From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sun, 24 Jun 2001 22:51:07 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sun, 24 Jun 2001 22:50:57 -0400 Received: from humbolt.nl.linux.org ([131.211.28.48]:21517 "EHLO humbolt.nl.linux.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sun, 24 Jun 2001 22:50:47 -0400 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII From: Daniel Phillips To: Russell Leighton , Jason McMullan Subject: Re: What are the VM motivations?? Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 04:53:46 +0200 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.2] Cc: Rik van Riel , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20010621190103.A888@jmcmullan.resilience.com> <20010624140114.A10745@jmcmullan.resilience.com> <3B3697FB.3B7F098@247media.com> In-Reply-To: <3B3697FB.3B7F098@247media.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <01062504534600.16346@starship> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Monday 25 June 2001 03:46, Russell Leighton wrote: > I read this thread as asking the question: > > If VM management is viewed as an optimization problem, > then what exactly is the function that you are optimizing and what are > the constraints? > > If you could express that well with a even a very loose model, then > the code could be reviewed to see if it was really doing what was intended > and assumptions could be tested. May I suggested an algorithm? - Write down what you think the optimization constraints are. (be specific, for example, enumerate all the flavors of page types - process code, process data, page cache file data, page cache swap cache, anonymous, shmem, etc.) - Write down what you think the current algorithms are. (again, be specific, use file names, function names, pseudocode and snippets of existing code.) - Send it to Rik. He'll tell you if it's right. - Because life is short and should not be boring, cc it to Andrea as well ;-) This way you save everybody's time and ensure you understand what's really going on. Not to mention coming up with a document worth its weight in dilithium crystals. -- Daniel