nr_local_pages and local_pages

nr_local_pages and local_pages

[Ortiz Samuel]

Hi Andrea !                                           
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
I spent some time reading the balance_classzone code,
but there are still                                   
                                                      
                                                      
 some stuff I can't get. The main ones are the meaning
and use of the                                        
                                                      
                                                      
 following fields in the task structure :             
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      

- nr_local_pages                                      
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
- local_pages

What are they for ? What do they mean ?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Regards,
Samuel.               

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Re: nr_local_pages and local_pages

[Andrea Arcangeli]

On Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 12:45:27AM +0200, Ortiz Samuel wrote:
> Hi Andrea !                                           
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
> I spent some time reading the balance_classzone code,
> but there are still                                   
>                                                       
>                                                       
>  some stuff I can't get. The main ones are the meaning
> and use of the                                        
>                                                       
>                                                       
>  following fields in the task structure :             
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
> 
> - nr_local_pages                                      
>                                                       
>                                                       
>                                                       
> - local_pages
> 
> What are they for ? What do they mean ?

we're balancing memory synchronously because we need to recycle some
memory for ourself in order to succeed the allocation. Now if we succeed
in freeing some page we keep this page for ourself while we free the
next pages. So we work for ourself and not for somebody else. With the
"goto rebalance" this isn't required anymore to avoid failing
allocations, but still it should be good to provide better fariness, to
avoid somebody stuck freeing memory hard, and all other tasks eating the
free ram that such innocent task is producing in a starved loop.

Andrea