Commit 8b898fd1 authored by Mike Rapoport's avatar Mike Rapoport Committed by Jonathan Corbet

docs/vm: ksm: udpate description of stable_node_{dups,chains}

Remove implementation details from sysfs parameter descriptions.
Also move the paragraph discussing fragmentation issues and their possible
solution to the "Design" section.
Signed-off-by: default avatarMike Rapoport <rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
parent 2a695ca4
...@@ -170,10 +170,9 @@ pages_volatile ...@@ -170,10 +170,9 @@ pages_volatile
full_scans full_scans
how many times all mergeable areas have been scanned how many times all mergeable areas have been scanned
stable_node_chains stable_node_chains
number of stable node chains allocated, this is effectively
the number of KSM pages that hit the ``max_page_sharing`` limit the number of KSM pages that hit the ``max_page_sharing`` limit
stable_node_dups stable_node_dups
number of stable node dups queued into the stable_node chains number of duplicated KSM pages
A high ratio of ``pages_sharing`` to ``pages_shared`` indicates good A high ratio of ``pages_sharing`` to ``pages_shared`` indicates good
sharing, but a high ratio of ``pages_unshared`` to ``pages_sharing`` sharing, but a high ratio of ``pages_unshared`` to ``pages_sharing``
...@@ -185,15 +184,6 @@ The maximum possible ``pages_sharing/pages_shared`` ratio is limited by the ...@@ -185,15 +184,6 @@ The maximum possible ``pages_sharing/pages_shared`` ratio is limited by the
``max_page_sharing`` tunable. To increase the ratio ``max_page_sharing`` must ``max_page_sharing`` tunable. To increase the ratio ``max_page_sharing`` must
be increased accordingly. be increased accordingly.
The ``stable_node_dups/stable_node_chains`` ratio is also affected by the
``max_page_sharing`` tunable, and an high ratio may indicate fragmentation
in the stable_node dups, which could be solved by introducing
fragmentation algorithms in ksmd which would refile rmap_items from
one stable_node dup to another stable_node dup, in order to free up
stable_node "dups" with few rmap_items in them, but that may increase
the ksmd CPU usage and possibly slowdown the readonly computations on
the KSM pages of the applications.
Design Design
====== ======
...@@ -247,6 +237,15 @@ deduplication factor at the expense of slower worst case for rmap ...@@ -247,6 +237,15 @@ deduplication factor at the expense of slower worst case for rmap
walks for any KSM page which can happen during swapping, compaction, walks for any KSM page which can happen during swapping, compaction,
NUMA balancing and page migration. NUMA balancing and page migration.
The ``stable_node_dups/stable_node_chains`` ratio is also affected by the
``max_page_sharing`` tunable, and an high ratio may indicate fragmentation
in the stable_node dups, which could be solved by introducing
fragmentation algorithms in ksmd which would refile rmap_items from
one stable_node dup to another stable_node dup, in order to free up
stable_node "dups" with few rmap_items in them, but that may increase
the ksmd CPU usage and possibly slowdown the readonly computations on
the KSM pages of the applications.
The whole list of stable_node "dups" linked in the stable_node The whole list of stable_node "dups" linked in the stable_node
"chains" is scanned periodically in order to prune stale stable_nodes. "chains" is scanned periodically in order to prune stale stable_nodes.
The frequency of such scans is defined by The frequency of such scans is defined by
......
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