diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/vm/page_migration | 29 |
1 files changed, 13 insertions, 16 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/vm/page_migration b/Documentation/vm/page_migration index 0a5d5fb18854..99f89aa10169 100644 --- a/Documentation/vm/page_migration +++ b/Documentation/vm/page_migration @@ -26,8 +26,13 @@ a process are located. See also the numa_maps manpage in the numactl package. Manual migration is useful if for example the scheduler has relocated a process to a processor on a distant node. A batch scheduler or an administrator may detect the situation and move the pages of the process -nearer to the new processor. At some point in the future we may have -some mechanism in the scheduler that will automatically move the pages. +nearer to the new processor. The kernel itself does only provide +manual page migration support. Automatic page migration may be implemented +through user space processes that move pages. A special function call +"move_pages" allows the moving of individual pages within a process. +A NUMA profiler may f.e. obtain a log showing frequent off node +accesses and may use the result to move pages to more advantageous +locations. Larger installations usually partition the system using cpusets into sections of nodes. Paul Jackson has equipped cpusets with the ability to @@ -62,22 +67,14 @@ A. In kernel use of migrate_pages() It also prevents the swapper or other scans to encounter the page. -2. Generate a list of newly allocates pages. These pages will contain the - contents of the pages from the first list after page migration is - complete. +2. We need to have a function of type new_page_t that can be + passed to migrate_pages(). This function should figure out + how to allocate the correct new page given the old page. 3. The migrate_pages() function is called which attempts - to do the migration. It returns the moved pages in the - list specified as the third parameter and the failed - migrations in the fourth parameter. When the function - returns the first list will contain the pages that could still be retried. - -4. The leftover pages of various types are returned - to the LRU using putback_to_lru_pages() or otherwise - disposed of. The pages will still have the refcount as - increased by isolate_lru_pages() if putback_to_lru_pages() is not - used! The kernel may want to handle the various cases of failures in - different ways. + to do the migration. It will call the function to allocate + the new page for each page that is considered for + moving. B. How migrate_pages() works ---------------------------- |