Re: [PATCH 2/2] Add /proc controls for pdflush threads

[Peter W. Morreale]

On Tue, 2008-12-30 at 15:59 -0800, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> Peter W Morreale wrote:
> > From: \"Peter W. Morreale\" <pmorreale@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> > This patch adds /proc entries to give the admin the ability to
> > control the minimum and maximum number of pdflush threads.  This allows
> > finer control of pdflush on both large and small machines.
> > 
> > The patch adds '/proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_min' and
> > '/proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_max' with r/w permissions.
> 
> These need to be documented in (ugh) either
> Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt or
> Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt.  Hard to say which one, but I'd
> recommend the latter (vm.txt) since they are sysctls.
> 
> 
> It looks like there is a lot of duplication between them.
> That's not good IMO.
> 

Hummm... worse than that.  Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt is missing 9
proc/sys/vm entries and hasn't been updated since (ahem) 2.2.10. 

Documentation/file_systems/proc.txt is much more recent -
2.4.0-test11-pre4.  My how time flies... :-)

I can take a stab at updating vm.txt.  Would it be ok to remove the vm
verbiage from proc.txt and replace it with a pointer to vm.txt? 

-PWM
 
> > ---
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Peter W Morreale <pmorreale@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> >  include/linux/sysctl.h    |    2 ++
> >  include/linux/writeback.h |    2 ++
> >  kernel/sysctl.c           |   16 ++++++++++++++++
> >  mm/pdflush.c              |   19 ++++++++++++++-----
> >  4 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/include/linux/sysctl.h b/include/linux/sysctl.h
> > index d0437f3..9921e62 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/sysctl.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/sysctl.h
> > @@ -205,6 +205,8 @@ enum
> >  	VM_PANIC_ON_OOM=33,	/* panic at out-of-memory */
> >  	VM_VDSO_ENABLED=34,	/* map VDSO into new processes? */
> >  	VM_MIN_SLAB=35,		 /* Percent pages ignored by zone reclaim */
> > +	VM_NR_PDFLUSH_THREADS_MAX=36, /* nr_pdflush_threads_max */
> > +	VM_NR_PDFLUSH_THREADS_MIN=37, /* nr_pdflush_threads_min */
> >  };
> >  
> >  
> > diff --git a/include/linux/writeback.h b/include/linux/writeback.h
> > index 12b15c5..ee566a0 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/writeback.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/writeback.h
> > @@ -150,6 +150,8 @@ void writeback_set_ratelimit(void);
> >  /* pdflush.c */
> >  extern int nr_pdflush_threads;	/* Global so it can be exported to sysctl
> >  				   read-only. */
> > +extern int nr_pdflush_threads_max; /* Global so it can be exported to sysctl */
> > +extern int nr_pdflush_threads_min; /* Global so it can be exported to sysctl */
> >  
> >  
> >  #endif		/* WRITEBACK_H */
> > diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
> > index 50ec088..6dae777 100644
> > --- a/kernel/sysctl.c
> > +++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
> > @@ -948,6 +948,22 @@ static struct ctl_table vm_table[] = {
> >  		.proc_handler	= &proc_dointvec,
> >  	},
> >  	{
> > +		.ctl_name	= VM_NR_PDFLUSH_THREADS_MIN,
> > +		.procname	= "nr_pdflush_threads_min",
> > +		.data		= &nr_pdflush_threads_min,
> > +		.maxlen		= sizeof nr_pdflush_threads_min,
> > +		.mode		= 0644 /* read-only*/,
> > +		.proc_handler	= &proc_dointvec,
> > +	},
> > +	{
> > +		.ctl_name	= VM_NR_PDFLUSH_THREADS_MAX,
> > +		.procname	= "nr_pdflush_threads_max",
> > +		.data		= &nr_pdflush_threads_max,
> > +		.maxlen		= sizeof nr_pdflush_threads_max,
> > +		.mode		= 0644 /* read-only*/,
> > +		.proc_handler	= &proc_dointvec,
> > +	},
> > +	{
> >  		.ctl_name	= VM_SWAPPINESS,
> >  		.procname	= "swappiness",
> >  		.data		= &vm_swappiness,
> > diff --git a/mm/pdflush.c b/mm/pdflush.c
> > index 481680f..9a6f835 100644
> > --- a/mm/pdflush.c
> > +++ b/mm/pdflush.c
> > @@ -58,6 +58,14 @@ static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(pdflush_lock);
> >  int nr_pdflush_threads = 0;
> >  
> >  /*
> > + * The max/min number of pdflush threads. R/W by sysctl at 
> > + * /proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_max 
> > + */
> > +int nr_pdflush_threads_max = MAX_PDFLUSH_THREADS;
> > +int nr_pdflush_threads_min = MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS;
> > +
> > +
> > +/*
> >   * The time at which the pdflush thread pool last went empty
> >   */
> >  static unsigned long last_empty_jifs;
> > @@ -68,7 +76,7 @@ static unsigned long last_empty_jifs;
> >   * Thread pool management algorithm:
> >   * 
> >   * - The minimum and maximum number of pdflush instances are bound
> > - *   by MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS and MAX_PDFLUSH_THREADS.
> > + *   by nr_pdflush_threads_min and nr_pdflush_threads_max.
> >   * 
> >   * - If there have been no idle pdflush instances for 1 second, create
> >   *   a new one.
> > @@ -133,7 +141,8 @@ static int __pdflush(struct pdflush_work *my_work)
> >  		 */
> >  		if (time_after(jiffies, last_empty_jifs + 1 * HZ)) {
> >  			if (list_empty(&pdflush_list)) {
> > -				if (nr_pdflush_threads < MAX_PDFLUSH_THREADS) {
> > +				if (nr_pdflush_threads <
> > +						nr_pdflush_threads_max) {
> >  					nr_pdflush_threads++;
> >  					spin_unlock_irq(&pdflush_lock);
> >  					start_one_pdflush_thread();
> > @@ -150,7 +159,7 @@ static int __pdflush(struct pdflush_work *my_work)
> >  		 */
> >  		if (list_empty(&pdflush_list))
> >  			continue;
> > -		if (nr_pdflush_threads <= MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS)
> > +		if (nr_pdflush_threads <= nr_pdflush_threads_min)
> >  			continue;
> >  		pdf = list_entry(pdflush_list.prev, struct pdflush_work, list);
> >  		if (time_after(jiffies, pdf->when_i_went_to_sleep + 1 * HZ)) {
> > @@ -246,9 +255,9 @@ static int __init pdflush_init(void)
> >  	 * Pre-set nr_pdflush_threads...  If we fail to create, 
> >  	 * the count will be decremented.
> >  	 */
> > -	nr_pdflush_threads = MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS;
> > +	nr_pdflush_threads = nr_pdflush_threads_min;
> >  
> > -	for (i = 0; i < MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS; i++)
> > +	for (i = 0; i < nr_pdflush_threads_min; i++)
> >  		start_one_pdflush_thread();
> >  	return 0;
> >  }
> 
> 

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