Re: [PATCH v2] mm: introduce validity check on vm dirtiness settings

From: Jan Kara
Date: Tue Sep 19 2017 - 04:36:04 EST


On Tue 19-09-17 06:53:00, Yafang Shao wrote:
> we can find the logic in domain_dirty_limits() that
> when dirty bg_thresh is bigger than dirty thresh,
> bg_thresh will be set as thresh * 1 / 2.
> if (bg_thresh >= thresh)
> bg_thresh = thresh / 2;
>
> But actually we can set vm background dirtiness bigger than
> vm dirtiness successfully. This behavior may mislead us.
> We'd better do this validity check at the beginning.
>
> Signed-off-by: Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@xxxxxxxxx>

The patch looks mostly good now. Just some small comments below.

> diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
> index 9baf66a..5de02f6 100644
> --- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
> @@ -156,6 +156,8 @@ read.
> Note: the minimum value allowed for dirty_bytes is two pages (in bytes); any
> value lower than this limit will be ignored and the old configuration will be
> retained.
> +dirty_bytes can't less than dirty_background_bytes or
> +available_memory / 100 * dirty_ratio.

I would phrase this like:

Note: the value of dirty_bytes also cannot be set lower than
dirty_background_bytes or the amount of memory corresponding to
dirty_background_ratio.

> ==============================================================
>
> @@ -176,6 +178,9 @@ generating disk writes will itself start writing out dirty data.
>
> The total available memory is not equal to total system memory.
>
> +Note: dirty_ratio can't less than dirty_background_ratio or
> +dirty_background_bytes / available_memory * 100.
> +

And similarly here:

Note: dirty_ratio cannot be set lower than dirty_background_ratio or
ratio corresponding to dirty_background_bytes.


> @@ -511,15 +511,68 @@ bool node_dirty_ok(struct pglist_data *pgdat)
> return nr_pages <= limit;
> }
>
> +static bool vm_dirty_settings_valid(void)
> +{
> + bool ret = true;
> + unsigned long bytes;
> +
> + if (vm_dirty_ratio > 0) {
> + if (dirty_background_ratio >= vm_dirty_ratio) {
> + ret = false;
> + goto out;
> + }
> +
> + bytes = global_dirtyable_memory() * PAGE_SIZE / 100 *
> + vm_dirty_ratio;
> + if (dirty_background_bytes >= bytes) {
> + ret = false;
> + goto out;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (vm_dirty_bytes > 0) {
> + if (dirty_background_bytes >= vm_dirty_bytes) {
> + ret = false;
> + goto out;
> + }
> +
> + bytes = global_dirtyable_memory() * PAGE_SIZE / 100 *
> + dirty_background_ratio;
> +
> + if (bytes >= vm_dirty_bytes) {
> + ret = false;
> + goto out;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (vm_dirty_bytes == 0 && vm_dirty_ratio == 0 &&
> + (dirty_background_bytes != 0 || dirty_background_ratio != 0))
> + ret = false;

Hum, why not just:
if ((vm_dirty_bytes == 0 && vm_dirty_ratio) ||
(dirty_background_bytes == 0 && dirty_background_ratio == 0))
ret = false;

IMHO setting either tunable to 0 is just wrong and actively dangerous...

> +out:
> + if (!ret)
> + pr_err("vm dirtiness can't less than vm background dirtiness\n");

I would refrain from spamming logs with the error message. In my opinion it
is not needed.

> int dirty_background_ratio_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
> void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp,
> loff_t *ppos)
> {
> int ret;
> + int old_ratio = dirty_background_ratio;
>
> ret = proc_dointvec_minmax(table, write, buffer, lenp, ppos);
> - if (ret == 0 && write)
> - dirty_background_bytes = 0;
> + if (ret == 0 && write) {
> + if (dirty_background_ratio != old_ratio &&
> + !vm_dirty_settings_valid()) {

Why do you check whether new ratio is different here? If it is really
needed, it would deserve a comment.

> + dirty_background_ratio = old_ratio;
> + ret = -EINVAL;
> + } else
> + dirty_background_bytes = 0;
> + }
> +
> return ret;
> }
>
> @@ -528,10 +581,17 @@ int dirty_background_bytes_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
> loff_t *ppos)
> {
> int ret;
> + unsigned long old_bytes = dirty_background_bytes;
>
> ret = proc_doulongvec_minmax(table, write, buffer, lenp, ppos);
> - if (ret == 0 && write)
> - dirty_background_ratio = 0;
> + if (ret == 0 && write) {
> + if (dirty_background_bytes != old_bytes &&
> + !vm_dirty_settings_valid()) {

The same here...

Honza
--
Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxxx>
SUSE Labs, CR