Re: [RFC 08/11] mm: make ttu's return boolean

John Hubbard
2017-03-08T07:20:08Z

On 03/01/2017 10:39 PM, Minchan Kim wrote:
> try_to_unmap returns SWAP_SUCCESS or SWAP_FAIL so it's suitable for
> boolean return. This patch changes it.

Hi Minchan,

So, up until this patch, I definitely like the cleanup, because as you observed, the
return values didn't need so many different values. However, at this point, I think
you should stop, and keep the SWAP_SUCCESS and SWAP_FAIL (or maybe even rename them
to UNMAP_* or TTU_RESULT_*, to match their functions' names better), because
removing them makes the code considerably less readable.

And since this is billed as a cleanup, we care here, even though this is a minor
point. :)

Bool return values are sometimes perfect, such as when asking a question:

bool mode_changed = needs_modeset(crtc_state);

The above is very nice. However, for returning success or failure, bools are not as
nice, because *usually* success == true, except when you use the errno-based system,
in which success == 0 (which would translate to false, if you mistakenly treated it
as a bool). That leads to the reader having to remember which system is in use,
usually with no visual cues to help.

>
[...]
> if (PageSwapCache(p)) {
> @@ -971,7 +971,7 @@ static int hwpoison_user_mappings(struct page *p, unsigned long pfn,
> collect_procs(hpage, &tokill, flags & MF_ACTION_REQUIRED);
>
> ret = try_to_unmap(hpage, ttu);
> - if (ret != SWAP_SUCCESS)
> + if (!ret)
> pr_err("Memory failure: %#lx: failed to unmap page (mapcount=%d)\n",
> pfn, page_mapcount(hpage));
>
> @@ -986,8 +986,7 @@ static int hwpoison_user_mappings(struct page *p, unsigned long pfn,
> * any accesses to the poisoned memory.
> */
> forcekill = PageDirty(hpage) || (flags & MF_MUST_KILL);
> - kill_procs(&tokill, forcekill, trapno,
> - ret != SWAP_SUCCESS, p, pfn, flags);
> + kill_procs(&tokill, forcekill, trapno, !ret , p, pfn, flags);

The kill_procs() invocation was a little more readable before.

>
[...]
> diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> index 170c61f..e4b74f1 100644
> --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> @@ -966,7 +966,6 @@ static unsigned long shrink_page_list(struct list_head *page_list,
> int may_enter_fs;
> enum page_references references = PAGEREF_RECLAIM_CLEAN;
> bool dirty, writeback;
> - int ret = SWAP_SUCCESS;
>
> cond_resched();
>
> @@ -1139,13 +1138,9 @@ static unsigned long shrink_page_list(struct list_head *page_list,
> * processes. Try to unmap it here.
> */
> if (page_mapped(page)) {
> - switch (ret = try_to_unmap(page,
> - ttu_flags | TTU_BATCH_FLUSH)) {
> - case SWAP_FAIL:

Again: the SWAP_FAIL makes it crystal clear which case we're in.

I also wonder if UNMAP_FAIL or TTU_RESULT_FAIL is a better name?

thanks,
John Hubbard
NVIDIA