public inbox for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Nitin Gupta <ngupta@vflare.org>
To: Hugh Dickins <hugh.dickins@tiscali.co.uk>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>, Pekka Enberg <penberg@gmail.com>,
	andi@firstfloor.org, linux-kernel <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 0/3] ramzswap: Eliminate stale data in compressed memory
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 15:52:13 +0530	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <d760cf2d1003050222m6e509ffaqa498645c52f7d98e@mail.gmail.com> (raw)

ramzswap driver creates RAM based block devices which can be
used (only) as swap disks. Pages swapped to these disks are
compressed and stored in memory itself.

However, these devices do not get any notification when a swap
slot is freed (swap_map[i] reaches 0). So, we cannot free memory
allocated corresponding to this swap slot. Such stale data can
quickly accumulate in (compressed) memory defeating the whole
purpose of such devices.

To overcome this problem, we now add a callback in 'struct swap_info_struct'
which is called as soon as a swap slot is freed.

Adding handler for this callback:
	swapon notifier --> set_swap_free_notify(swap_type, fn)

Removing handler:
	swapoff notifier --> set_swap_free_notify(swap_type, NULL)


Alternative approaches:
1) Add callback directly in 'struct block_device_operations' but
that is considered too hacky.
2) Use swap discard mechanism: It involves unncessary overhead of
allocating 'discard bio' requests and its too slow to serve ramzswap
needs.

 drivers/staging/ramzswap/ramzswap_drv.c   |   91 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 drivers/staging/ramzswap/ramzswap_drv.h   |    1 +
 drivers/staging/ramzswap/ramzswap_ioctl.h |    1 +
 include/linux/swap.h                      |   16 +++++-
 mm/swapfile.c                             |   78 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 5 files changed, 185 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

             reply	other threads:[~2010-03-05 10:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-03-05 10:22 Nitin Gupta [this message]
2010-03-09 19:07 ` [PATCH 0/3] ramzswap: Eliminate stale data in compressed memory Nitin Gupta
2010-03-11  7:22 ` Hugh Dickins
2010-03-11 11:36   ` Nitin Gupta
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2010-05-05 13:45 Nitin Gupta
2010-05-05 15:14 ` Linus Torvalds
2010-05-05 16:05   ` Nitin Gupta
2010-05-05 16:22     ` Linus Torvalds
2010-05-05 16:55       ` Nitin Gupta
2010-05-05 17:50         ` Linus Torvalds

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=d760cf2d1003050222m6e509ffaqa498645c52f7d98e@mail.gmail.com \
    --to=ngupta@vflare.org \
    --cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
    --cc=andi@firstfloor.org \
    --cc=greg@kroah.com \
    --cc=hugh.dickins@tiscali.co.uk \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=penberg@gmail.com \
    --cc=torvalds@linux-foundation.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox