Re: [patch v2 1/5] mm: add nofail variants of kmalloc kcalloc and kzalloc

Jiri Slaby
2010-09-02T07:59:13Z

On 09/02/2010 03:02 AM, David Rientjes wrote:
> --- a/include/linux/slab.h
> +++ b/include/linux/slab.h
> @@ -334,6 +334,57 @@ static inline void *kzalloc_node(size_t size, gfp_t flags, int node)
> return kmalloc_node(size, flags | __GFP_ZERO, node);
> }
>
> +/**
> + * kmalloc_nofail - infinitely loop until kmalloc() succeeds.
> + * @size: how many bytes of memory are required.
> + * @flags: the type of memory to allocate (see kmalloc).
> + *
> + * NOTE: no new callers of this function should be implemented!
> + * All memory allocations should be failable whenever possible.
> + */
> +static inline void *kmalloc_nofail(size_t size, gfp_t flags)
> +{
> + void *ret;
> +
> + for (;;) {
> + ret = kmalloc(size, flags);
> + if (ret)
> + return ret;
> + WARN_ON_ONCE(get_order(size) > PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER);

This doesn't work as you expect. kmalloc will warn every time it fails.
__GFP_NOFAIL used to disable the warning. Actually what's wrong with
__GFP_NOFAIL? I cannot find a reason in the changelogs why the patches
are needed.

> + }

--
js