Re: [PATCH 0/1] Add swappiness argument to memory.reclaim

Dan Schatzberg
2023-11-30T19:47:51Z

On Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 11:56:42AM -0500, Johannes Weiner wrote:
> [...]
> So I wouldn't say it's merely a reclaim hint. It controls a very
> concrete and influential factor in VM decision making. And since the
> global swappiness is long-established ABI, I don't expect its meaning
> to change significantly any time soon.

I want to add to this last point. While swappiness does not have
terribly well-defined semantics - it is the (only?) existing mechanism
to control balance between anon and file reclaim. I'm merely
advocating for the ability to adjust swappiness during proactive
reclaim separately from reactive reclaim. To what degree the behavior
and semantics of swappiness change is a bit orthogonal here.