From: Nigel Cunningham <nigel@nigel.suspend2.net>
To: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Should GFP_ATOMIC fail when we're below low watermark?
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:41:22 +1000
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Cc: LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, Nick Piggin <piggin@cyberone.com.au>,
       Mel Gorman <mel@skynet.ie>
References: <200708201138.50508.nigel@nigel.suspend2.net> <200708202055.03058.nigel@nigel.suspend2.net> <1187607961.6114.191.camel@twins>
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Hi.

On Monday 20 August 2007 21:06:01 Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-08-20 at 20:55 +1000, Nigel Cunningham wrote:
> > Hi.
> > 
> > On Monday 20 August 2007 18:59:36 Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2007-08-20 at 18:38 +1000, Nigel Cunningham wrote:
> > > > Hi.
> > > > 
> > > > On Monday 20 August 2007 12:43:50 Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > > > > On Mon, 2007-08-20 at 11:38 +1000, Nigel Cunningham wrote:
> > > > > > Hi all.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > In current git (and for a while now), an attempt to allocate 
memory 
> > with 
> > > > > > GFP_ATOMIC will fail if we're below the low watermark level. The 
only 
> > way 
> > > > to 
> > > > > > access that memory that I can see (not that I've looked that hard) 
is 
> > to 
> > > > have 
> > > > > > PF_MEMALLOC set (ie from kswapd). I'm wondering if this behaviour 
is 
> > > > correct. 
> > > > > > Shouldn't GFP_ATOMIC allocations ignore watermarks too? How about 
> > > > GFP_KERNEL?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > The following patch is a potential fix for GFP_ATOMIC.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Sorry, no.
> > > > > 
> > > > > GFP_ATOMIC must fail when below the watermark. GFP_KERNEL has 
__GFP_WAIT
> > > > > and hence can sleep and wait for reclaim so that should not be a 
problem
> > > > > (usually).
> > > > > 
> > > > > GFP_ATOMIC may not access the reserves because the reserves are 
needed
> > > > > to get out of OOM deadlocks within the VM. Consider the fact that
> > > > > freeing memory needs memory - if there is no memory free, you cannot
> > > > > free memory and you're pretty much stuck.
> > > > 
> > > > I guess, then, the question should be whether the watermark values are 
> > > > appropriate. Do we need high order allocations watermarked if this is 
the 
> > > > only purpose, particularly considering that whatever memory is 
allocated 
> > for 
> > > > this purpose is essentially useless 99.9% of the time?
> > > 
> > > Could you perhaps explain what you're trying to do? No matter what we
> > > do, GFP_ATOMIC will fail eventually, there is only so much one can do
> > > without blocking.
> > > 
> > > As for higher order allocations, until we have a full online defrag
> > > solution those too can fail at any moment (even with __GFP_WAIT).
> > 
> > I was just trying to make hibernation more reliable in sitations where 
there's 
> > low amounts of memory available. I guess the amount of memory that's 
reserved 
> > for this has increased, because some users have been reporting issues that 
> > hadn't appeared before. No problem. I'll work around it.
> 
> I think the last time the default reserves were changed was 2.6.12 or
> there about.
> 
> Perhaps Mel fiddled with it in .23-rc ?

Nothing jumps out at me from a quick browse through gitk. I guess I'll just 
shrug my shoulders and get on with life.

Regards,

Nigel
-- 
Nigel Cunningham
Christian Reformed Church of Cobden
103 Curdie Street, Cobden 3266, Victoria, Australia
Ph. +61 3 5595 1185 / +61 417 100 574
Communal Worship: 11 am Sunday.
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