Re: swapping and the value of /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Florin Andrei
2004-09-15T16:55:19Z

On Tue, 2004-09-14 at 13:15, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 14, 2004 at 11:31:53AM -0700, Florin Andrei wrote:

> > I've found a situation where the vanilla kernel has a behaviour that
> > makes no sense:
> >
> > http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=109237941331221&w=2
> > http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=109237959719868&w=2
> > http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=109238126314192&w=2
> >
> > A patch by Con Kolivas fixed it:
> >
> > http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=109410526607990&w=2
> >
> > I cannot offer more details, i have no time for experiments, i just need
> > a system that works. The vanilla kernel does not.
>
> Have you tried to decrease the value of /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
> to say 30 and see what you get?

I cannot repeat the experiment (due to lack of time) but i remember
having severe issues with low /proc/*/swappiness values on vanilla
kernels. I don't recall the nature of the problems, though, because it's
been a while. Sorry. But that was what prompted me to search further.
The search ended when i found and tested Con's patch.

The current swapping policy of the vanilla 2.6 kernels is broken. Badly.

At least my system works properly now. <shrug>

--
Florin Andrei