From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <3B030F06.8BE98FC7@mandrakesoft.com> Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 19:36:38 -0400 From: Jeff Garzik MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: inode/dentry pressure References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org Return-Path: To: Rik van Riel Cc: Ben LaHaise , linux-mm@kvack.org, Alexander Viro , Ingo Molnar List-ID: Rik van Riel wrote: > since the inode and dentry cache memory usage and the way this > memory is reaped by kswapd are still very fragile and these > caches often eat as much as 50% of system memory on normal > desktop systems I think we need to come up with a real solution > to this problem. > > A quick fix would be to always try and reap inode and dentry > cache memory whenever these two eat over 10% of memory and let > the normal VM path eat from them when they're consuming less, > but since this could break in other situations I'm asking here > if anybody else has a real solution... > > If we cannot find an easy to implement Real Solution(tm) we > should probably go for the 10% limit in 2.4 and implement the > real solution in 2.5; if anybody has a 2.4-attainable idea > I'd like to hear about it ;) IMHO this is more of a policy question, though I agree strongly it needs some sort of answer. When applications start competing with disposable OS caches, of all sorts, you have to decide cache reap rate, and a suitable low water mark for each cache in order for the system to be useable under heavy load. Some caches are going to have a higher low-water mark than others; some caches may need to be reaped more slowly due to various issues. -- Jeff Garzik | Game called on account of naked chick Building 1024 | MandrakeSoft | -- 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.eu.org/Linux-MM/