Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 209.132.180.67 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.132.180.67;
Date:   Mon, 2 Sep 2019 22:15:53 +0200
From:   Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
To:     James Courtier-Dutton <james.dutton@gmail.com>
Cc:     Daniel Drake <drake@endlessm.com>,
        "Artem S. Tashkinov" <aros@gmx.com>,
        LKML Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        linux@endlessm.com, hadess@hadess.net,
        Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Subject: Re: Let's talk about the elephant in the room - the Linux kernel's
 inability to gracefully handle low memory pressure
Message-ID: <20190902201553.GA6546@bug>
References: <d9802b6a-949b-b327-c4a6-3dbca485ec20@gmx.com>
 <20190820064620.5119-1-drake@endlessm.com>
 <CAAMvbhH=ftMoh9eFVR3YgN9DVSLaN5tXa-vTsBocY8YuL0Rc1A@mail.gmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <CAAMvbhH=ftMoh9eFVR3YgN9DVSLaN5tXa-vTsBocY8YuL0Rc1A@mail.gmail.com>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12)
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
Precedence: bulk

Hi!

> >
> > And if there is a meaningful way to make the kernel behave better, that would
> > obviously be of huge value too.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Daniel
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Is there a way for an application to be told that there is a memory
> pressure situation?
> For example, say I do a "make -j32"  and half way through the compile
> it hits a memory pressure situation.
> If make could have been told about it. It could give up on some of the
> parallel compiles, and instead proceed as if the user have typed "make
> -j4". It could then re-try the failed compile parts, that failed due
> to memory pressure.
> I know all applications won't be this clever, but providing a kernel
> API so that an application could do something about it, if the
> programmer of that application has thought about it.

Support is not really needed in many applications. It would be nice to
have for make and web browsers... And I suspect it is easy to do interface
becomes available.

Best regards,
								Pavel