Re: [PATCH 4/6] PM/Hibernate: Rework shrinking of memory

["Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@sisk.pl>]

On Wednesday 13 May 2009, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:39:25 +0200
> "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@sisk.pl> wrote:
> 
> > From: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
> > 
> > Rework swsusp_shrink_memory() so that it calls shrink_all_memory()
> > just once to make some room for the image and then allocates memory
> > to apply more pressure to the memory management subsystem, if
> > necessary.
> > 
> > Unfortunately, we don't seem to be able to drop shrink_all_memory()
> > entirely just yet, because that would lead to huge performance
> > regressions in some test cases.
> > 
> 
> Isn't this a somewhat large problem?

Yes, it is.  The thing is 8 times slower (15 s vs 2 s) without the
shrink_all_memory() in at least one test case.  100% reproducible.

> The main point (I thought) was to remove shrink_all_memory().  Instead,
> we're retaining it and adding even more stuff?

The idea is that afterwards we can drop shrink_all_memory() once the
performance problem has been resolved.  Also, we now allocate memory for the
image using GFP_KERNEL instead of doing it with GFP_ATOMIC after freezing
devices.  I'd think that's an improvement?

> > +/**
> > + * compute_fraction - Compute approximate fraction x * (a/b)
> > + * @x: Number to multiply.
> > + * @numerator: Numerator of the fraction (a).
> > + * @denominator: Denominator of the fraction (b).
> >   *
> > - *	Notice: all userland should be stopped before it is called, or
> > - *	livelock is possible.
> > + * Compute an approximate value of the expression x * (a/b), where a is less
> > + * than b, all x, a, b are unsigned longs and x * a may be greater than the
> > + * maximum unsigned long.
> >   */
> > +static unsigned long compute_fraction(
> > +	unsigned long x, unsigned long numerator, unsigned long denominator)
> 
> I can't say I'm a great fan of the code layout here.
> 
> static unsigned long compute_fraction(unsigned long x, unsigned long numerator, unsigned long denominator)
> 
> or
> 
> static unsigned long compute_fraction(unsigned long x, unsigned long numerator,
> 					unsigned long denominator)
> 
> would be more typical.

OK
 
> > +{
> > +	unsigned long ratio = (numerator << FRACTION_SHIFT) / denominator;
> >  
> > -#define SHRINK_BITE	10000
> > -static inline unsigned long __shrink_memory(long tmp)
> > +	x *= ratio;
> > +	return x >> FRACTION_SHIFT;
> > +}
> 
> Strange function.  Would it not be simpler/clearer to do it with 64-bit
> scalars, multiplication and do_div()?

Sure, I can do it this way too.  Is it fine to use u64 for this purpose?

> > +static unsigned long highmem_size(
> > +	unsigned long size, unsigned long highmem, unsigned long count)
> > +{
> > +	return highmem > count / 2 ?
> > +			compute_fraction(size, highmem, count) :
> > +			size - compute_fraction(size, count - highmem, count);
> > +}
> 
> This would be considerably easier to follow if we know what the three
> arguments represent.  Amount of memory?  In what units?  `count' of
> what?
> 
> The `count/2' thing there is quite mysterious.
> 
> <does some reverse-engineering>
> 
> OK, `count' is "the number of pageframes we can use".  (I don't think I
> helped myself a lot there).  But what's up with that divde-by-two?
> 
> <considers poking at callers to work out what `size' is>
> 
> <gives up>
> 
> Is this code as clear as we can possibly make it??

Heh

OK, I'll do my best to clean it up.

> > +#else
> > +static inline unsigned long preallocate_image_highmem(unsigned long nr_pages)
> > +{
> > +	return 0;
> > +}
> > +
> > +static inline unsigned long highmem_size(
> > +	unsigned long size, unsigned long highmem, unsigned long count)
> >  {
> > -	if (tmp > SHRINK_BITE)
> > -		tmp = SHRINK_BITE;
> > -	return shrink_all_memory(tmp);
> > +	return 0;
> >  }
> > +#endif /* CONFIG_HIGHMEM */
> >  
> > +/**
> > + * swsusp_shrink_memory -  Make the kernel release as much memory as needed
> > + *
> > + * To create a hibernation image it is necessary to make a copy of every page
> > + * frame in use.  We also need a number of page frames to be free during
> > + * hibernation for allocations made while saving the image and for device
> > + * drivers, in case they need to allocate memory from their hibernation
> > + * callbacks (these two numbers are given by PAGES_FOR_IO and SPARE_PAGES,
> > + * respectively, both of which are rough estimates).  To make this happen, we
> > + * compute the total number of available page frames and allocate at least
> > + *
> > + * ([page frames total] + PAGES_FOR_IO + [metadata pages]) / 2 + 2 * SPARE_PAGES
> > + *
> > + * of them, which corresponds to the maximum size of a hibernation image.
> > + *
> > + * If image_size is set below the number following from the above formula,
> > + * the preallocation of memory is continued until the total number of saveable
> > + * pages in the system is below the requested image size or it is impossible to
> > + * allocate more memory, whichever happens first.
> > + */
> 
> OK, that helps.

Great!

Thanks for the comments. :-)

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