Re: [PATCH 5/7] mm/page_alloc.c: Allow __GFP_NOFAIL requests deeper access to reserves

Mel Gorman
2023-01-12T09:48:08Z

On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 04:46:13PM +0100, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Mon 09-01-23 15:16:29, Mel Gorman wrote:
> > Currently __GFP_NOFAIL allocations without any other flags can access 25%
> > of the reserves but these requests imply that the system cannot make forward
> > progress until the allocation succeeds. Allow __GFP_NOFAIL access to 75%
> > of the min reserve.
>
> I am not sure this is really needed. IIRC the original motivation for
> allowing NOFAIL request to access access to memory reserves was
> GFP_NOFS|__GFP_NOFAIL requests which do not invoke the OOM killer.
> The amount of memory reserves granted was not really important. The
> point was to allow to move forward. Giving more of the reserves is a
> double edge sword. It can help in some cases but it can also prevent
> other high priority users from fwd progress.
>
> I would much rahter see such a change with an example where it really
> made a difference.
>

Fair point but based on your review for "mm/page_alloc: Give GFP_ATOMIC
and non-blocking allocations access to reserves" and only allowing
non-blocking allocations to access reserves if __GFP_HIGH is also
specified, this patch becomes a no-op and can be dropped.

If GFP_NOFAIL requests really require deeper access to reserves, it'll
have to be explicitly handled in __zone_watermark_ok and __GFP_NOFAIL
would be added to the ALLOC_RESERVES collection of flags.

--
Mel Gorman
SUSE Labs