Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753444Ab0HWIAr (ORCPT ); Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:47 -0400 Received: from gir.skynet.ie ([193.1.99.77]:58228 "EHLO gir.skynet.ie" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752900Ab0HWIAl (ORCPT ); Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:41 -0400 From: Mel Gorman To: Andrew Morton Cc: Linux Kernel List , linux-mm@kvack.org, Rik van Riel , Johannes Weiner , Minchan Kim , Christoph Lameter , KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki , KOSAKI Motohiro , Mel Gorman Subject: [PATCH 1/3] mm: page allocator: Update free page counters after pages are placed on the free list Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:00:40 +0100 Message-Id: <1282550442-15193-2-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> X-Mailer: git-send-email 1.7.1 In-Reply-To: <1282550442-15193-1-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> References: <1282550442-15193-1-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2687 Lines: 69 When allocating a page, the system uses NR_FREE_PAGES counters to determine if watermarks would remain intact after the allocation was made. This check is made without interrupts disabled or the zone lock held and so is race-prone by nature. Unfortunately, when pages are being freed in batch, the counters are updated before the pages are added on the list. During this window, the counters are misleading as the pages do not exist yet. When under significant pressure on systems with large numbers of CPUs, it's possible for processes to make progress even though they should have been stalled. This is particularly problematic if a number of the processes are using GFP_ATOMIC as the min watermark can be accidentally breached and in extreme cases, the system can livelock. This patch updates the counters after the pages have been added to the list. This makes the allocator more cautious with respect to preserving the watermarks and mitigates livelock possibilities. Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman Reviewed-by: Rik van Riel Reviewed-by: Minchan Kim Reviewed-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki Acked-by: Johannes Weiner --- mm/page_alloc.c | 5 +++-- 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c index a9649f4..97d74a0 100644 --- a/mm/page_alloc.c +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c @@ -588,12 +588,12 @@ static void free_pcppages_bulk(struct zone *zone, int count, { int migratetype = 0; int batch_free = 0; + int freed = count; spin_lock(&zone->lock); zone->all_unreclaimable = 0; zone->pages_scanned = 0; - __mod_zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES, count); while (count) { struct page *page; struct list_head *list; @@ -621,6 +621,7 @@ static void free_pcppages_bulk(struct zone *zone, int count, trace_mm_page_pcpu_drain(page, 0, page_private(page)); } while (--count && --batch_free && !list_empty(list)); } + __mod_zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES, freed); spin_unlock(&zone->lock); } @@ -631,8 +632,8 @@ static void free_one_page(struct zone *zone, struct page *page, int order, zone->all_unreclaimable = 0; zone->pages_scanned = 0; - __mod_zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES, 1 << order); __free_one_page(page, zone, order, migratetype); + __mod_zone_page_state(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES, 1 << order); spin_unlock(&zone->lock); } -- 1.7.1 -- 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/