Re: [PATCH 0/2] new API to allocate buffer-cache for superblock in non-movable area

Peter Zijlstra
2014-07-22T07:30:16Z

On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 02:18:47PM +0900, Gioh Kim wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This patch try to solve problem that a long-lasting page cache of
> ext4 superblock disturbs page migration.
>
> I've been testing CMA feature on my ARM-based platform
> and found some pages for page caches cannot be migrated.
> Some of them are page caches of superblock of ext4 filesystem.
>
> Current ext4 reads superblock with sb_bread(). sb_bread() allocates page
> from movable area. But the problem is that ext4 hold the page until
> it is unmounted. If root filesystem is ext4 the page cannot be migrated forever.
>
> I introduce a new API for allocating page from non-movable area.
> It is useful for ext4 and others that want to hold page cache for a long time.

There's no word on why you can't teach ext4 to still migrate that page.
For all I know it might be impossible, but at least mention why.