[PATCH] mm: vmscan: fix not scanning anonymous pages when detecting file refaults

[Kuo-Hsin Yang]

When file refaults are detected and there are many inactive file pages,
the system never reclaim anonymous pages, the file pages are dropped
aggressively when there are still a lot of cold anonymous pages and
system thrashes. This issue impacts the performance of applications with
large executable, e.g. chrome.

When file refaults are detected. inactive_list_is_low() may return
different values depends on the actual_reclaim parameter, the following
2 conditions could be satisfied at the same time.

1) inactive_list_is_low() returns false in get_scan_count() to trigger
   scanning file lists only.
2) inactive_list_is_low() returns true in shrink_list() to allow
   scanning active file list.

In that case vmscan would only scan file lists, and as active file list
is also scanned, inactive_list_is_low() may keep returning false in
get_scan_count() until file cache is very low.

Before commit 2a2e48854d70 ("mm: vmscan: fix IO/refault regression in
cache workingset transition"), inactive_list_is_low() never returns
different value in get_scan_count() and shrink_list() in one
shrink_node_memcg() run. The original design should be that when
inactive_list_is_low() returns false for file lists, vmscan only scan
inactive file list. As only inactive file list is scanned,
inactive_list_is_low() would soon return true.

This patch makes the return value of inactive_list_is_low() independent
of actual_reclaim.

The problem can be reproduced by the following test program.

---8<---
void fallocate_file(const char *filename, off_t size)
{
	struct stat st;
	int fd;

	if (!stat(filename, &st) && st.st_size >= size)
		return;

	fd = open(filename, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, 0600);
	if (fd < 0) {
		perror("create file");
		exit(1);
	}
	if (posix_fallocate(fd, 0, size)) {
		perror("fallocate");
		exit(1);
	}
	close(fd);
}

long *alloc_anon(long size)
{
	long *start = malloc(size);
	memset(start, 1, size);
	return start;
}

long access_file(const char *filename, long size, long rounds)
{
	int fd, i;
	volatile char *start1, *end1, *start2;
	const int page_size = getpagesize();
	long sum = 0;

	fd = open(filename, O_RDONLY);
	if (fd == -1) {
		perror("open");
		exit(1);
	}

	/*
	 * Some applications, e.g. chrome, use a lot of executable file
	 * pages, map some of the pages with PROT_EXEC flag to simulate
	 * the behavior.
	 */
	start1 = mmap(NULL, size / 2, PROT_READ | PROT_EXEC, MAP_SHARED,
		      fd, 0);
	if (start1 == MAP_FAILED) {
		perror("mmap");
		exit(1);
	}
	end1 = start1 + size / 2;

	start2 = mmap(NULL, size / 2, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, fd, size / 2);
	if (start2 == MAP_FAILED) {
		perror("mmap");
		exit(1);
	}

	for (i = 0; i < rounds; ++i) {
		struct timeval before, after;
		volatile char *ptr1 = start1, *ptr2 = start2;
		gettimeofday(&before, NULL);
		for (; ptr1 < end1; ptr1 += page_size, ptr2 += page_size)
			sum += *ptr1 + *ptr2;
		gettimeofday(&after, NULL);
		printf("File access time, round %d: %f (sec)\n", i,
		       (after.tv_sec - before.tv_sec) +
		       (after.tv_usec - before.tv_usec) / 1000000.0);
	}
	return sum;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	const long MB = 1024 * 1024;
	long anon_mb, file_mb, file_rounds;
	const char filename[] = "large";
	long *ret1;
	long ret2;

	if (argc != 4) {
		printf("usage: thrash ANON_MB FILE_MB FILE_ROUNDS\n");
		exit(0);
	}
	anon_mb = atoi(argv[1]);
	file_mb = atoi(argv[2]);
	file_rounds = atoi(argv[3]);

	fallocate_file(filename, file_mb * MB);
	printf("Allocate %ld MB anonymous pages\n", anon_mb);
	ret1 = alloc_anon(anon_mb * MB);
	printf("Access %ld MB file pages\n", file_mb);
	ret2 = access_file(filename, file_mb * MB, file_rounds);
	printf("Print result to prevent optimization: %ld\n",
	       *ret1 + ret2);
	return 0;
}
---8<---

Running the test program on 2GB RAM VM with kernel 5.2.0-rc5, the
program fills ram with 2048 MB memory, access a 200 MB file for 10
times. Without this patch, the file cache is dropped aggresively and
every access to the file is from disk.

  $ ./thrash 2048 200 10
  Allocate 2048 MB anonymous pages
  Access 200 MB file pages
  File access time, round 0: 2.489316 (sec)
  File access time, round 1: 2.581277 (sec)
  File access time, round 2: 2.487624 (sec)
  File access time, round 3: 2.449100 (sec)
  File access time, round 4: 2.420423 (sec)
  File access time, round 5: 2.343411 (sec)
  File access time, round 6: 2.454833 (sec)
  File access time, round 7: 2.483398 (sec)
  File access time, round 8: 2.572701 (sec)
  File access time, round 9: 2.493014 (sec)

With this patch, these file pages can be cached.

  $ ./thrash 2048 200 10
  Allocate 2048 MB anonymous pages
  Access 200 MB file pages
  File access time, round 0: 2.475189 (sec)
  File access time, round 1: 2.440777 (sec)
  File access time, round 2: 2.411671 (sec)
  File access time, round 3: 1.955267 (sec)
  File access time, round 4: 0.029924 (sec)
  File access time, round 5: 0.000808 (sec)
  File access time, round 6: 0.000771 (sec)
  File access time, round 7: 0.000746 (sec)
  File access time, round 8: 0.000738 (sec)
  File access time, round 9: 0.000747 (sec)

Fixes: 2a2e48854d70 ("mm: vmscan: fix IO/refault regression in cache workingset transition")
Signed-off-by: Kuo-Hsin Yang <vovoy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 mm/vmscan.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 7889f583ced9f..b95d05fe828d1 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -2151,7 +2151,7 @@ static bool inactive_list_is_low(struct lruvec *lruvec, bool file,
 	 * rid of the stale workingset quickly.
 	 */
 	refaults = lruvec_page_state_local(lruvec, WORKINGSET_ACTIVATE);
-	if (file && actual_reclaim && lruvec->refaults != refaults) {
+	if (file && lruvec->refaults != refaults) {
 		inactive_ratio = 0;
 	} else {
 		gb = (inactive + active) >> (30 - PAGE_SHIFT);
-- 
2.22.0.410.gd8fdbe21b5-goog