Re: [PATCH rfc 0/2] mm: cma: make cma_release() non-blocking

[Mike Kravetz]

On 10/21/20 7:33 PM, Roman Gushchin wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 05:15:53PM -0700, Mike Kravetz wrote:
>> On 10/16/20 3:52 PM, Roman Gushchin wrote:
>>> This small patchset makes cma_release() non-blocking and simplifies
>>> the code in hugetlbfs, where previously we had to temporarily drop
>>> hugetlb_lock around the cma_release() call.
>>>
>>> It should help Zi Yan on his work on 1 GB THPs: splitting a gigantic
>>> THP under a memory pressure requires a cma_release() call. If it's
>>> a blocking function, it complicates the already complicated code.
>>> Because there are at least two use cases like this (hugetlbfs is
>>> another example), I believe it's just better to make cma_release()
>>> non-blocking.
>>>
>>> It also makes it more consistent with other memory releasing functions
>>> in the kernel: most of them are non-blocking.
>>
>> Thanks for looking into this Roman.
> 
> Hi Mike,
> 
>>
>> I may be missing something, but why does cma_release have to be blocking
>> today?  Certainly, it takes the bitmap in cma_clear_bitmap and could
>> block.  However, I do not see why cma->lock has to be a mutex.  I may be
>> missing something, but I do not see any code protected by the mutex doing
>> anything that could sleep?
>>
>> Could we simply change that mutex to a spinlock?
> 
> I actually have suggested it few months ago, but the idea was
> opposed by Joonsoo: https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/4/3/12 .
> 
> The time of a bitmap operation is definitely not an issue in my context,
> but I can't speak for something like an embedded/rt case.
> 

I wonder if it may be time to look into replacing the cma area bitmap
with some other data structure?  Joonsoo was concerned about the time
required to traverse the bitmap for an 8GB area.  With new support for
allocating 1GB hugetlb pages from cma, I can imagine someone setting
up a cma area that is hundreds of GB if not TB in size.  It is going
take some time to traverse a bitmap describing such a huge area.

-- 
Mike Kravetz