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Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 21:05:43 -0400
From: Douglas Gilbert <dougg@torque.net>
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To: Richard Gooch <rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca>
CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFT] Support for ~2144 SCSI discs
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Richard Gooch wrote:
> 
> Mike Anderson writes:
> > In previous experiments trying to connect up to 512 devices we
> > switched to vmalloc because the static nature of sd.c's allocation
> > exceeds 128k which I assumed was the max for kmalloc YMMV.
> 
> Yes, I figure on switching to vmalloc() and putting in an
> in_interrupt() test in sd_init() to make sure the vmalloc() is safe.
> 
> Eric: do you happen to know why there are these GFP_ATOMIC flags?
> To my knowledge, nothing calls sd_init() outside of process context.

Richard,
I've seen GFP_KERNEL take 10 minutes in lk 2.4.6 . The 
mm gets tweaked pretty often so it is difficult to know 
exactly how it will react when memory is tight. A time 
bound would be useful on GFP_KERNEL.

<opinion> It is best to find out quickly there is 
not enough memory and have some alternate strategy 
to cope with that problem. GFP_KERNEL in its current 
form should be taken out and shot. </opinion>

Doug Gilbert
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