Re: [PATCH 2/2] zram: allocate metadata when disksize is set up

From: Nitin Gupta
Date: Tue Nov 27 2012 - 00:13:16 EST


On 11/22/2012 06:42 PM, Minchan Kim wrote:
Lockdep complains about recursive deadlock of zram->init_lock.
Because zram_init_device could be called in reclaim context and
it requires a page with GFP_KERNEL.

We can fix it via replacing GFP_KERNEL with GFP_NOIO.
But more big problem is vzalloc in zram_init_device which calls GFP_KERNEL.
We can change it with __vmalloc which can receive gfp_t.
But still we have a problem. Although __vmalloc can handle gfp_t, it calls
allocation of GFP_KERNEL. That's why I sent the patch.
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/4/23/77

Yes. Fundamental problem is utter crap API vmalloc.
If we can fix it, everyone would be happy. But life isn't simple
like seeing my thread of the patch.

So next option is to give up lazy initialization and initialize it at the
very disksize setting time. But it makes unnecessary metadata waste until
zram is really used. But let's think about it.

1) User of zram normally do mkfs.xxx or mkswap before using
the zram block device(ex, normally, do it at booting time)
It ends up allocating such metadata of zram before real usage so
benefit of lazy initialzation would be mitigated.

2) Some user want to use zram when memory pressure is high.(ie, load zram
dynamically, NOT booting time). It does make sense because people don't
want to waste memory until memory pressure is high(ie, where zram is really
helpful time). In this case, lazy initialzation could be failed easily
because we will use GFP_NOIO instead of GFP_KERNEL for avoiding deadlock.
So the benefit of lazy initialzation would be mitigated, too.

3) Metadata overhead is not critical and Nitin has a plan to diet it.
4K : 12 byte(64bit machine) -> 64G : 192M so 0.3% isn't big overhead
If insane user use such big zram device up to 20, it could consume 6% of ram
but efficieny of zram will cover the waste.

So this patch gives up lazy initialization and instead we initialize metadata
at disksize setting time.

Signed-off-by: Minchan Kim <minchan@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/staging/zram/zram_drv.c | 21 ++++-----------------
drivers/staging/zram/zram_sysfs.c | 1 +
2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/staging/zram/zram_drv.c b/drivers/staging/zram/zram_drv.c
index 9ef1eca..f364fb5 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/zram/zram_drv.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/zram/zram_drv.c
@@ -441,16 +441,13 @@ static void zram_make_request(struct request_queue *queue, struct bio *bio)
{
struct zram *zram = queue->queuedata;

- if (unlikely(!zram->init_done) && zram_init_device(zram))
- goto error;
-
down_read(&zram->init_lock);
if (unlikely(!zram->init_done))
- goto error_unlock;
+ goto error;

if (!valid_io_request(zram, bio)) {
zram_stat64_inc(zram, &zram->stats.invalid_io);
- goto error_unlock;
+ goto error;
}

__zram_make_request(zram, bio, bio_data_dir(bio));
@@ -458,9 +455,8 @@ static void zram_make_request(struct request_queue *queue, struct bio *bio)

return;

-error_unlock:
- up_read(&zram->init_lock);
error:
+ up_read(&zram->init_lock);
bio_io_error(bio);
}

@@ -509,19 +505,12 @@ void zram_reset_device(struct zram *zram)
up_write(&zram->init_lock);
}

+/* zram->init_lock should be hold */

s/hold/held

btw, shouldn't we also change GFP_KERNEL to GFP_NOIO in is_partial_io() case in both read/write handlers?

Rest of the patch looks good.


Thanks,
Nitin

int zram_init_device(struct zram *zram)
{
int ret;
size_t num_pages;

- down_write(&zram->init_lock);
- if (zram->init_done) {
- up_write(&zram->init_lock);
- return 0;
- }
-
- BUG_ON(!zram->disksize);
-
if (zram->disksize > 2 * (totalram_pages << PAGE_SHIFT)) {
pr_info(
"There is little point creating a zram of greater than "
@@ -570,7 +559,6 @@ int zram_init_device(struct zram *zram)
}

zram->init_done = 1;
- up_write(&zram->init_lock);

pr_debug("Initialization done!\n");
return 0;
@@ -580,7 +568,6 @@ fail_no_table:
zram->disksize = 0;
fail:
__zram_reset_device(zram);
- up_write(&zram->init_lock);
pr_err("Initialization failed: err=%d\n", ret);
return ret;
}
diff --git a/drivers/staging/zram/zram_sysfs.c b/drivers/staging/zram/zram_sysfs.c
index 4143af9..369db12 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/zram/zram_sysfs.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/zram/zram_sysfs.c
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ static ssize_t disksize_store(struct device *dev,

zram->disksize = PAGE_ALIGN(disksize);
set_capacity(zram->disk, zram->disksize >> SECTOR_SHIFT);
+ zram_init_device(zram);
up_write(&zram->init_lock);

return len;


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