Re: [RFC PATCH v4 01/40] mm: Introduce memory regions data-structureto capture region boundaries within nodes

[Johannes Weiner]

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 04:43:48AM +0530, Srivatsa S. Bhat wrote:
> The memory within a node can be divided into regions of memory that can be
> independently power-managed. That is, chunks of memory can be transitioned
> (manually or automatically) to low-power states based on the frequency of
> references to that region. For example, if a memory chunk is not referenced
> for a given threshold amount of time, the hardware (memory controller) can
> decide to put that piece of memory into a content-preserving low-power state.
> And of course, on the next reference to that chunk of memory, it will be
> transitioned back to full-power for read/write operations.
> 
> So, the Linux MM can take advantage of this feature by managing the available
> memory with an eye towards power-savings - ie., by keeping the memory
> allocations/references consolidated to a minimum no. of such power-manageable
> memory regions. In order to do so, the first step is to teach the MM about
> the boundaries of these regions - and to capture that info, we introduce a new
> data-structure called "Memory Regions".
> 
> [Also, the concept of memory regions could potentially be extended to work
> with different classes of memory like PCM (Phase Change Memory) etc and
> hence, it is not limited to just power management alone].
> 
> We already sub-divide a node's memory into zones, based on some well-known
> constraints. So the question is, where do we fit in memory regions in this
> hierarchy. Instead of artificially trying to fit it into the hierarchy one
> way or the other, we choose to simply capture the region boundaries in a
> parallel data-structure, since most likely the region boundaries won't
> naturally fit inside the zone boundaries or vice-versa.
> 
> But of course, memory regions are sub-divisions *within* a node, so it makes
> sense to keep the data-structures in the node's struct pglist_data. (Thus
> this placement makes memory regions parallel to zones in that node).
> 
> Once we capture the region boundaries in the memory regions data-structure,
> we can influence MM decisions at various places, such as page allocation,
> reclamation etc, in order to perform power-aware memory management.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Srivatsa S. Bhat <srivatsa.bhat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> 
>  include/linux/mmzone.h |   12 ++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
> index bd791e4..d3288b0 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
> @@ -35,6 +35,8 @@
>   */
>  #define PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER 3
>  
> +#define MAX_NR_NODE_REGIONS	512
> +
>  enum {
>  	MIGRATE_UNMOVABLE,
>  	MIGRATE_RECLAIMABLE,
> @@ -708,6 +710,14 @@ struct node_active_region {
>  extern struct page *mem_map;
>  #endif
>  
> +struct node_mem_region {
> +	unsigned long start_pfn;
> +	unsigned long end_pfn;
> +	unsigned long present_pages;
> +	unsigned long spanned_pages;
> +	struct pglist_data *pgdat;
> +};
> +
>  /*
>   * The pg_data_t structure is used in machines with CONFIG_DISCONTIGMEM
>   * (mostly NUMA machines?) to denote a higher-level memory zone than the
> @@ -724,6 +734,8 @@ typedef struct pglist_data {
>  	struct zone node_zones[MAX_NR_ZONES];
>  	struct zonelist node_zonelists[MAX_ZONELISTS];
>  	int nr_zones;
> +	struct node_mem_region node_regions[MAX_NR_NODE_REGIONS];
> +	int nr_node_regions;
>  #ifdef CONFIG_FLAT_NODE_MEM_MAP	/* means !SPARSEMEM */
>  	struct page *node_mem_map;
>  #ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG

Please don't write patches that add data structures but do not use
them.

This is a pattern throughout the whole series.  You add a data
structure in one patch, individual helper functions in followup
patches, optimizations and statistics in yet more patches, even
unrelated cleanups and documentation like the fls() vs __fls() stuff,
until finally you add the actual algorithm, also bit by bit.  I find
it really hard to review when I have to jump back and forth between
several different emails to piece things together.

Prepare the code base as necessary (the fls stuff, instrumentation for
existing code, cleanups), then add the most basic data structure and
code in one patch, then follow up with new statistics, optimizations
etc. (unless the optimizations can be reasonably folded into the
initial implementation in the first place).  This might not always be
possible of course, but please strive for it.
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