Re: [PATCH v3 1/2] mm/sparse: add sparse_init_nid()

[Baoquan He]

On 07/01/18 at 11:28pm, Pavel Tatashin wrote:
> > > So, on the first failure, we even stop trying to populate other
> > > sections. No more memory to do so.
> >
> > This is the thing I worry about. In old sparse_mem_maps_populate_node()
> > you can see, when not present or failed to populate, just continue. This
> > is the main difference between yours and the old code. The key logic is
> > changed here.
> >
> 
> I do not see how  we can succeed after the first failure. We still
> allocate from the same node:
> 
> sparse_mem_map_populate() may fail only if we could not allocate large
> enough buffer vmemmap_buf_start earlier.
> 
> This means that in:
> sparse_mem_map_populate()
>   vmemmap_populate()
>     vmemmap_populate_hugepages()
>       vmemmap_alloc_block_buf() (no buffer, so call allocator)
>         vmemmap_alloc_block(size, node);
>             __earlyonly_bootmem_alloc(node, size, size, __pa(MAX_DMA_ADDRESS));
>               memblock_virt_alloc_try_nid_raw() -> Nothing changes for
> this call to succeed. So, all consequent calls to
> sparse_mem_map_populate() in this node will fail as well.

Yes, you are right, it's improvement. Thanks.

> 
> > >
> > Forgot mentioning it's the vervion in mm/sparse-vmemmap.c
> 
> Sorry, I do not understand what is vervion.

Typo, 'version', should be. Sorry for that.