[PATCH] mm: update_hiwaters just in time

update_mem_hiwater has attracted various criticisms, in particular from those
concerned with mm scalability.  Originally it was called whenever rss or
total_vm got raised.  Then many of those callsites were replaced by a timer
tick call from account_system_time.  Now Frank van Maarseveen reports that to
be found inadequate.  How about this?  Works for Frank.

Replace update_mem_hiwater, a poor combination of two unrelated ops, by macros
update_hiwater_rss and update_hiwater_vm.  Don't attempt to keep
mm->hiwater_rss up to date at timer tick, nor every time we raise rss (usually
by 1): those are hot paths.  Do the opposite, update only when about to lower
rss (usually by many), or just before final accounting in do_exit.  Handle
mm->hiwater_vm in the same way, though it's much less of an issue.  Demand
that whoever collects these hiwater statistics do the work of taking the
maximum with rss or total_vm.

And there has been no collector of these hiwater statistics in the tree.  The
new convention needs an example, so match Frank's usage by adding a VmPeak
line above VmSize to /proc/<pid>/status, and also a VmHWM line above VmRSS
(High-Water-Mark or High-Water-Memory).

There was a particular anomaly during mremap move, that hiwater_vm might be
captured too high.  A fleeting such anomaly remains, but it's quickly
corrected now, whereas before it would stick.

What locking?  None: if the app is racy then these statistics will be racy,
it's not worth any overhead to make them exact.  But whenever it suits,
hiwater_vm is updated under exclusive mmap_sem, and hiwater_rss under
page_table_lock (for now) or with preemption disabled (later on): without
going to any trouble, minimize the time between reading current values and
updating, to minimize those occasions when a racing thread bumps a count up
and back down in between.

Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hugh@veritas.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/mm/mmap.c b/mm/mmap.c
index 8a111792b8db..c43b28457007 100644
--- a/mm/mmap.c
+++ b/mm/mmap.c
@@ -1640,6 +1640,8 @@ find_extend_vma(struct mm_struct * mm, unsigned long addr)
  */
 static void remove_vma_list(struct mm_struct *mm, struct vm_area_struct *vma)
 {
+	/* Update high watermark before we lower total_vm */
+	update_hiwater_vm(mm);
 	do {
 		long nrpages = vma_pages(vma);
 
@@ -1668,6 +1670,7 @@ static void unmap_region(struct mm_struct *mm,
 	lru_add_drain();
 	spin_lock(&mm->page_table_lock);
 	tlb = tlb_gather_mmu(mm, 0);
+	update_hiwater_rss(mm);
 	unmap_vmas(&tlb, mm, vma, start, end, &nr_accounted, NULL);
 	vm_unacct_memory(nr_accounted);
 	free_pgtables(&tlb, vma, prev? prev->vm_end: FIRST_USER_ADDRESS,
@@ -1953,6 +1956,7 @@ void exit_mmap(struct mm_struct *mm)
 
 	flush_cache_mm(mm);
 	tlb = tlb_gather_mmu(mm, 1);
+	/* Don't update_hiwater_rss(mm) here, do_exit already did */
 	/* Use -1 here to ensure all VMAs in the mm are unmapped */
 	end = unmap_vmas(&tlb, mm, vma, 0, -1, &nr_accounted, NULL);
 	vm_unacct_memory(nr_accounted);