Re: [PATCH v3 5/5] alloc_tag: config to store page allocation tag refs in page flags

From: John Hubbard
Date: Mon Oct 14 2024 - 19:53:26 EST


On 10/14/24 4:48 PM, Yosry Ahmed wrote:
On Mon, Oct 14, 2024 at 1:37 PM Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Add CONFIG_PGALLOC_TAG_USE_PAGEFLAGS to store allocation tag
references directly in the page flags. This eliminates memory
overhead caused by page_ext and results in better performance
for page allocations.
If the number of available page flag bits is insufficient to
address all kernel allocations, profiling falls back to using
page extensions with an appropriate warning to disable this
config.
If dynamically loaded modules add enough tags that they can't
be addressed anymore with available page flag bits, memory
profiling gets disabled and a warning is issued.

Just curious, why do we need a config option? If there are enough bits
in page flags, why not use them automatically or fallback to page_ext
otherwise?

Or better yet, *always* fall back to page_ext, thus leaving the
scarce and valuable page flags available for other features?

Sorry Suren, to keep coming back to this suggestion, I know
I'm driving you crazy here! But I just keep thinking it through
and failing to see why this feature deserves to consume so
many page flags.

thanks,
--
John Hubbard


Is the reason that dynamically loadable modules, where the user may
know in advance that the page flags won't be enough with the modules
loaded?