Re: MPOL_BIND on memory only nodes

From: Anshuman Khandual
Date: Thu Oct 13 2016 - 08:45:23 EST


On 10/12/2016 06:46 PM, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Wed 12-10-16 11:43:37, Michal Hocko wrote:
>> On Wed 12-10-16 14:55:24, Anshuman Khandual wrote:
> [...]
>>> Why we insist on __GFP_THISNODE ?
>>
>> AFAIU __GFP_THISNODE just overrides the given node to the policy
>> nodemask in case the current node is not part of that node mask. In
>> other words we are ignoring the given node and use what the policy says.
>> I can see how this can be confusing especially when confronting the
>> documentation:
>>
>> * __GFP_THISNODE forces the allocation to be satisified from the requested
>> * node with no fallbacks or placement policy enforcements.
>
> You made me think and look into this deeper. I came to the conclusion
> that this is actually a relict from the past. policy_zonelist is called
> only from 3 places:
> - huge_zonelist - never should do __GFP_THISNODE when going this path
> - alloc_pages_vma - which shouldn't depend on __GFP_THISNODE either
> - alloc_pages_current - which uses default_policy id __GFP_THISNODE is
> used
>
> So AFAICS this is essentially a dead code or I am missing something. Mel
> do you remember why we needed it in the past? I would be really tempted
> to just get rid of this confusing code and this instead:
> ---
> diff --git a/mm/mempolicy.c b/mm/mempolicy.c
> index ad1c96ac313c..98beec47bba9 100644
> --- a/mm/mempolicy.c
> +++ b/mm/mempolicy.c
> @@ -1679,25 +1679,17 @@ static nodemask_t *policy_nodemask(gfp_t gfp, struct mempolicy *policy)
> static struct zonelist *policy_zonelist(gfp_t gfp, struct mempolicy *policy,
> int nd)
> {
> - switch (policy->mode) {
> - case MPOL_PREFERRED:
> - if (!(policy->flags & MPOL_F_LOCAL))
> - nd = policy->v.preferred_node;
> - break;
> - case MPOL_BIND:
> + if (policy->mode == MPOL_PREFERRED && !(policy->flags & MPOL_F_LOCAL))
> + nd = policy->v.preferred_node;
> + else {
> /*
> - * Normally, MPOL_BIND allocations are node-local within the
> - * allowed nodemask. However, if __GFP_THISNODE is set and the
> - * current node isn't part of the mask, we use the zonelist for
> - * the first node in the mask instead.
> + * __GFP_THISNODE shouldn't even be used with the bind policy because
> + * we might easily break the expectation to stay on the requested node
> + * and not break the policy.
> */
> - if (unlikely(gfp & __GFP_THISNODE) &&
> - unlikely(!node_isset(nd, policy->v.nodes)))
> - nd = first_node(policy->v.nodes);
> - break;
> - default:
> - BUG();
> + WARN_ON_ONCE(polic->mode == MPOL_BIND && (gfp && __GFP_THISNODE));
> }
> +
> return node_zonelist(nd, gfp);
> }

Which makes the function look like this. Even with these changes, MPOL_BIND is
still going to pick up the local node's zonelist instead of the first node in
policy->v.nodes nodemask. It completely ignores policy->v.nodes which it should
not.

/* Return a zonelist indicated by gfp for node representing a mempolicy */
static struct zonelist *policy_zonelist(gfp_t gfp, struct mempolicy *policy,
int nd)
{
if (policy->mode == MPOL_PREFERRED && !(policy->flags & MPOL_F_LOCAL))
nd = policy->v.preferred_node;
else {
/*
* __GFP_THISNODE shouldn't even be used with the bind policy because
* we might easily break the expectation to stay on the requested node
* and not break the policy.
*/
WARN_ON_ONCE(polic->mode == MPOL_BIND && (gfp && __GFP_THISNODE));
}

return node_zonelist(nd, gfp);
}