Re: VM/VFS bug with large amount of memory and file systems?

[Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com>]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:11:14 -0400
> Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com> wrote:

>> IIRC I simply kept a list of all buffer heads and walked
>> that to reclaim pages when the number of buffer heads is
>> too high (and we need memory).  This list can be maintained
>> in places where we already hold the lock for the buffer head
>> freelist, so there should be no additional locking overhead
>> (again, IIRC).
> 
> Christoph's slab defragmentation code should permit us to fix this:
> grab a page of buffer_heads off the slab lists, trylock the page,
> strip the buffer_heads.  I think that would be a better approach
> if we can get it going because it's more general.

Is the slab defragmentation code in -mm or upstream already
or can I find it on the mailing list?

I've implemented code like you describe already, just give me
a few days to become familiar with the slab defragmentation
code and I'll get you a patch.

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