned, but I can understand why they need to be cache aligned.

Because we encode various information in the bottom few bits of the
maple node pointer.

/*
* The Maple Tree squeezes various bits in at various points which aren't
* necessarily obvious. Usually, this is done by observing that pointers are
* N-byte aligned and thus the bottom log_2(N) bits are available for use. We
* don't use the high bits of pointers to store additional information because
* we don't know what bits are unused on any given architecture.
*
* Nodes are 256 bytes in size and are also aligned to 256 bytes, giving us 8
* low bits for our own purposes. Nodes are currently of 4 types:
* 1. Single pointer (Range is 0-0)
* 2. Non-leaf Allocation Range nodes
* 3. Non-leaf Range nodes
* 4. Leaf Range nodes All nodes consist of a number of node slots,
* pivots, and a parent pointer.
*/

> Reason for the ask is, when slub debug enabled with option Z, the change
> [1] makes the total object to be 256 * 3 (=768)bytes. This turns out to
> be a problem in debug builds where the unreclaimable slab consumption
> itself is very high thus exerting the memory pressure on the system.

That seems like a very badly implemented patch. Rather than make all
objects left & right redzone, we should simply insert a redzone at
the beginning of the slab. ie

0 redzone
256 node
512 redzone
768 node
1024 redzone
1280 node
[...]
3072 redzone
3382 node
3584 redzone
3840 wasted space

Instead of getting only five nodes per 4kB page, we'd get seven; about
a 30% reduction in memory usage.

Slab redzoning is not a feature people turn on often, so I'm not
surprised nobody's noticed before now.

2024-01-23 14:58:40

by Charan Teja Kalla

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Purpose of maple_node objects to be its size aligned

Thanks Matthew!!

On 1/23/2024 6:56 PM, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
>> I am just curious about the purpose of maple node slab objects to be its
>> size aligned, but I can understand why they need to be cache aligned.
> Because we encode various information in the bottom few bits of the
> maple node pointer.
>
> /*
> * The Maple Tree squeezes various bits in at various points which aren't
> * necessarily obvious. Usually, this is done by observing that pointers are
> * N-byte aligned and thus the bottom log_2(N) bits are available for use. We
> * don't use the high bits of pointers to store additional information because
> * we don't know what bits are unused on any given architecture.
> *
> * Nodes are 256 bytes in size and are also aligned to 256 bytes, giving us 8
> * low bits for our own purposes. Nodes are currently of 4 types:
> * 1. Single pointer (Range is 0-0)
> * 2. Non-leaf Allocation Range nodes
> * 3. Non-leaf Range nodes
> * 4. Leaf Range nodes All nodes consist of a number of node slots,
> * pivots, and a parent pointer.
> */
>

I got it. Looks like I need to revisit the maple tree documentation
before asking such questions.

> That seems like a very badly implemented patch. Rather than make all
> objects left & right redzone, we should simply insert a redzone at
> the beginning of the slab. ie
>
> 0 redzone
> 256 node
> 512 redzone
> 768 node
> 1024 redzone
> 1280 node
> [...]
> 3072 redzone
> 3382 node
> 3584 redzone
> 3840 wasted space
>
This seems to work when only redzone is enabled?

I think it will again 768b aligned if any other debug option enabled,
say U. It is:
(size aligned red zone + maple node + right red zone (size of (void*))
+ alloc/free track).

My understanding to have both left and right red zone is:
/*
* Add some empty padding so that __we can catch
* overwrites from earlier objects rather than let
* tracking information or the free pointer be
* corrupted if a user writes before the start
* of the object__.
*/

When all the debug options enabled, the slab object will roughly look
like below:

Left red zone | object | right red zone | free pointer | alloc/free
track | padding

> Instead of getting only five nodes per 4kB page, we'd get seven; about
> a 30% reduction in memory usage.
>
> Slab redzoning is not a feature people turn on often, so I'm not
> surprised nobody's noticed before now.

+Vlastimil. The patch in discussion is d86bd1bece6f ("mm/slub: support
left redzone").

Thanks,
Charan