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Subject: [PATCH v2 16/16] mm: multigenerational lru: documentation
From:   Yu Zhao <yuzhao@google.com>
To:     linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc:     Alex Shi <alexs@kernel.org>, Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        Benjamin Manes <ben.manes@gmail.com>,
        Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>,
        Hillf Danton <hdanton@sina.com>, Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>,
        Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
        Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@lge.com>,
        Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>,
        Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>,
        Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@huawei.com>,
        Michael Larabel <michael@michaellarabel.com>,
        Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>,
        Michel Lespinasse <michel@lespinasse.org>,
        Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>,
        Roman Gushchin <guro@fb.com>,
        Rong Chen <rong.a.chen@intel.com>,
        SeongJae Park <sjpark@amazon.de>,
        Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>,
        Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>,
        Yang Shi <shy828301@gmail.com>,
        Ying Huang <ying.huang@intel.com>, Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, lkp@lists.01.org,
        page-reclaim@google.com, Yu Zhao <yuzhao@google.com>
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Add Documentation/vm/multigen_lru.rst.

Signed-off-by: Yu Zhao <yuzhao@google.com>
---
 Documentation/vm/index.rst        |   1 +
 Documentation/vm/multigen_lru.rst | 192 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 193 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/vm/multigen_lru.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/vm/index.rst b/Documentation/vm/index.rst
index eff5fbd492d0..c353b3f55924 100644
--- a/Documentation/vm/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/vm/index.rst
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ various features of the Linux memory management
 
