Re: [PATCH mmotm 5/5] huge tmpfs: add shmem_pmd_fault()

[Kirill A. Shutemov]

On Sat, Apr 16, 2016 at 04:41:33PM -0700, Hugh Dickins wrote:
> The pmd_fault() method gives the filesystem an opportunity to place
> a trans huge pmd entry at *pmd, before any pagetable is exposed (and
> an opportunity to split it on COW fault): now use it for huge tmpfs.
> 
> This patch is a little raw: with more time before LSF/MM, I would
> probably want to dress it up better - the shmem_mapping() calls look
> a bit ugly; it's odd to want FAULT_FLAG_MAY_HUGE and VM_FAULT_HUGE just
> for a private conversation between shmem_fault() and shmem_pmd_fault();
> and there might be a better distribution of work between those two, but
> prising apart that series of huge tests is not to be done in a hurry.
> 
> Good for now, presents the new way, but might be improved later.
> 
> This patch still leaves the huge tmpfs map_team_by_pmd() allocating a
> pagetable while holding page lock, but other filesystems are no longer
> doing so; and we've not yet settled whether huge tmpfs should (like anon
> THP) or should not (like DAX) participate in deposit/withdraw protocol.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx>

Just for record: I don't like ->pmd_fault() approach because it results in
two requests to file system (two shmem_fault() in this case) if we don't
have a huge page to map: one for huge page (failed) and then one for small.
I think this case should be rather common: all mounts without huge pages
enabled. I expect performance regression from this too.

-- 
 Kirill A. Shutemov