linux-mm.kvack.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
To: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Cc: david@redhat.com, lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com,
	Liam.Howlett@oracle.com,  vbabka@suse.cz,
	alexandru.elisei@arm.com, peterx@redhat.com, sj@kernel.org,
	 rppt@kernel.org, mhocko@suse.com, corbet@lwn.net,
	axboe@kernel.dk,  viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk, brauner@kernel.org,
	hch@infradead.org, jack@suse.cz,  willy@infradead.org,
	m.szyprowski@samsung.com, robin.murphy@arm.com,
	 hannes@cmpxchg.org, zhengqi.arch@bytedance.com,
	shakeel.butt@linux.dev,  axelrasmussen@google.com,
	yuanchu@google.com, weixugc@google.com,  minchan@kernel.org,
	surenb@google.com, linux-mm@kvack.org,
	 linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	 linux-block@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
	 iommu@lists.linux.dev
Subject: [PATCH 6/8] add cleancache documentation
Date: Thu,  9 Oct 2025 18:19:49 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251010011951.2136980-7-surenb@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20251010011951.2136980-1-surenb@google.com>

Document cleancache, it's APIs and sysfs interface.

Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
---
 Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst | 112 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 MAINTAINERS                     |   1 +
 2 files changed, 113 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst b/Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..deaf7de51829
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+==========
+Cleancache
+==========
+
+Motivation
+==========
+
+Cleancache is a feature to utilize unused reserved memory for extending
+page cache.
+
+Cleancache can be thought of as a folio-granularity victim cache for clean
+file-backed pages that the kernel's pageframe replacement algorithm (PFRA)
+would like to keep around, but can't since there isn't enough memory. So
+when the PFRA "evicts" a folio, it stores the data contained in the folio
+into cleancache memory which is not directly accessible or addressable by
+the kernel (transcendent memory) and is of unknown and possibly
+time-varying size.
+
+Later, when a filesystem wishes to access a folio in a file on disk, it
+first checks cleancache to see if it already contains required data; if it
+does, the folio data is copied into the kernel and a disk access is
+avoided.
+
+The memory cleancache uses is donated by other system components, which
+reserve memory not directly addressable by the kernel. By donating this
+memory to cleancache, the memory owner enables its utilization while it
+is not used. Memory donation is done using cleancache backend API and any
+donated memory can be taken back at any time by its donor without no delay
+and with guarantees success. Since cleancache uses this memory only to
+store clean file-backed data, it can be dropped at any time and therefore
+the donor's request to take back the memory can be always satisfied.
+
+Implementation Overview
+=======================
+
+Cleancache "backend" (donor that provides transcendent memory), registers
+itself with cleancache "frontend" and received a unique pool_id which it
+can use in all later API calls to identify the pool of folios it donates.
+Once registered, backend can call cleancache_backend_put_folio() or
+cleancache_backend_put_folios() to donate memory to cleancache. Note that
+cleancache currently supports only 0-order folios and will not accept
+larger-order ones. Once the backend needs that memory back, it can get it
+by calling cleancache_backend_get_folio(). Only the original backend can
+take the folio it donated from the cleancache.
+
+Kernel uses cleancache by first calling cleancache_add_fs() to register
+each file system and then using a combination of cleancache_store_folio(),
+cleancache_restore_folio(), cleancache_invalidate_{folio|inode} to store,
+restore and invalidate folio content.
+cleancache_{start|end}_inode_walk() are used to walk over folios inside
+an inode and cleancache_restore_from_inode() is used to restore folios
+during such walks.
+
+From kernel's point of view folios which are copied into cleancache have
+an indefinite lifetime which is completely unknowable by the kernel and so
+may or may not still be in cleancache at any later time. Thus, as its name
+implies, cleancache is not suitable for dirty folios. Cleancache has
+complete discretion over what folios to preserve and what folios to discard
+and when.
+
+Cleancache Performance Metrics
+==============================
+
+If CONFIG_CLEANCACHE_SYSFS is enabled, monitoring of cleancache performance
+can be done via sysfs in the `/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache` directory.
+The effectiveness of cleancache can be measured (across all filesystems)
+with provided stats.
+Global stats are published directly under `/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache` and
+include:
+
+``stored``
+	number of successful cleancache folio stores.
+
+``skipped``
+	number of folios skipped during cleancache store operation.
+
+``restored``
+	number of successful cleancache folio restore operations.
+
+``missed``
+	number of failed cleancache folio restore operations.
+
+``reclaimed``
+	number of folios reclaimed from the cleancache due to insufficient
+	memory.
+
+``recalled``
+	number of times cleancache folio content was discarded as a result
+	of the cleancache backend taking the folio back.
+
+``invalidated``
+	number of times cleancache folio content was discarded as a result
+	of invalidation.
+
+``cached``
+	number of folios currently cached in the cleancache.
+
+Per-pool stats are published under `/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache/<pool name>`
+where "pool name" is the name pool was registered under. These stats
+include:
+
+``size``
+	number of folios donated to this pool.
+
+``cached``
+	number of folios currently cached in the pool.
+
+``recalled``
+	number of times cleancache folio content was discarded as a result
+	of the cleancache backend taking the folio back from the pool.
diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index 1c97227e7ffa..441e68c94177 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -6053,6 +6053,7 @@ CLEANCACHE
 M:	Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
 L:	linux-mm@kvack.org
 S:	Maintained
+F:	Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst
 F:	include/linux/cleancache.h
 F:	mm/cleancache.c
 F:	mm/cleancache_sysfs.c
-- 
2.51.0.740.g6adb054d12-goog



