Re: [PATCH v2 4/9] mm: vmalloc: Remove global vmap_area_root rb-tree

Baoquan He
2023-09-07T17:05:29Z

On 09/07/23 at 10:17am, Baoquan He wrote:
> Add Kazu and Lianbo to CC, and kexec mailing list
>
> On 08/29/23 at 10:11am, Uladzislau Rezki (Sony) wrote:
> > Store allocated objects in a separate nodes. A va->va_start
> > address is converted into a correct node where it should
> > be placed and resided. An addr_to_node() function is used
> > to do a proper address conversion to determine a node that
> > contains a VA.
> >
> > Such approach balances VAs across nodes as a result an access
> > becomes scalable. Number of nodes in a system depends on number
> > of CPUs divided by two. The density factor in this case is 1/2.
> >
> > Please note:
> >
> > 1. As of now allocated VAs are bound to a node-0. It means the
> > patch does not give any difference comparing with a current
> > behavior;
> >
> > 2. The global vmap_area_lock, vmap_area_root are removed as there
> > is no need in it anymore. The vmap_area_list is still kept and
> > is _empty_. It is exported for a kexec only;
>
> I haven't taken a test, while accessing all nodes' busy tree to get
> va of the lowest address could severely impact kcore reading efficiency
> on system with many vmap nodes. People doing live debugging via
> /proc/kcore will get a little surprise.
>
> Empty vmap_area_list will break makedumpfile utility, Crash utility
> could be impactd too. I checked makedumpfile code, it relys on
> vmap_area_list to deduce the vmalloc_start value.

Except of the empty vmap_area_list, this patch looks good to me.

We may need think of another way to export the vmalloc_start value or
deduce it in makedumpfile/Crash utility. And then remove the useless
vmap_area_list. I am not sure if we should remove vmap_area_list in this
patch because the empty value will cause breakage anyway. Otherwise,

Reviewed-by: Baoquan He <bhe@redhat.com>

>
> >
> > 3. The vmallocinfo and vread() have to be reworked to be able to
> > handle multiple nodes.
>