Re: [PATCH] vfs: keep inodes with page cache off the inode shrinker LRU

[Andrew Morton]

On Wed, 12 Feb 2020 11:35:40 -0500 Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Since the cache purging code was written for highmem scenarios, how
> about making it specific to CONFIG_HIGHMEM at least?

Why do I have memories of suggesting this a couple of weeks ago ;)

> That way we improve the situation for the more common setups, without
> regressing highmem configurations. And if somebody wanted to improve
> the CONFIG_HIGHMEM behavior as well, they could still do so.
> 
> Somethig like the below delta on top of my patch?

Does it need to be that complicated?  What's wrong with

--- a/fs/inode.c~a
+++ a/fs/inode.c
@@ -761,6 +761,10 @@ static enum lru_status inode_lru_isolate
 		return LRU_ROTATE;
 	}
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_HIGHMEM
+	/*
+	 * lengthy blah
+	 */
 	if (inode_has_buffers(inode) || inode->i_data.nrpages) {
 		__iget(inode);
 		spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
@@ -779,6 +783,7 @@ static enum lru_status inode_lru_isolate
 		spin_lock(lru_lock);
 		return LRU_RETRY;
 	}
+#endif
 
 	WARN_ON(inode->i_state & I_NEW);
 	inode->i_state |= I_FREEING;
_

Whatever we do will need plenty of testing.  It wouldn't surprise me
if there are people who unknowingly benefit from this code on
64-bit machines.