Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] memcg: flush stats only if updated

Shakeel Butt
2021-11-04T22:09:18Z

On Thu, Nov 4, 2021 at 2:27 PM Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 14 Oct 2021 09:31:46 -0700 Shakeel Butt <shakeelb@google.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Michal,
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 11:01 AM Michal Koutn√Ω <mkoutny@suse.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Fri, Oct 01, 2021 at 12:00:39PM -0700, Shakeel Butt <shakeelb@google.com> wrote:
> > > > In this patch we kept the stats update codepath very minimal and let the
> > > > stats reader side to flush the stats only when the updates are over a
> > > > specific threshold. For now the threshold is (nr_cpus * CHARGE_BATCH).
> > >
> > > BTW, a noob question -- are the updates always single page sized?
> > >
> > > This is motivated by apples vs oranges comparison since the
> > > nr_cpus * MEMCG_CHARGE_BATCH
> > > suggests what could the expected error be in pages (bytes). But it's mostly
> > > wrong since: a) uncertain single-page updates, b) various counter
> > > updates summed together. I wonder whether the formula can serve to
> > > provide at least some (upper) estimate.
> > >
> >
> > Thanks for your review. This forces me to think more on this because each
> > update does not necessarily be a single page sized update e.g. adding a hugepage
> > to an LRU.
> >
> > Though I think the error is time bounded by 2 seconds but in those 2 seconds
> > mathematically the error can be large.
>
> Sounds significant?

Yes it can be.

>
> > What do you think of the following
> > change? It will bound the error better within the 2 seconds window.
>
> This didn't seem to go anywhere. I'll send "memcg: flush stats only if
> updated" Linuswards, but please remember to resurrect this idea soonish
> (this month?) if you think such a change is desirable.
>

Yes, I will follow up on this soon.