From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755137AbZFGAIS (ORCPT ); Sat, 6 Jun 2009 20:08:18 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753671AbZFGAII (ORCPT ); Sat, 6 Jun 2009 20:08:08 -0400 Received: from ozlabs.org ([203.10.76.45]:57356 "EHLO ozlabs.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753538AbZFGAII (ORCPT ); Sat, 6 Jun 2009 20:08:08 -0400 From: Rusty Russell To: "Jan Beulich" Subject: Re: num_physpages vs. totalram_pages Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 09:38:02 +0930 User-Agent: KMail/1.11.2 (Linux/2.6.28-11-generic; KDE/4.2.2; i686; ; ) Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <4A2938B302000078000049D7@vpn.id2.novell.com> In-Reply-To: <4A2938B302000078000049D7@vpn.id2.novell.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200906070938.03131.rusty@rustcorp.com.au> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 5 Jun 2009 10:54:35 pm Jan Beulich wrote: > Rusty, > > in a mail from beginning of last year you indicated that the confusion > between these two variables should be cleaned up. Since I wasn't able to > spot any follow-up regarding this matter, I'm wondering what the plan here > is. I'm asking because we have got customers reporting inconsistencies > mainly caused by the use of num_physpages where totalram_pages would really > be more appropriate (other than in your mail, where you mainly point at the > networking code, this is with the determination of the number of files the > system will use without admin involvement), due to large sparse areas in > the physical address map. > > Unfortunately, the meaning of num_physpages seems to also vary between > architectures (some treat it as being the same as totalram_pages) as well > as subsystems (memory hotplug increments/decrements num_physpages along > with totalram_pages). Unfortunately, I have not even thought about it between then and now. I look forward to your proposal! Rusty.