linux-fsdevel.vger.kernel.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Ye Bin <yebin@huaweicloud.com>
To: viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk, brauner@kernel.org, jack@suse.cz,
	linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, yebin10@huawei.com
Subject: [PATCH v2 3/3] Documentation: add instructions for using 'drop_fs_caches sysctl' sysctl
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2025 19:27:35 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251117112735.4170831-4-yebin@huaweicloud.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20251117112735.4170831-1-yebin@huaweicloud.com>

From: Ye Bin <yebin10@huawei.com>

Add instructions for 'drop_fs_caches sysctl' sysctl in 'vm.rst'.

Signed-off-by: Ye Bin <yebin10@huawei.com>
---
 Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst
index ace73480eb9d..c6c29c8cf92e 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/vm:
 - dirtytime_expire_seconds
 - dirty_writeback_centisecs
 - drop_caches
+- drop_fs_caches
 - enable_soft_offline
 - extfrag_threshold
 - highmem_is_dirtyable
@@ -284,6 +285,39 @@ used::
 These are informational only.  They do not mean that anything is wrong
 with your system.  To disable them, echo 4 (bit 2) into drop_caches.
 
+drop_fs_caches
+==============
+
+Writing to this will cause the kernel to drop clean for a specific file system
+caches, as well as reclaimable slab objects like dentries and inodes. Once
+dropped, their memory becomes free. Except for specifying the device number
+or file path for a specific file system, everything else is consistent with
+drop_caches. The device number can be viewed through "cat /proc/self/montinfo"
+or 'lsblk'.
+
+To free pagecache::
+
+	echo "1 MAJOR:MINOR" > /proc/sys/vm/drop_fs_caches
+Or
+	echo "1 /mnt/XX" > /proc/sys/vm/drop_fs_caches
+
+To free reclaimable slab objects (includes dentries and inodes)::
+
+	echo "2 MAJOR:MINOR" > /proc/sys/vm/drop_fs_caches
+Or
+	echo "2 /mnt/XX" > /proc/sys/vm/drop_fs_caches
+
+To free slab objects and pagecache::
+
+	echo "3 MAJOR:MINOR" > /proc/sys/vm/drop_fs_caches
+Or
+	echo "3 /mnt/XX" > /proc/sys/vm/drop_fs_caches
+
+You may see informational messages in your kernel log when this file is
+used::
+
+	echo (1234): drop_fs_caches: 3 MAJOR:MINOR
+
 enable_soft_offline
 ===================
 Correctable memory errors are very common on servers. Soft-offline is kernel's
-- 
2.34.1


      parent reply	other threads:[~2025-11-17 11:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-11-17 11:27 [PATCH v2 0/3] add support for drop_caches for individual filesystem Ye Bin
2025-11-17 11:27 ` [PATCH v2 1/3] vfs: introduce reclaim_icache_sb() and reclaim_dcache_sb() helper Ye Bin
2025-11-17 11:27 ` [PATCH v2 2/3] sysctl: add support for drop_caches for individual filesystem Ye Bin
2025-11-17 13:57   ` kernel test robot
2025-11-17 14:07   ` kernel test robot
2025-11-17 11:27 ` Ye Bin [this message]

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20251117112735.4170831-4-yebin@huaweicloud.com \
    --to=yebin@huaweicloud.com \
    --cc=brauner@kernel.org \
    --cc=jack@suse.cz \
    --cc=linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk \
    --cc=yebin10@huawei.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).