Re: [PATCH] memcg: do not call reclaim if !__GFP_WAIT

From: Vlastimil Babka
Date: Mon Jun 01 2015 - 12:42:43 EST


On 05/29/2015 08:55 AM, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Thu 28-05-15 12:59:34, Andrew Morton wrote:
>> On Thu, 28 May 2015 20:26:06 +0300 Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> > When trimming memcg consumption excess (see memory.high), we call
>> > try_to_free_mem_cgroup_pages without checking if we are allowed to sleep
>> > in the current context, which can result in a deadlock. Fix this.
>>
>> Why does it deadlock? try_to_free_mem_cgroup_pages() is passed the
>> gfp_mask and should honour its __GFP_WAIT setting?
>
> The only instance of __GFP_WAIT check in vmscan code is in zone_reclaim.
> Page allocations and memcg reclaim avoids calling reclaim if __GFP_WAIT
> is not set. Maybe we can move the check to do_try_to_free_pages?

I think it's conceptually wrong. All other paths check it before calling
into do_try_to_free_pages() and act appropriately. Here it would potentially
mask any atomic-specific fallback strategy.

What would make some sense in do_try_to_free_pages() is VM_WARN_ON_ONCE() which
however I assume doesn't exist? :)

--
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/