From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Andi Kleen Subject: Re: [PATCH] Only process_die notifier in ia64_do_page_fault if KPROBES is configured. Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 02:24:25 +0200 References: <200508262246.j7QMkEoT013490@linux.jf.intel.com> In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200508270224.26423.ak@suse.de> Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org Return-Path: To: Christoph Lameter Cc: Rusty Lynch , linux-mm@kvack.org, prasanna@in.ibm.com, linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, anil.s.keshavamurthy@intel.com List-ID: On Saturday 27 August 2005 01:05, Christoph Lameter wrote: > On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Rusty Lynch wrote: > > Just to be sure everyone understands the overhead involved, kprobes only > > registers a single notifier. If kprobes is disabled (CONFIG_KPROBES is > > off) then the overhead on a page fault is the overhead to execute an > > empty notifier chain. > > Its the overhead of using registers to pass parameters, performing a > function call that does nothing etc. A waste of computing resources. All > of that unconditionally in a performance critical execution path that > is executed a gazillion times for an optional feature that I frankly > find not useful at all and that is disabled by default. In the old days notifier_call_chain used to be inline. Then someone looking at code size out of lined it. Perhaps it should be inlined again or notifier.h could supply a special faster inline version for time critical code. Then it would be simple if (global_var != NULL) { ... } in the fast path. In addition the call chain could be declared __read_mostly. I suspect with these changes Christoph's concerns would go away, right? -Andi -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: email@kvack.org