Re: [PATCH 1/6] mlock: only hold mmap_sem in shared mode when faulting in pages

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:51:40 -0800
Michel Lespinasse <walken@google.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 10:11 PM, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
> > On Wednesday, December 8, 2010, Michel Lespinasse <walken@google.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Yes, patch 1/6 changes the long hold time to be in read mode instead
> >> of write mode, which is only a band-aid. But, this prepares for patch
> >> 5/6, which releases mmap_sem whenever there is contention on it or
> >> when blocking on disk reads.
> >
> > I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of that horribly kludgy
> > contention check case.
> >
> > The "move page-in to read-locked sequence" and the changes to
> > get_user_pages look fine, but the contention thing is just disgusting.
> > I'd really like to see some other approach if at all possible.
> 
> Andrew, should I amend my patches to remove the rwsem_is_contended() code ?
> This would involve:
> - remove rwsem-implement-rwsem_is_contended.patch and
>   x86-rwsem-more-precise-rwsem_is_contended-implementation.patch
> - in mlock-do-not-hold-mmap_sem-for-extended-periods-of-time.patch,
>   drop the one hunk making use of rwsem_is_contended (rest of the patch
>   would still work without it)

I think I fixed all that up.

> - optionally, follow up patch to limit batch size to a constant
>   in do_mlock_pages():
> 
> diff --git a/mm/mlock.c b/mm/mlock.c
> index 569ae6a..a505a7e 100644
> --- a/mm/mlock.c
> +++ b/mm/mlock.c
> @@ -457,15 +457,23 @@ static int do_mlock_pages(unsigned long start, size_t len)
>  			continue;
>  		if (nstart < vma->vm_start)
>  			nstart = vma->vm_start;
> +		/*
> +		 * Constrain batch size to limit mmap_sem hold time.
> +		 */
> +		if (nend > nstart + 1024 * PAGE_SIZE)
> +			nend = nstart + 1024 * PAGE_SIZE;
>  		/*
>  		 * Now fault in a range of pages. __mlock_vma_pages_range()
>  		 * double checks the vma flags, so that it won't mlock pages
>  		 * if the vma was already munlocked.
>  		 */
>  		ret = __mlock_vma_pages_range(vma, nstart, nend, &locked);
>  		if (ret < 0) {
>  			ret = __mlock_posix_error_return(ret);
>  			break;
> +		} else if (locked) {
> +			locked = 0;
> +			up_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
>  		}
>  		nend = nstart + ret * PAGE_SIZE;
>  		ret = 0;
> 
> 
> I don't really prefer using a constant, but I'm not sure how else to make
> Linus happy :)

rwsem_is_contended() didn't seem so bad to me.

Reading 1024 pages can still take a long time.  I can't immediately
think of a better approach though.

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