Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030276AbWBMXbc (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:31:32 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1030282AbWBMXbc (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:31:32 -0500 Received: from allen.werkleitz.de ([80.190.251.108]:22495 "EHLO allen.werkleitz.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1030276AbWBMXbb (ORCPT ); Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:31:31 -0500 Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:31:14 +0100 From: Johannes Stezenbach To: Andrew Morton Cc: lkml@rtr.ca, dgc@sgi.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Message-ID: <20060213233114.GA21971@linuxtv.org> Mail-Followup-To: Johannes Stezenbach , Andrew Morton , lkml@rtr.ca, dgc@sgi.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org References: <20060206040027.GI43335175@melbourne.sgi.com> <20060205202733.48a02dbe.akpm@osdl.org> <43E75ED4.809@rtr.ca> <43E75FB6.2040203@rtr.ca> <20060206121133.4ef589af.akpm@osdl.org> <20060213135925.GA6173@linuxtv.org> <20060213120847.79215432.akpm@osdl.org> <20060213224835.GC5565@linuxtv.org> <20060213150457.547ddfb4.akpm@osdl.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20060213150457.547ddfb4.akpm@osdl.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11+cvs20060126 X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: 84.189.220.130 Subject: Re: dirty pages (Was: Re: [PATCH] Prevent large file writeback starvation) X-SA-Exim-Version: 4.2 (built Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:44:12 +0100) X-SA-Exim-Scanned: Yes (on allen.werkleitz.de) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1681 Lines: 48 On Mon, Feb 13, 2006 at 03:04:57PM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote: > Johannes Stezenbach wrote: > > > > On Mon, Feb 13, 2006, Andrew Morton wrote: > > > Johannes Stezenbach wrote: > > > > Now copying a 700MB file makes "Dirty" go up to 350MB. It then > > > > slowly decreases to 325MB and stays there. > > > > > > It shouldn't. Did you really leave it for long enough? > > > > > > If you did, then why does it happen there and not here? > > > > Good question. I just repeated the execise, rebooted and > > copied a 700MB file. After ~30min "Dirty" is down to ~130MB, and > > continues to decrease very slowly. > > > > On my Desktop machine (P4 HT, 1G RAM) "Dirty" goes down near > > zero after ~30sec, as expected. > > Are you using any unusual mount options? > > Which filesystem types are online (not that this should affect it...) $ cat /proc/mounts rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0 /dev/root / ext3 rw,data=ordered 0 0 proc /proc proc rw,nodiratime 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0 /dev/root /dev/.static/dev ext3 rw,data=ordered 0 0 tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw 0 0 tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0 /dev/hda6 /home ext3 rw,data=ordered 0 0 nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd nfsd rw 0 0 $ I found that if I copy a large number of small files (e.g. the linux source tree), "Dirty" drops back near zero after ~30sec. Only if I copy large files it won't. Johannes - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/