Re: [PATCH 3/8] mm/mglru: restructure the reclaim loop

Kairui Song
2026-03-22T16:12:30Z

On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 4:10 AM Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com> wrote:
>
> This looks like a reasonable refactor to me. To me the new code is
> more straightforward to reason about, and I don't see anything this
> breaks (either by inspection of with basic functional testing).
>
> Reviewed-by: Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com>
>
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2026 at 12:11 PM Kairui Song via B4 Relay
> <devnull+kasong.tencent.com@kernel.org> wrote:
> >
> > From: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>
> >
> > The current loop will calculate the scan number on each iteration. The
> > number of folios to scan is based on the LRU length, with some unclear
> > behaviors, eg, it only shifts the scan number by reclaim priority at the
> > default priority, and it couples the number calculation with aging and
> > rotation.
> >
> > Adjust, simplify it, and decouple aging and rotation. Just calculate the
> > scan number for once at the beginning of the reclaim, always respect the
> > reclaim priority, and make the aging and rotation more explicit.
> >
> > This slightly changes how offline memcg aging works: previously, offline
> > memcg wouldn't be aged unless it didn't have any evictable folios. Now,
> > we might age it if it has only 3 generations and the reclaim priority is
> > less than DEF_PRIORITY, which should be fine. On one hand, offline memcg
> > might still hold long-term folios, and in fact, a long-existing offline
> > memcg must be pinned by some long-term folios like shmem. These folios
> > might be used by other memcg, so aging them as ordinary memcg doesn't
> > seem wrong. And besides, aging enables further reclaim of an offlined
> > memcg, which will certainly happen if we keep shrinking it. And offline
> > memcg might soon be no longer an issue once reparenting is all ready.
> >
> > Overall, the memcg LRU rotation, as described in mmzone.h,
> > remains the same.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>
> > ---
> > mm/vmscan.c | 74 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------
> > 1 file changed, 36 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> > index d48074f9bd87..ed5b5f8dd3c7 100644
> > --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> > +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> > @@ -4926,49 +4926,35 @@ static int evict_folios(unsigned long nr_to_scan, struct lruvec *lruvec,
> > }
> >
> > static bool should_run_aging(struct lruvec *lruvec, unsigned long max_seq,
> > - int swappiness, unsigned long *nr_to_scan)
> > + struct scan_control *sc, int swappiness)
> > {
> > DEFINE_MIN_SEQ(lruvec);
> >
> > - *nr_to_scan = 0;
> > /* have to run aging, since eviction is not possible anymore */
> > if (evictable_min_seq(min_seq, swappiness) + MIN_NR_GENS > max_seq)
> > return true;
> >
> > - *nr_to_scan = lruvec_evictable_size(lruvec, swappiness);
> > + /* try to get away with not aging at the default priority */
> > + if (sc->priority == DEF_PRIORITY)
> > + return false;
> > +
> > /* better to run aging even though eviction is still possible */
> > return evictable_min_seq(min_seq, swappiness) + MIN_NR_GENS == max_seq;
> > }
> >
> > -/*
> > - * For future optimizations:
> > - * 1. Defer try_to_inc_max_seq() to workqueues to reduce latency for memcg
> > - * reclaim.
> > - */
> > -static long get_nr_to_scan(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc, int swappiness)
> > +static long get_nr_to_scan(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc,
> > + struct mem_cgroup *memcg, int swappiness)
> > {
> > - bool need_aging;
> > unsigned long nr_to_scan;
> > - struct mem_cgroup *memcg = lruvec_memcg(lruvec);
> > - DEFINE_MAX_SEQ(lruvec);
> > -
> > - if (mem_cgroup_below_min(sc->target_mem_cgroup, memcg))
> > - return -1;
> > -
> > - need_aging = should_run_aging(lruvec, max_seq, swappiness, &nr_to_scan);
> >
> > + nr_to_scan = lruvec_evictable_size(lruvec, swappiness);
> > /* try to scrape all its memory if this memcg was deleted */
> > - if (nr_to_scan && !mem_cgroup_online(memcg))
> > + if (!mem_cgroup_online(memcg))
> > return nr_to_scan;
> >
> > nr_to_scan = apply_proportional_protection(memcg, sc, nr_to_scan);
> > -
> > - /* try to get away with not aging at the default priority */
> > - if (!need_aging || sc->priority == DEF_PRIORITY)
> > - return nr_to_scan >> sc->priority;
> > -
> > - /* stop scanning this lruvec as it's low on cold folios */
> > - return try_to_inc_max_seq(lruvec, max_seq, swappiness, false) ? -1 : 0;
> > + /* always respect scan priority */
> > + return nr_to_scan >> sc->priority;
> > }
> >
> > static bool should_abort_scan(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc)
> > @@ -4998,31 +4984,43 @@ static bool should_abort_scan(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc)
> > return true;
> > }
> >
> > +/*
> > + * For future optimizations:
> > + * 1. Defer try_to_inc_max_seq() to workqueues to reduce latency for memcg
> > + * reclaim.
> > + */
> > static bool try_to_shrink_lruvec(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc)
> > {
> > + bool need_rotate = false;
> > long nr_batch, nr_to_scan;
> > - unsigned long scanned = 0;
> > int swappiness = get_swappiness(lruvec, sc);
> > + struct mem_cgroup *memcg = lruvec_memcg(lruvec);
> >
> > - while (true) {
> > + nr_to_scan = get_nr_to_scan(lruvec, sc, memcg, swappiness);
> > + while (nr_to_scan > 0) {
> > int delta;
> > + DEFINE_MAX_SEQ(lruvec);
> >
> > - nr_to_scan = get_nr_to_scan(lruvec, sc, swappiness);
> > - if (nr_to_scan <= 0)
> > + if (mem_cgroup_below_min(sc->target_mem_cgroup, memcg)) {
> > + need_rotate = true;
> > break;
> > + }
> > +
> > + if (should_run_aging(lruvec, max_seq, sc, swappiness)) {
> > + if (try_to_inc_max_seq(lruvec, max_seq, swappiness, false))
> > + need_rotate = true;
> > + break;
> > + }
> >
> > nr_batch = min(nr_to_scan, MAX_LRU_BATCH);
> > delta = evict_folios(nr_batch, lruvec, sc, swappiness);
> > if (!delta)
> > break;
> >
> > - scanned += delta;
> > - if (scanned >= nr_to_scan)
> > - break;
> > -
> > if (should_abort_scan(lruvec, sc))
> > break;
> >
> > + nr_to_scan -= delta;
> > cond_resched();
> > }
> >
> > @@ -5034,12 +5032,12 @@ static bool try_to_shrink_lruvec(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc)
> > wakeup_flusher_threads(WB_REASON_VMSCAN);
> >
> > /* whether this lruvec should be rotated */
>
> It's a nitpick, but with the variable rename, this comment isn't doing
> is much good now. :)

Thanks for suggesting, this can be simplified.