[RFC 3/4] mm, compaction: restrict async compaction to matching migratetype

Vlastimil Babka
2016-09-29T21:06:48Z

The migrate scanner in async compaction is currently limited to MIGRATE_MOVABLE
pageblocks. This is a heuristic intended to reduce latency, based on the
assumption that non-MOVABLE pageblocks are unlikely to contain movable pages.

However, with the exception of THP's, most high-order allocations are not
movable. Should the async compaction succeed, this increases the chance that
the non-MOVABLE allocations will fallback to a MOVABLE pageblock, making the
long-term fragmentation worse.

This patch attempts to help the situation by changing async direct compaction
so that the migrate scanner only scans the pageblocks of the requested
migratetype. If it's a non-MOVABLE type and there are such pageblocks that do
contain movable pages, chances are that the allocation can succeed within one
of such pageblocks, removing the need for a fallback. If that fails, the
subsequent sync attempt will ignore this restriction.

Not-yet-signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
---
mm/compaction.c | 11 +++++++++--
mm/page_alloc.c | 20 +++++++++++++-------
2 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/compaction.c b/mm/compaction.c
index 823538353b80..eb4ccd403543 100644
--- a/mm/compaction.c
+++ b/mm/compaction.c
@@ -994,10 +994,17 @@ isolate_migratepages_range(struct compact_control *cc, unsigned long start_pfn,
static bool suitable_migration_source(struct compact_control *cc,
struct page *page)
{
- if (cc->mode != MIGRATE_ASYNC)
+ int block_mt;
+
+ if ((cc->mode != MIGRATE_ASYNC) || !cc->direct_compaction)
return true;

- return is_migrate_movable(get_pageblock_migratetype(page));
+ block_mt = get_pageblock_migratetype(page);
+
+ if (cc->migratetype == MIGRATE_MOVABLE)
+ return is_migrate_movable(block_mt);
+ else
+ return block_mt == cc->migratetype;
}

/* Returns true if the page is within a block suitable for migration to */
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index fab8b6913179..0c00beec9336 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -3492,6 +3492,7 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
struct alloc_context *ac)
{
bool can_direct_reclaim = gfp_mask & __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM;
+ const bool costly_order = order > PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER;
struct page *page = NULL;
unsigned int alloc_flags;
unsigned long did_some_progress;
@@ -3539,12 +3540,17 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,

/*
* For costly allocations, try direct compaction first, as it's likely
- * that we have enough base pages and don't need to reclaim. Don't try
- * that for allocations that are allowed to ignore watermarks, as the
- * ALLOC_NO_WATERMARKS attempt didn't yet happen.
+ * that we have enough base pages and don't need to reclaim. For non-
+ * movable high-order allocations, do that as well, as compaction will
+ * try prevent permanent fragmentation by migrating from blocks of the
+ * same migratetype.
+ * Don't try this for allocations that are allowed to ignore
+ * watermarks, as the ALLOC_NO_WATERMARKS attempt didn't yet happen.
*/
- if (can_direct_reclaim && order > PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER &&
- !gfp_pfmemalloc_allowed(gfp_mask)) {
+ if (can_direct_reclaim &&
+ (costly_order ||
+ (order > 0 && ac->migratetype != MIGRATE_MOVABLE))
+ && !gfp_pfmemalloc_allowed(gfp_mask)) {
page = __alloc_pages_direct_compact(gfp_mask, order,
alloc_flags, ac,
INIT_COMPACT_PRIORITY,
@@ -3556,7 +3562,7 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
* Checks for costly allocations with __GFP_NORETRY, which
* includes THP page fault allocations
*/
- if (gfp_mask & __GFP_NORETRY) {
+ if (costly_order && (gfp_mask & __GFP_NORETRY)) {
/*
* If compaction is deferred for high-order allocations,
* it is because sync compaction recently failed. If
@@ -3651,7 +3657,7 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
* Do not retry costly high order allocations unless they are
* __GFP_REPEAT
*/
- if (order > PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER && !(gfp_mask & __GFP_REPEAT))
+ if (costly_order && !(gfp_mask & __GFP_REPEAT))
goto nopage;

if (should_reclaim_retry(gfp_mask, order, ac, alloc_flags,
--
2.10.0