Re: [PATCH] Remove OOM killer from try_to_free_pages / all_unreclaimable braindamage

Marcelo Tosatti
2004-11-09T10:37:27Z

On Mon, Nov 08, 2004 at 06:35:52PM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> Nick Piggin <piggin@cyberone.com.au> wrote:
> >
> > I'm not sure... it could also be just be a fluke
> > due to chaotic effects in the mm, I suppose :|
>
> 2.6 scans less than 2.4 before declaring oom. I looked at the 2.4
> implementation and thought "whoa, that's crazy - let's reduce it and see
> who complains". My three-year-old memory tells me it was reduced by 2x to
> 3x.
>
> We need to find testcases (dammit) and do the analysis. It could be that
> we're simply not scanning far enough.

Andrew,

When reading the code I was really suspicious of the all_unreclaimable code.
It basically stops scanning when reaching OOM conditions - that might be it.

I tried to disable it (ignore it if priority==0) - result: very slow progress
on extreme load.