Re: long sleep_on_page delays writing to slow storage

[Johannes Weiner <jweiner@redhat.com>]

On Wed, Nov 09, 2011 at 07:06:46PM +0100, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 09, 2011 at 05:52:01PM +0000, Mel Gorman wrote:
> > -#define alloc_pages_vma(gfp_mask, order, vma, addr, node)	\
> > -	alloc_pages(gfp_mask, order)
> > +#define alloc_pages_vma(gfp_mask, order, vma, addr, node, drop_mmapsem)	\
> > +	({ 								\
> > +		if (drop_mmapsem)					\
> > +			up_read(&vma->vm_mm->mmap_sem);			\
> > +		alloc_pages(gfp_mask, order);				\
> > +	})
> 
> I wouldn't change alloc_pages_vma. I think it's better to add and have
> that called only by khugepaged:
> 
> alloc_pages_vma_up_read(gfp_mask, order, vma, addr, node)
> {
> 	__alloc_pages_vma(gfp_mask, order, vma, addr, node, true);
> }
> 
> alloc_pages_vma(gfp_mask, order, vma, addr, node)
> {
> 	__alloc_pages_vma(gfp_mask, order, vma, addr, node, false);
> }
> 
> I wonder if a change like this would be enough?
> 
>        sync_migration = !(gfp_mask & __GFP_NO_KSWAPD);
> 
> But even if hidden in a new function, the main downside overall is the
> fact we'll pass one more var through the stack of fast paths.
> 
> Johannes I recall you reported this too and Mel suggested the above
> change, did it help in the end?

Yes, it completely fixed the latency problem.

That said, I haven't looked at the impact on the THP success rate, but
a regression there is probably less severe than half-minute-stalls in
interactive applications.