mm/page-writeback.c: print a warning if the vm dirtiness settings are illogical

The vm direct limit setting must be set greater than vm background limit
setting.  Otherwise print a warning to help the operator to figure out
that the vm dirtiness settings is in illogical state.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1506592464-30962-1-git-send-email-laoar.shao@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@gmail.com>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

2 files changed, 11 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
index 9baf66a9ef4e..30fd16b14196 100644
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
@@ -157,6 +157,10 @@ Note: the minimum value allowed for dirty_bytes is two pages (in bytes); any
 value lower than this limit will be ignored and the old configuration will be
 retained.
 
+Note: the value of dirty_bytes also must be set greater than
+dirty_background_bytes or the amount of memory corresponding to
+dirty_background_ratio.
+
 ==============================================================
 
 dirty_expire_centisecs
@@ -176,6 +180,9 @@ generating disk writes will itself start writing out dirty data.
 
 The total available memory is not equal to total system memory.
 
+Note: dirty_ratio must be set greater than dirty_background_ratio or
+ratio corresponding to dirty_background_bytes.
+
 ==============================================================
 
 dirty_writeback_centisecs
diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 76a43c17761b..768fe4e37e6a 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -433,8 +433,11 @@ static void domain_dirty_limits(struct dirty_throttle_control *dtc)
         else
                 bg_thresh = (bg_ratio * available_memory) / PAGE_SIZE;
 
-        if (bg_thresh >= thresh)
+        if (unlikely(bg_thresh >= thresh)) {
+                pr_warn("vm direct limit must be set greater than background limit.\n");
                 bg_thresh = thresh / 2;
+        }
+
         tsk = current;
         if (tsk->flags & PF_LESS_THROTTLE || rt_task(tsk)) {
                 bg_thresh += bg_thresh / 4 + global_wb_domain.dirty_limit / 32;