[PATCH] cpuset memory spread basic implementation

This patch provides the implementation and cpuset interface for an alternative
memory allocation policy that can be applied to certain kinds of memory
allocations, such as the page cache (file system buffers) and some slab caches
(such as inode caches).

The policy is called "memory spreading." If enabled, it spreads out these
kinds of memory allocations over all the nodes allowed to a task, instead of
preferring to place them on the node where the task is executing.

All other kinds of allocations, including anonymous pages for a tasks stack
and data regions, are not affected by this policy choice, and continue to be
allocated preferring the node local to execution, as modified by the NUMA
mempolicy.

There are two boolean flag files per cpuset that control where the kernel
allocates pages for the file system buffers and related in kernel data
structures.  They are called 'memory_spread_page' and 'memory_spread_slab'.

If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_page' is set, then the
kernel will spread the file system buffers (page cache) evenly over all the
nodes that the faulting task is allowed to use, instead of preferring to put
those pages on the node where the task is running.

If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_slab' is set, then the
kernel will spread some file system related slab caches, such as for inodes
and dentries evenly over all the nodes that the faulting task is allowed to
use, instead of preferring to put those pages on the node where the task is
running.

The implementation is simple.  Setting the cpuset flags 'memory_spread_page'
or 'memory_spread_cache' turns on the per-process flags PF_SPREAD_PAGE or
PF_SPREAD_SLAB, respectively, for each task that is in the cpuset or
subsequently joins that cpuset.  In subsequent patches, the page allocation
calls for the affected page cache and slab caches are modified to perform an
inline check for these flags, and if set, a call to a new routine
cpuset_mem_spread_node() returns the node to prefer for the allocation.

The cpuset_mem_spread_node() routine is also simple.  It uses the value of a
per-task rotor cpuset_mem_spread_rotor to select the next node in the current
tasks mems_allowed to prefer for the allocation.

This policy can provide substantial improvements for jobs that need to place
thread local data on the corresponding node, but that need to access large
file system data sets that need to be spread across the several nodes in the
jobs cpuset in order to fit.  Without this patch, especially for jobs that
might have one thread reading in the data set, the memory allocation across
the nodes in the jobs cpuset can become very uneven.

A couple of Copyright year ranges are updated as well.  And a couple of email
addresses that can be found in the MAINTAINERS file are removed.

Signed-off-by: Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 74 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/cpusets.txt b/Documentation/cpusets.txt
index 30c41459953c..159e2a0c3e80 100644
--- a/Documentation/cpusets.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cpusets.txt
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@ CONTENTS:
   1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
   1.5 What does notify_on_release do ?
   1.6 What is memory_pressure ?
-  1.7 How do I use cpusets ?
+  1.7 What is memory spread ?
+  1.8 How do I use cpusets ?
 2. Usage Examples and Syntax
   2.1 Basic Usage
   2.2 Adding/removing cpus
@@ -317,7 +318,78 @@ the tasks in the cpuset, in units of reclaims attempted per second,
 times 1000.
 
 
-1.7 How do I use cpusets ?
+1.7 What is memory spread ?
+---------------------------
+There are two boolean flag files per cpuset that control where the
+kernel allocates pages for the file system buffers and related in
+kernel data structures.  They are called 'memory_spread_page' and
+'memory_spread_slab'.
+
+If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_page' is set, then
+the kernel will spread the file system buffers (page cache) evenly
+over all the nodes that the faulting task is allowed to use, instead
+of preferring to put those pages on the node where the task is running.
+
+If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_slab' is set,
+then the kernel will spread some file system related slab caches,
+such as for inodes and dentries evenly over all the nodes that the
+faulting task is allowed to use, instead of preferring to put those
+pages on the node where the task is running.
+
+The setting of these flags does not affect anonymous data segment or
+stack segment pages of a task.
+
+By default, both kinds of memory spreading are off, and memory
+pages are allocated on the node local to where the task is running,
+except perhaps as modified by the tasks NUMA mempolicy or cpuset
+configuration, so long as sufficient free memory pages are available.
+
+When new cpusets are created, they inherit the memory spread settings
+of their parent.
+
+Setting memory spreading causes allocations for the affected page
+or slab caches to ignore the tasks NUMA mempolicy and be spread
+instead.    Tasks using mbind() or set_mempolicy() calls to set NUMA
+mempolicies will not notice any change in these calls as a result of
+their containing tasks memory spread settings.  If memory spreading
+is turned off, then the currently specified NUMA mempolicy once again
+applies to memory page allocations.
+
+Both 'memory_spread_page' and 'memory_spread_slab' are boolean flag
+files.  By default they contain "0", meaning that the feature is off
+for that cpuset.  If a "1" is written to that file, then that turns
+the named feature on.
+
+The implementation is simple.
+
+Setting the flag 'memory_spread_page' turns on a per-process flag
+PF_SPREAD_PAGE for each task that is in that cpuset or subsequently
+joins that cpuset.  The page allocation calls for the page cache
+is modified to perform an inline check for this PF_SPREAD_PAGE task
+flag, and if set, a call to a new routine cpuset_mem_spread_node()
+returns the node to prefer for the allocation.
+
+Similarly, setting 'memory_spread_cache' turns on the flag
+PF_SPREAD_SLAB, and appropriately marked slab caches will allocate
+pages from the node returned by cpuset_mem_spread_node().
+
+The cpuset_mem_spread_node() routine is also simple.  It uses the
+value of a per-task rotor cpuset_mem_spread_rotor to select the next
+node in the current tasks mems_allowed to prefer for the allocation.
+
+This memory placement policy is also known (in other contexts) as
+round-robin or interleave.
+
+This policy can provide substantial improvements for jobs that need
+to place thread local data on the corresponding node, but that need
+to access large file system data sets that need to be spread across
+the several nodes in the jobs cpuset in order to fit.  Without this
+policy, especially for jobs that might have one thread reading in the
+data set, the memory allocation across the nodes in the jobs cpuset
+can become very uneven.
+
+
+1.8 How do I use cpusets ?
 --------------------------
 
 In order to minimize the impact of cpusets on critical kernel