    swap_numa
    zswap
+   multigen_lru
 
 Kernel developers MM documentation
 ==================================
diff --git a/Documentation/vm/multigen_lru.rst b/Documentation/vm/multigen_lru.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cf772aeca317
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/vm/multigen_lru.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,192 @@
+=====================
+Multigenerational LRU
+=====================
+
+Quick Start
+===========
+Build Options
+-------------
+:Required: Set ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN=y``.
+
+:Optional: Change ``CONFIG_NR_LRU_GENS`` to a number ``X`` to support
+ a maximum of ``X`` generations.
+
+:Optional: Change ``CONFIG_TIERS_PER_GEN`` to a number ``Y`` to support
+ a maximum of ``Y`` tiers per generation.
+
+:Optional: Set ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_ENABLED=y`` to turn the feature on by
+ default.
+
+Runtime Options
+---------------
+:Required: Write ``1`` to ``/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enable`` if the
+ feature was not turned on by default.
+
+:Optional: Change ``/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/spread`` to a number ``N``
+ to spread pages out across ``N+1`` generations. ``N`` should be less
+ than ``X``. Larger values make the background aging more aggressive.
+
+:Optional: Read ``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen`` to verify the feature.
+ This file has the following output:
+
+::
+
+  memcg  memcg_id  memcg_path
+    node  node_id
+      min_gen  birth_time  anon_size  file_size
+      ...
+      max_gen  birth_time  anon_size  file_size
+
+Given a memcg and a node, ``min_gen`` is the oldest generation
+(number) and ``max_gen`` is the youngest. Birth time is in
+milliseconds. The sizes of anon and file types are in pages.
+
+Recipes
+-------
+:Android on ARMv8.1+: ``X=4``, ``N=0``
+
+:Android on pre-ARMv8.1 CPUs: Not recommended due to the lack of
+ ``ARM64_HW_AFDBM``
+
+:Laptops running Chrome on x86_64: ``X=7``, ``N=2``
+
+:Working set estimation: Write ``+ memcg_id node_id gen [swappiness]``
+ to ``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen`` to account referenced pages to
+ generation ``max_gen`` and create the next generation ``max_gen+1``.
+ ``gen`` should be equal to ``max_gen``. A swap file and a non-zero
+ ``swappiness`` are required to scan anon type. If swapping is not
+ desired, set ``vm.swappiness`` to ``0``.
+
+:Proactive reclaim: Write ``- memcg_id node_id gen [swappiness]
+ [nr_to_reclaim]`` to ``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen`` to evict
+ generations less than or equal to ``gen``. ``gen`` should be less
+ than ``max_gen-1`` as ``max_gen`` and ``max_gen-1`` are active
+ generations and therefore protected from the eviction. Use
+ ``nr_to_reclaim`` to limit the number of pages to be evicted.
+ Multiple command lines are supported, so does concatenation with
+ delimiters ``,`` and ``;``.
+
+Framework
+=========
+For each ``lruvec``, evictable pages are divided into multiple
+generations. The youngest generation number is stored in ``max_seq``
+for both anon and file types as they are aged on an equal footing. The
+oldest generation numbers are stored in ``min_seq[2]`` separately for
+anon and file types as clean file pages can be evicted regardless of
+swap and write-back constraints. Generation numbers are truncated into
+``order_base_2(CONFIG_NR_LRU_GENS+1)`` bits in order to fit into
+``page->flags``. The sliding window technique is used to prevent
+truncated generation numbers from overlapping. Each truncated
+generation number is an index to an array of per-type and per-zone
+lists. Evictable pages are added to the per-zone lists indexed by
+``max_seq`` or ``min_seq[2]`` (modulo ``CONFIG_NR_LRU_GENS``),
+depending on whether they are being faulted in.
+
+Each generation is then divided into multiple tiers. Tiers represent
+levels of usage from file descriptors only. Pages accessed N times via
+file descriptors belong to tier order_base_2(N). In contrast to moving
+across generations which requires the lru lock, moving across tiers
+only involves an atomic operation on ``page->flags`` and therefore has
+a negligible cost.
+
+The workflow comprises two conceptually independent functions: the
+aging and the eviction.
+
+Aging
+-----
+The aging produces young generations. Given an ``lruvec``, the aging
+scans page tables for referenced pages of this ``lruvec``. Upon
+finding one, the aging updates its generation number to ``max_seq``.
+After each round of scan, the aging increments ``max_seq``.
+
+The aging maintains either a system-wide ``mm_struct`` list or
+per-memcg ``mm_struct`` lists, and it only scans page tables of
+processes that have been scheduled since the last scan. Since scans
+are differential with respect to referenced pages, the cost is roughly
+proportional to their number.
+
+The aging is due when both of ``min_seq[2]`` reaches ``max_seq-1``,
+assuming both anon and file types are reclaimable.
+
+Eviction
+--------
+The eviction consumes old generations. Given an ``lruvec``, the
+eviction scans the pages on the per-zone lists indexed by either of
+``min_seq[2]``. It first tries to select a type based on the values of
+``min_seq[2]``. When anon and file types are both available from the
+same generation, it selects the one that has a lower refault rate.
+
+During a scan, the eviction sorts pages according to their generation
+numbers, if the aging has found them referenced.  It also moves pages
+from the tiers that have higher refault rates than tier 0 to the next
+generation.
+
+When it finds all the per-zone lists of a selected type are empty, the
+eviction increments ``min_seq[2]`` indexed by this selected type.
+
+Rationale
+=========
+Limitations of Current Implementation
+-------------------------------------
+Notion of Active/Inactive
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+For servers equipped with hundreds of gigabytes of memory, the
+granularity of the active/inactive is too coarse to be useful for job
+scheduling. False active/inactive rates are relatively high, and thus
+the assumed savings may not materialize.
+
+For phones and laptops, executable pages are frequently evicted
+despite the fact that there are many less recently used anon pages.
+Major faults on executable pages cause ``janks`` (slow UI renderings)
+and negatively impact user experience.
+
+For ``lruvec``\s from different memcgs or nodes, comparisons are
+impossible due to the lack of a common frame of reference.
+
+Incremental Scans via ``rmap``
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Each incremental scan picks up at where the last scan left off and
+stops after it has found a handful of unreferenced pages. For
+workloads using a large amount of anon memory, incremental scans lose
+the advantage under sustained memory pressure due to high ratios of
+the number of scanned pages to the number of reclaimed pages. On top
+of that, the ``rmap`` has poor memory locality due to its complex data
+structures. The combined effects typically result in a high amount of
+CPU usage in the reclaim path.
+
+Benefits of Multigenerational LRU
+---------------------------------
+Notion of Generation Numbers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+The notion of generation numbers introduces a quantitative approach to
+memory overcommit. A larger number of pages can be spread out across
+configurable generations, and thus they have relatively low false
+active/inactive rates. Each generation includes all pages that have
+been referenced since the last generation.
+
+Given an ``lruvec``, scans and the selections between anon and file
+types are all based on generation numbers, which are simple and yet
+effective. For different ``lruvec``\s, comparisons are still possible
+based on birth times of generations.
+
+Differential Scans via Page Tables
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Each differential scan discovers all pages that have been referenced
+since the last scan. Specifically, it walks the ``mm_struct`` list
+associated with an ``lruvec`` to scan page tables of processes that
+have been scheduled since the last scan. The cost of each differential
+scan is roughly proportional to the number of referenced pages it
+discovers. Unless address spaces are extremely sparse, page tables
+usually have better memory locality than the ``rmap``. The end result
+is generally a significant reduction in CPU usage, for workloads
+using a large amount of anon memory.
+
+To-do List
+==========
+KVM Optimization
+----------------
+Support shadow page table scanning.
+
+NUMA Optimization
+-----------------
+Support NUMA policies and per-node RSS counters.
-- 
2.31.1.295.g9ea45b61b8-goog