Re: [RFC PATCH 0/3] Use pageblock_order for cma and alloc_contig_range alignment.

[Zi Yan]

On 23 Nov 2021, at 12:32, Vlastimil Babka wrote:

> On 11/23/21 17:35, Zi Yan wrote:
>> On 19 Nov 2021, at 10:15, Zi Yan wrote:
>>>>> From what my understanding, cma required alignment of
>>>>> max(MAX_ORDER - 1, pageblock_order), because when MIGRATE_CMA was introduced,
>>>>> __free_one_page() does not prevent merging two different pageblocks, when
>>>>> MAX_ORDER - 1 > pageblock_order. But current __free_one_page() implementation
>>>>> does prevent that.
>>>>
>>>> But it does prevent that only for isolated pageblock, not CMA, and yout
>>>> patchset doesn't seem to expand that to CMA? Or am I missing something.
>>>
>>> Yeah, you are right. Originally, I thought preventing merging isolated pageblock
>>> with other types of pageblocks is sufficient, since MIGRATE_CMA is always
>>> converted from MIGRATE_ISOLATE. But that is not true. I will rework the code.
>>> Thanks for pointing this out.
>>>
>>
>> I find that two pageblocks with different migratetypes, like MIGRATE_RECLAIMABLE
>> and MIGRATE_MOVABLE can be merged into a single free page after I checked
>> __free_one_page() in detail and printed pageblock information during buddy page
>> merging.
>
> Yes, that can happen.
>
> I am not sure what consequence it will cause. Do you have any idea?
>
> For MIGRATE_RECLAIMABLE or MIGRATE_MOVABLE or even MIGRATE_UNMOVABLE it's
> absolutely fine. As long as these pageblocks are fully free (and they are if
> it's a single free page spanning 2 pageblocks), they can be of any of these
> type, as they can be reused as needed without causing fragmentation.
>
> But in case of MIGRATE_CMA and MIGRATE_ISOLATE, uncontrolled merging would
> break the specifics of those types. That's why the code is careful for
> MIGRATE_ISOLATE, and MIGRATE_CMA was until now done in MAX_ORDER granularity.

Thanks for the explanation. Basically migratetypes that can fall back to each
other can be merged into a single free page, right?

How about MIGRATE_HIGHATOMIC? It should not be merged with other migratetypes
from my understanding.


--
Best Regards,
Yan, Zi

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