From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail138.messagelabs.com (mail138.messagelabs.com [216.82.249.35]) by kanga.kvack.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6D086B008A for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:07:09 -0500 (EST) Received: from kpbe12.cbf.corp.google.com (kpbe12.cbf.corp.google.com [172.25.105.76]) by smtp-out.google.com with ESMTP id oBNN77ah016405 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:07:08 -0800 Received: from pvc22 (pvc22.prod.google.com [10.241.209.150]) by kpbe12.cbf.corp.google.com with ESMTP id oBNN761A019276 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:07:06 -0800 Received: by pvc22 with SMTP id 22so1401810pvc.13 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:07:06 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:07:02 -0800 (PST) From: David Rientjes Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] mm: page allocator: Adjust the per-cpu counter threshold when memory is low In-Reply-To: <20101223143521.f94a5106.akpm@linux-foundation.org> Message-ID: References: <1288169256-7174-1-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> <1288169256-7174-2-git-send-email-mel@csn.ul.ie> <20101126160619.GP22651@bombadil.infradead.org> <20101129095618.GB13268@csn.ul.ie> <20101129131626.GF15818@bombadil.infradead.org> <20101129150824.GF13268@csn.ul.ie> <20101129152230.GH15818@bombadil.infradead.org> <20101129155801.GG13268@csn.ul.ie> <20101223143521.f94a5106.akpm@linux-foundation.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org To: Andrew Morton Cc: Mel Gorman , Greg Kroah-Hartman , Kyle McMartin , Shaohua Li , KOSAKI Motohiro , Christoph Lameter , KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org List-ID: On Thu, 23 Dec 2010, Andrew Morton wrote: > > We had to pull aa454840 "mm: page allocator: calculate a better estimate > > of NR_FREE_PAGES when memory is low and kswapd is awake" from 2.6.36 > > internally because tests showed that it would cause the machine to stall > > as the result of heavy kswapd activity. I merged it back with this fix as > > it is pending in the -mm tree and it solves the issue we were seeing, so I > > definitely think this should be pushed to -stable (and I would seriously > > consider it for 2.6.37 inclusion even at this late date). > > How's about I send > mm-page-allocator-adjust-the-per-cpu-counter-threshold-when-memory-is-low.patch > in for 2.6.38 and tag it for backporting into 2.6.37.1 and 2.6.36.x? > That way it'll get a bit of 2.6.38-rc testing before being merged into > 2.6.37.x. > I don't think anyone would be able to answer that judgment call other than you or Linus, it's a trade-off on whether 2.6.37 should be released with the knowledge that it regresses just like 2.6.36 does (rendering both unusable on some of our machines out of the box) because we're late in the cycle. I personally think the testing is already sufficient since it's been sitting in -mm for two months, it's been suggested as stable material by a couple different parties, it was a prerequisite for the transparent hugepage series, and we've tested and merged it as fixing the regression in 2.6.36 (as Fedora has, as far as I know). We've already merged the fix internally, though, so it's not for selfish reasons :) -- 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/ . Fight unfair telecom policy in Canada: sign http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/ Don't email: email@kvack.org