Re: [PATCH] ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN for 2.6.10-rc3

[Manfred Spraul]

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the late reply, attached is my proposal:
I've added the ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN flag, together with some documentation 
and a small restructuring.
What do you think? It's just the mm/slab.c change, you would have to add

#ifndef CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB
#define ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN   8
#endif

into your sh64 header files. ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN includes 
ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN, so you do not have to set that flag. It doesn't 
hurt, though.

Not really tested - it boots on x86, but that probably doesn't count.

--
   Manfred
--- 2.6/mm/slab.c	2004-12-05 16:22:55.000000000 +0100
+++ build-2.6/mm/slab.c	2004-12-12 11:42:31.000000000 +0100
@@ -128,9 +128,28 @@
 #endif
 
 #ifndef ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN
+/*
+ * Enforce a minimum alignment for the kmalloc caches.
+ * Usually, the kmalloc caches are cache_line_size() aligned, except when
+ * DEBUG and FORCED_DEBUG are enabled, then they are BYTES_PER_WORD aligned.
+ * Some archs want to perform DMA into kmalloc caches and need a guaranteed
+ * alignment larger than BYTES_PER_WORD. ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN allows that.
+ * Note that this flag disables some debug features.
+ */
 #define ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN 0
 #endif
 
+#ifndef ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN
+/*
+ * Enforce a minimum alignment for all caches.
+ * Intended for archs that get misalignment faults even for BYTES_PER_WORD
+ * aligned buffers.
+ * If possible: Do not enable this flag for CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB, it disables
+ * some debug features.
+ */
+#define ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN 0
+#endif
+
 #ifndef ARCH_KMALLOC_FLAGS
 #define ARCH_KMALLOC_FLAGS SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN
 #endif
@@ -1172,7 +1191,7 @@
 	unsigned long flags, void (*ctor)(void*, kmem_cache_t *, unsigned long),
 	void (*dtor)(void*, kmem_cache_t *, unsigned long))
 {
-	size_t left_over, slab_size;
+	size_t left_over, slab_size, ralign;
 	kmem_cache_t *cachep = NULL;
 
 	/*
@@ -1222,24 +1241,44 @@
 	if (flags & ~CREATE_MASK)
 		BUG();
 
-	if (align) {
-		/* combinations of forced alignment and advanced debugging is
-		 * not yet implemented.
+	/* Check that size is in terms of words.  This is needed to avoid
+	 * unaligned accesses for some archs when redzoning is used, and makes
+	 * sure any on-slab bufctl's are also correctly aligned.
+	 */
+	if (size & (BYTES_PER_WORD-1)) {
+		size += (BYTES_PER_WORD-1);
+		size &= ~(BYTES_PER_WORD-1);
+	}
+	
+	/* calculate out the final buffer alignment: */
+	/* 1) arch recommendation: can be overridden for debug */
+	if (flags & SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN) {
+		/* Default alignment: as specified by the arch code.
+		 * Except if an object is really small, then squeeze multiple
+		 * objects into one cacheline.
 		 */
-		flags &= ~(SLAB_RED_ZONE|SLAB_STORE_USER);
+		ralign = cache_line_size();
+		while (size <= ralign/2)
+			ralign /= 2;
 	} else {
-		if (flags & SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN) {
-			/* Default alignment: as specified by the arch code.
-			 * Except if an object is really small, then squeeze multiple
-			 * into one cacheline.
-			 */
-			align = cache_line_size();
-			while (size <= align/2)
-				align /= 2;
-		} else {
-			align = BYTES_PER_WORD;
-		}
+		ralign = BYTES_PER_WORD;
+	}
+	/* 2) arch mandated alignment: disables debug if necessary */
+	if (ralign < ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN) {
+		ralign = ARCH_SLAB_MINALIGN;
+		if (ralign > BYTES_PER_WORD)
+			flags &= ~(SLAB_RED_ZONE|SLAB_STORE_USER);
+	}
+	/* 3) caller mandated alignment: disables debug if necessary */
+	if (ralign < align) {
+		ralign = align;
+		if (ralign > BYTES_PER_WORD)
+			flags &= ~(SLAB_RED_ZONE|SLAB_STORE_USER);
 	}
+	/* 4) Store it. Note that the debug code below can reduce
+	 *    the alignment to BYTES_PER_WORD.
+	 */
+	align = ralign;
 
 	/* Get cache's description obj. */
 	cachep = (kmem_cache_t *) kmem_cache_alloc(&cache_cache, SLAB_KERNEL);
@@ -1247,15 +1286,6 @@
 		goto opps;
 	memset(cachep, 0, sizeof(kmem_cache_t));
 
-	/* Check that size is in terms of words.  This is needed to avoid
-	 * unaligned accesses for some archs when redzoning is used, and makes
-	 * sure any on-slab bufctl's are also correctly aligned.
-	 */
-	if (size & (BYTES_PER_WORD-1)) {
-		size += (BYTES_PER_WORD-1);
-		size &= ~(BYTES_PER_WORD-1);
-	}
-	
 #if DEBUG
 	cachep->reallen = size;