Re: [PATCH v2] sched/core: Don't use dying mm as active_mm of kthreads

[Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>]

On Sat 27-07-19 13:10:47, Waiman Long wrote:
> It was found that a dying mm_struct where the owning task has exited
> can stay on as active_mm of kernel threads as long as no other user
> tasks run on those CPUs that use it as active_mm. This prolongs the
> life time of dying mm holding up memory and other resources like swap
> space that cannot be freed.

IIRC use_mm doesn't pin the address space. It only pins the mm_struct
itself. So what exactly is the problem here?

> 
> Fix that by forcing the kernel threads to use init_mm as the active_mm
> if the previous active_mm is dying.
> 
> The determination of a dying mm is based on the absence of an owning
> task. The selection of the owning task only happens with the CONFIG_MEMCG
> option. Without that, there is no simple way to determine the life span
> of a given mm. So it falls back to the old behavior.

Please don't. We really wont to remove mm->owner long term.
-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs