Re: [RFC PATCH] mm, proc: report PR_SET_THP_DISABLE in proc

From: David Rientjes
Date: Wed Oct 03 2018 - 18:51:10 EST


On Wed, 3 Oct 2018, Michal Hocko wrote:

> > > So how about this? (not tested yet but it should be pretty
> > > straightforward)
> >
> > Umm, prctl(PR_GET_THP_DISABLE)?
>
> /me confused. I thought you want to query for the flag on a
> _different_ process.

Why would we want to check three locations (system wide setting, prctl
setting, madvise setting) to determine if a heap can be backed by thp?

If the nh flag being exported to VmFlag is to be extended beyond what my
patch did, I suggest (1) it does it for the system wide setting as well
and/or (2) calling a helper function to determine if the vma could be
backed by thp in the first place regardless of any setting to determine if
nh/hg is important.

The last thing I suggest is done is adding a third place to check.