linux-mm.kvack.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.cz>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org, Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@intel.com>,
	David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC] restore user defined min_free_kbytes when disabling thp
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:40:53 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20140122094053.GT4963@suse.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20140122060506.GA2657@localhost.localdomain>

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 02:05:06PM +0800, Han Pingtian wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 10:23:51AM +0000, Mel Gorman wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 05:38:59PM +0800, Han Pingtian wrote:
> > > The testcase 'thp04' of LTP will enable THP, do some testing, then
> > > disable it if it wasn't enabled. But this will leave a different value
> > > of min_free_kbytes if it has been set by admin. So I think it's better
> > > to restore the user defined value after disabling THP.
> > > 
> > 
> > Then have LTP record what min_free_kbytes was at the same time THP was
> > enabled by the test and restore both settings. It leaves a window where
> > an admin can set an alternative value during the test but that would also
> > invalidate the test in same cases and gets filed under "don't do that".
> > 
> 
> Because the value is changed in kernel, so it would be better to 
> restore it in kernel, right? :)  I have a v2 patch which will restore
> the value only if it isn't set again by user after THP's initialization.
> This v2 patch is dependent on the patch 'mm: show message when updating
> min_free_kbytes in thp' which has been added to -mm tree, can be found
> here:
> 

It still feels like the type of scenario that only shows up during tests
that modify kernel parameters as part of the test. I do not consider it
normal operation for THP to be enabled and disabled multiple types during
the lifetime of the system. If the system started with THP disabled, ran
for a long period of time then the benefit of having min_free_kbytes at
a higher value is already lost due to the system being potentially in a
fragmented state already.

I'm ok with the warning being displayed if min_free_kbytes is updated
but I'm not convinced that further trickery is necessary.

-- 
Mel Gorman
SUSE Labs

--
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: <a href=mailto:"dont@kvack.org"> email@kvack.org </a>

      reply	other threads:[~2014-01-22  9:40 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-01-21  9:38 Han Pingtian
2014-01-21 10:23 ` Mel Gorman
2014-01-22  6:05   ` Han Pingtian
2014-01-22  9:40     ` Mel Gorman [this message]

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=20140122094053.GT4963@suse.de \
    --to=mgorman@suse.de \
    --cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
    --cc=dave.hansen@intel.com \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-mm@kvack.org \
    --cc=mhocko@suse.cz \
    --cc=rientjes@google.com \
    /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