[PATCH mm-unstable RFC 3/5] memcg: calculate root usage from global state

[Yosry Ahmed]

Currently, we approximate the root usage by adding the memcg stats for
anon, file, and conditionally swap (for memsw). To read the memcg stats
we need to invoke an rstat flush. rstat flushes can be expensive, they
scale with the number of cpus and cgroups on the system.

mem_cgroup_usage() is called by memcg_events()->mem_cgroup_threshold()
with irqs disabled, so such an expensive operation with irqs disabled
can cause problems.

Instead, approximate the root usage from global state. This is not 100%
accurate, but the root usage has always been ill-defined anyway.

Signed-off-by: Yosry Ahmed <yosryahmed@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 mm/memcontrol.c | 24 +++++-------------------
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index bdd52fe9e7e4b..e7fe18c0c0ef2 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -3698,27 +3698,13 @@ static unsigned long mem_cgroup_usage(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, bool swap)
 
 	if (mem_cgroup_is_root(memcg)) {
 		/*
-		 * We can reach here from irq context through:
-		 * uncharge_batch()
-		 * |--memcg_check_events()
-		 *    |--mem_cgroup_threshold()
-		 *       |--__mem_cgroup_threshold()
-		 *          |--mem_cgroup_usage
-		 *
-		 * rstat flushing is an expensive operation that should not be
-		 * done from irq context; use stale stats in this case.
-		 * Arguably, usage threshold events are not reliable on the root
-		 * memcg anyway since its usage is ill-defined.
-		 *
-		 * Additionally, other call paths through memcg_check_events()
-		 * disable irqs, so make sure we are flushing stats atomically.
+		 * Approximate root's usage from global state. This isn't
+		 * perfect, but the root usage was always an approximation.
 		 */
-		if (in_task())
-			mem_cgroup_flush_stats_atomic();
-		val = memcg_page_state(memcg, NR_FILE_PAGES) +
-			memcg_page_state(memcg, NR_ANON_MAPPED);
+		val = global_node_page_state(NR_FILE_PAGES) +
+			global_node_page_state(NR_ANON_MAPPED);
 		if (swap)
-			val += memcg_page_state(memcg, MEMCG_SWAP);
+			val += total_swap_pages - get_nr_swap_pages();
 	} else {
 		if (!swap)
 			val = page_counter_read(&memcg->memory);
-- 
2.40.0.348.gf938b09366-goog