Re: [PATCH 03/12] mm: Share the anon_vma ref counts between KSM andpage migration

[Christoph Lameter]

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010, Mel Gorman wrote:

> > Nitpick:
> > I think this refcnt has something different characteristics than other
> > usual refcnts. Even when refcnt goes down to 0, anon_vma will not be freed.
> > So, I think some kind of name as temporal_reference_count is better than
> > simple "refcnt". Then, it will be clearer what this refcnt is for.
> >
>
> When I read this in a few years, I'll have no idea what "temporal" is
> referring to. The holder of this account is by a process that does not
> necessarily own the page or its mappings but "remote" has special
> meaning as well. "external_count" ?

We could think about getting rid of RCU for anon_vmas and use the refcount
for everything. Would make the handling consistent with other users but
will have performance implications.

Hugh what do you say about this?

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/