  parent reply	other threads:[~2025-10-10  1:20 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2025-10-10  1:19 [PATCH 0/8] Guaranteed CMA Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 1/8] mm: implement cleancache Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:31   ` Andrew Morton
2025-10-10  1:42     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  2:39   ` Matthew Wilcox
2025-10-10 14:53     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10 21:17   ` kernel test robot
2025-10-10 21:42     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-13  6:44   ` Christoph Hellwig
2025-10-13 15:43     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 2/8] mm/cleancache: add cleancache LRU for folio aging Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 3/8] mm/cleancache: readahead support Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 4/8] mm/cleancache: add sysfs interface Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 5/8] mm/tests: add cleancache kunit test Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-11  2:57   ` kernel test robot
2025-10-11 21:47     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` Suren Baghdasaryan [this message]
2025-10-10 20:20   ` [PATCH 6/8] add cleancache documentation SeongJae Park
2025-10-10 22:09     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 7/8] mm: introduce GCMA Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10 21:11   ` SeongJae Park
2025-10-10 22:05     ` Suren Baghdasaryan
2025-10-10  1:19 ` [PATCH 8/8] mm: integrate GCMA with CMA using dt-bindings Suren Baghdasaryan

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=20251010011951.2136980-7-surenb@google.com \
    --to=surenb@google.com \
    --cc=Liam.Howlett@oracle.com \
    --cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
    --cc=alexandru.elisei@arm.com \
    --cc=axboe@kernel.dk \
    --cc=axelrasmussen@google.com \
    --cc=brauner@kernel.org \
    --cc=corbet@lwn.net \
    --cc=david@redhat.com \
    --cc=hannes@cmpxchg.org \
    --cc=hch@infradead.org \
    --cc=iommu@lists.linux.dev \
    --cc=jack@suse.cz \
    --cc=linux-block@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-mm@kvack.org \
    --cc=lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com \
    --cc=m.szyprowski@samsung.com \
    --cc=mhocko@suse.com \
    --cc=minchan@kernel.org \
    --cc=peterx@redhat.com \
    --cc=robin.murphy@arm.com \
    --cc=rppt@kernel.org \
    --cc=shakeel.butt@linux.dev \
    --cc=sj@kernel.org \
    --cc=vbabka@suse.cz \
    --cc=viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk \
    --cc=weixugc@google.com \
    --cc=willy@infradead.org \
    --cc=yuanchu@google.com \
    --cc=zhengqi.arch@bytedance.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