From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:10:06 -0800 (PST) From: Christoph Lameter Subject: Re: [patch 2/5] slub: Fallback to kmalloc_large for failing higher order allocs In-Reply-To: <20080214140614.GE17641@csn.ul.ie> Message-ID: References: <20080214040245.915842795@sgi.com> <20080214040313.616551392@sgi.com> <20080214140614.GE17641@csn.ul.ie> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org Return-Path: To: Mel Gorman Cc: Pekka Enberg , Nick Piggin , Andrew Morton , linux-mm@kvack.org List-ID: On Thu, 14 Feb 2008, Mel Gorman wrote: > comments with a grain of salt. But, if a kmalloc slab allocation fails and > it ultimately uses the page allocator, I do not see how calling the page > allocator directly makes a difference. The kmalloc slab allocation will use order 3. The allocation for an individual object via the page allocator only uses order 0. The order 0 alloc will succeed even if memory is extremely fragmented. Its a safety valve that Nick probably finds important. -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: email@kvack.org