Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752498Ab0LWXHK (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:07:10 -0500 Received: from smtp-out.google.com ([216.239.44.51]:25158 "EHLO smtp-out.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752356Ab0LWXHJ (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:07:09 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=google.com; s=beta; h=date:from:x-x-sender:to:cc:subject:in-reply-to:message-id :references:user-agent:mime-version:content-type; b=uyA6wzobme6I9A3vzFMXIk6xir2SyPfgMNunbxcQvLJjuA/ydOeoFOyPsj9WYIbVrG SAVfeG2BPMypnA9Vz7Ag== Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:07:02 -0800 (PST) From: David Rientjes X-X-Sender: rientjes@chino.kir.corp.google.com To: Andrew Morton cc: Mel Gorman , Greg Kroah-Hartman , Kyle McMartin , Shaohua Li , KOSAKI Motohiro , Christoph Lameter , KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] mm: page allocator: Adjust the per-cpu counter threshold when memory is low In-Reply-To: <20101223143521.f94a5106.akpm@linux-foundation.org> Message-ID: References: <1288169256-7174-1-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> <1288169256-7174-2-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> <20101126160619.GP22651@bombadil.infradead.org> <20101129095618.GB13268@csn.ul.ie> <20101129131626.GF15818@bombadil.infradead.org> <20101129150824.GF13268@csn.ul.ie> <20101129152230.GH15818@bombadil.infradead.org> <20101129155801.GG13268@csn.ul.ie> <20101223143521.f94a5106.akpm@linux-foundation.org> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (DEB 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-System-Of-Record: true Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1810 Lines: 34 On Thu, 23 Dec 2010, Andrew Morton wrote: > > We had to pull aa454840 "mm: page allocator: calculate a better estimate > > of NR_FREE_PAGES when memory is low and kswapd is awake" from 2.6.36 > > internally because tests showed that it would cause the machine to stall > > as the result of heavy kswapd activity. I merged it back with this fix as > > it is pending in the -mm tree and it solves the issue we were seeing, so I > > definitely think this should be pushed to -stable (and I would seriously > > consider it for 2.6.37 inclusion even at this late date). > > How's about I send > mm-page-allocator-adjust-the-per-cpu-counter-threshold-when-memory-is-low.patch > in for 2.6.38 and tag it for backporting into 2.6.37.1 and 2.6.36.x? > That way it'll get a bit of 2.6.38-rc testing before being merged into > 2.6.37.x. > I don't think anyone would be able to answer that judgment call other than you or Linus, it's a trade-off on whether 2.6.37 should be released with the knowledge that it regresses just like 2.6.36 does (rendering both unusable on some of our machines out of the box) because we're late in the cycle. I personally think the testing is already sufficient since it's been sitting in -mm for two months, it's been suggested as stable material by a couple different parties, it was a prerequisite for the transparent hugepage series, and we've tested and merged it as fixing the regression in 2.6.36 (as Fedora has, as far as I know). We've already merged the fix internally, though, so it's not for selfish reasons :) -- 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/