From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265161AbUGZKak (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Jul 2004 06:30:40 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265181AbUGZKaj (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Jul 2004 06:30:39 -0400 Received: from mail001.syd.optusnet.com.au ([211.29.132.142]:15050 "EHLO mail001.syd.optusnet.com.au") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265161AbUGZKag (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Jul 2004 06:30:36 -0400 Message-ID: <4104DD27.6050907@kolivas.org> Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 20:29:59 +1000 From: Con Kolivas User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.1 (X11/20040626) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "R. J. Wysocki" Cc: Andrew Morton , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Autotune swappiness01 References: <200407261052.50178.rjwysocki@sisk.pl> <4104CF8F.2050208@kolivas.org> <200407261234.29565.rjwysocki@sisk.pl> In-Reply-To: <200407261234.29565.rjwysocki@sisk.pl> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.84.1.0 X-Enigmail-Supports: pgp-inline, pgp-mime Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig8A0DF74D0A857C9424C283CC" Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig8A0DF74D0A857C9424C283CC Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit R. J. Wysocki wrote: > On Monday 26 of July 2004 11:31, Con Kolivas wrote: > >>R. J. Wysocki wrote: >> >>>On Monday 26 of July 2004 03:09, Con Kolivas wrote: >>> >>>>Con Kolivas writes: >>>> >>>>>Andrew Morton writes: >>>>> >>>>>>Seriously, we've seen placebo effects before... >>>>> >>>>>I am in full agreement there... It's easy to see that applications do >>>>>not swap out overnight; but i'm having difficulty trying to find a way >>>>>to demonstrate the other part. I guess timing the "linking the kernel >>>>>with full debug" on a low memory box is measurable. >>>> >>>>I should have said - finding a swappiness that ensures not swapping out >>>>applications with updatedb, then using that same swappiness value to do >>>>the linking test. >>> >>>Please excuse me, but is that viable at all? IMHO, it's just like trying >>>to tune a radio including volume with only one knob. I don't say it >>>won't work, but the probability that it will is rather small, it seems >>>... >> >>Well that's what we want. I cant remember other desktop operating >>systems setting a root only control between night and day, or between >>copying ISOs and running applications or... > > > I agree, but isn't it related to the fact that other desktop OSes usually > don't run anything like updatedb nightly? > > Perhaps we need a bit more sophisticated swap algorithm than other OSes do. > For example, couldn't we add an additional parameter to control the swapping > "behavior", apart from the swappiness? Something like adding the second knob > in my radio example? Just thinking, I think one knob is one knob too many already. However as Andrew has pointed out there are server workloads that want swappiness of 100, hence I leave the knob in place. Proof is in the pudding. Try my patch and/or post an alternative. Cheers, Con --------------enig8A0DF74D0A857C9424C283CC Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFBBN0uZUg7+tp6mRURAjS/AJ46OYm9cl9cIuOxDDhHnNFwn2G+nwCcCmz0 RwNNO42hWsotetuyUjBRBDE= =Q33d -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig8A0DF74D0A857C9424C283CC--