Re: [PATCH 01/10] mm: vmscan: Limit the number of pages kswapd reclaims at each priority

[Simon Jeons <simon.jeons@gmail.com>]

Hi Mel,
On 03/17/2013 09:04 PM, Mel Gorman wrote:
> The number of pages kswapd can reclaim is bound by the number of pages it
> scans which is related to the size of the zone and the scanning priority. In
> many cases the priority remains low because it's reset every SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX
> reclaimed pages but in the event kswapd scans a large number of pages it
> cannot reclaim, it will raise the priority and potentially discard a large
> percentage of the zone as sc->nr_to_reclaim is ULONG_MAX. The user-visible
> effect is a reclaim "spike" where a large percentage of memory is suddenly
> freed. It would be bad enough if this was just unused memory but because

Since there is nr_reclaimed >= nr_to_reclaim check if priority is large 
than DEF_PRIORITY in shrink_lruvec, how can a large percentage of memory 
is suddenly freed happen?

> of how anon/file pages are balanced it is possible that applications get
> pushed to swap unnecessarily.
>
> This patch limits the number of pages kswapd will reclaim to the high
> watermark. Reclaim will will overshoot due to it not being a hard limit as
> shrink_lruvec() will ignore the sc.nr_to_reclaim at DEF_PRIORITY but it
> prevents kswapd reclaiming the world at higher priorities. The number of
> pages it reclaims is not adjusted for high-order allocations as kswapd will
> reclaim excessively if it is to balance zones for high-order allocations.
>
> Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>
> ---
>   mm/vmscan.c | 53 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------
>   1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> index 88c5fed..4835a7a 100644
> --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> @@ -2593,6 +2593,32 @@ static bool prepare_kswapd_sleep(pg_data_t *pgdat, int order, long remaining,
>   }
>   
>   /*
> + * kswapd shrinks the zone by the number of pages required to reach
> + * the high watermark.
> + */
> +static void kswapd_shrink_zone(struct zone *zone,
> +			       struct scan_control *sc,
> +			       unsigned long lru_pages)
> +{
> +	unsigned long nr_slab;
> +	struct reclaim_state *reclaim_state = current->reclaim_state;
> +	struct shrink_control shrink = {
> +		.gfp_mask = sc->gfp_mask,
> +	};
> +
> +	/* Reclaim above the high watermark. */
> +	sc->nr_to_reclaim = max(SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX, high_wmark_pages(zone));
> +	shrink_zone(zone, sc);
> +
> +	reclaim_state->reclaimed_slab = 0;
> +	nr_slab = shrink_slab(&shrink, sc->nr_scanned, lru_pages);
> +	sc->nr_reclaimed += reclaim_state->reclaimed_slab;
> +
> +	if (nr_slab == 0 && !zone_reclaimable(zone))
> +		zone->all_unreclaimable = 1;
> +}
> +
> +/*
>    * For kswapd, balance_pgdat() will work across all this node's zones until
>    * they are all at high_wmark_pages(zone).
>    *
> @@ -2619,27 +2645,16 @@ static unsigned long balance_pgdat(pg_data_t *pgdat, int order,
>   	bool pgdat_is_balanced = false;
>   	int i;
>   	int end_zone = 0;	/* Inclusive.  0 = ZONE_DMA */
> -	unsigned long total_scanned;
> -	struct reclaim_state *reclaim_state = current->reclaim_state;
>   	unsigned long nr_soft_reclaimed;
>   	unsigned long nr_soft_scanned;
>   	struct scan_control sc = {
>   		.gfp_mask = GFP_KERNEL,
>   		.may_unmap = 1,
>   		.may_swap = 1,
> -		/*
> -		 * kswapd doesn't want to be bailed out while reclaim. because
> -		 * we want to put equal scanning pressure on each zone.
> -		 */
> -		.nr_to_reclaim = ULONG_MAX,
>   		.order = order,
>   		.target_mem_cgroup = NULL,
>   	};
> -	struct shrink_control shrink = {
> -		.gfp_mask = sc.gfp_mask,
> -	};
>   loop_again:
> -	total_scanned = 0;
>   	sc.priority = DEF_PRIORITY;
>   	sc.nr_reclaimed = 0;
>   	sc.may_writepage = !laptop_mode;
> @@ -2710,7 +2725,7 @@ loop_again:
>   		 */
>   		for (i = 0; i <= end_zone; i++) {
>   			struct zone *zone = pgdat->node_zones + i;
> -			int nr_slab, testorder;
> +			int testorder;
>   			unsigned long balance_gap;
>   
>   			if (!populated_zone(zone))
> @@ -2730,7 +2745,6 @@ loop_again:
>   							order, sc.gfp_mask,
>   							&nr_soft_scanned);
>   			sc.nr_reclaimed += nr_soft_reclaimed;
> -			total_scanned += nr_soft_scanned;
>   
>   			/*
>   			 * We put equal pressure on every zone, unless
> @@ -2759,17 +2773,8 @@ loop_again:
>   
>   			if ((buffer_heads_over_limit && is_highmem_idx(i)) ||
>   			    !zone_balanced(zone, testorder,
> -					   balance_gap, end_zone)) {
> -				shrink_zone(zone, &sc);
> -
> -				reclaim_state->reclaimed_slab = 0;
> -				nr_slab = shrink_slab(&shrink, sc.nr_scanned, lru_pages);
> -				sc.nr_reclaimed += reclaim_state->reclaimed_slab;
> -				total_scanned += sc.nr_scanned;
> -
> -				if (nr_slab == 0 && !zone_reclaimable(zone))
> -					zone->all_unreclaimable = 1;
> -			}
> +					   balance_gap, end_zone))
> +				kswapd_shrink_zone(zone, &sc, lru_pages);
>   
>   			/*
>   			 * If we're getting trouble reclaiming, start doing

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