Re: [PATCH 2/2] mm/compaction: speed up pageblock_pfn_to_page() when zone is contiguous

[Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@lge.com>]

On Mon, Jan 04, 2016 at 01:38:02PM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> On 12/23/2015 07:57 AM, Joonsoo Kim wrote:
> >>>What are the cases where pageblock_pfn_to_page() is used for a subset of
> >>>the pageblock and the result would be problematic for compaction?  I.e.,
> >>>do we actually care to use pageblocks that are not contiguous at all?
> >>
> >>The problematic pageblocks are those that have pages from more than one zone in
> >>them, so we just skip them. Supposedly that can only happen by switching once
> >>between two zones somewhere in the middle of the pageblock, so it's sufficient
> >>to check first and last pfn and compare their zones. So using
> >>pageblock_pfn_to_page() on a subset from compaction would be wrong. Holes (==no
> >>pages) within pageblock is a different thing checked by pfn_valid_within()
> >>(#defined out on archs where such holes cannot happen) when scanning the block.
> >>
> >>That's why I'm not entirely happy with how the patch conflates both the
> >>first/last pfn's zone checks and pfn_valid_within() checks. Yes, a fully
> >>contiguous zone does *imply* that pageblock_pfn_to_page() doesn't have to check
> >>first/last pfn for a matching zone. But it's not *equality*. And any (now just
> >>*potential*) user of pageblock_pfn_to_page() with pfn's different than
> >>first/last pfn of a pageblock is likely wrong.
> >
> >Now, I understand your concern. What makes me mislead is that
> >3 of 4 callers to pageblock_pfn_to_page() in compaction.c could call it with
> >non-pageblock boundary pfn.
> 
> Oh, I thought you were talking about potential new callers, now that
> the function was exported. So let's see about the existing callers:
> 
> isolate_migratepages() - first pfn can be non-boundary when
> restarting from a middle of pageblock, that's true. But it means the
> pageblock has already passed the check in previous call where it was
> boundary, so it's safe. Worst can happen that the restarting pfn
> will be in a intra-pageblock hole so pageblock will be falsely
> skipped over.

Yes, you are right.

> 
> isolate_freepages() - always boundary AFAICS?
> 
> isolate_migratepages_range() and isolate_freepages_range() - yeah
> the CMA parts say it doesn't have to be aligned, I don't know about
> actual users

CMA can call them with non-pageblock aligned pfn but checking
pageblock_pfn_to_page() with pageblock aligned pfn will be safe because
there is a constraint for CMA region that it is aligned with pageblock
and it should be in a single zone. Even, it has checked pfn_valid()
for all pfn during initialization step.

> >Maybe, they should be fixed first.
> 
> It would be probably best, even for isolate_migratepages() for
> consistency and less-surprisibility.

Yes. Without this fix, if only pageblock aligned pfn is checked for
cached hole information, optimized pageblock_pfn_to_page() would
cause error when meeting intra-pageblock hole in isolate_migratepages().

> >Then, yes. I can
> >separate first/last pfn's zone checks and pfn_valid_within() checks.
> >If then, would you be entirely happy? :)
> 
> Maybe, if the patch also made me a coffee :P

I hope so. :)

Thanks.

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