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authorPeter W Morreale <pmorreale@novell.com>2009-04-06 22:00:29 -0400
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-04-07 11:31:03 -0400
commitfafd688e4c0c34da0f3de909881117d374e4c7af (patch)
tree5c61d499b96d78f5b56507a5d34af0ccd7c69060 /mm/pdflush.c
parenta56ed663047fc9927ec8b35750d23ece54f85dc7 (diff)
mm: add /proc controls for pdflush threads
Add /proc entries to give the admin the ability to control the minimum and maximum number of pdflush threads. This allows finer control of pdflush on both large and small machines. The rationale is simply one size does not fit all. Admins on large and/or small systems may want to tune the min/max pdflush thread count to best suit their needs. Right now the min/max is hardcoded to 2/8. While probably a fair estimate for smaller machines, large machines with large numbers of CPUs and large numbers of filesystems/block devices may benefit from larger numbers of threads working on different block devices. Even if the background flushing algorithm is radically changed, it is still likely that multiple threads will be involved and admins would still desire finer control on the min/max other than to have to recompile the kernel. The patch adds '/proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_min' and '/proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_max' with r/w permissions. The minimum value for nr_pdflush_threads_min is 1 and the maximum value is the current value of nr_pdflush_threads_max. This minimum is required since additional thread creation is performed in a pdflush thread itself. The minimum value for nr_pdflush_threads_max is the current value of nr_pdflush_threads_min and the maximum value can be 1000. Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt is also updated. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix comment, fix whitespace, use __read_mostly] Signed-off-by: Peter W Morreale <pmorreale@novell.com> Reviewed-by: Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'mm/pdflush.c')
-rw-r--r--mm/pdflush.c31
1 files changed, 19 insertions, 12 deletions
diff --git a/mm/pdflush.c b/mm/pdflush.c
index 235ac440c44e..f2caf96993f8 100644
--- a/mm/pdflush.c
+++ b/mm/pdflush.c
@@ -58,6 +58,14 @@ static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(pdflush_lock);
58int nr_pdflush_threads = 0; 58int nr_pdflush_threads = 0;
59 59
60/* 60/*
61 * The max/min number of pdflush threads. R/W by sysctl at
62 * /proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_max/min
63 */
64int nr_pdflush_threads_max __read_mostly = MAX_PDFLUSH_THREADS;
65int nr_pdflush_threads_min __read_mostly = MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS;
66
67
68/*
61 * The time at which the pdflush thread pool last went empty 69 * The time at which the pdflush thread pool last went empty
62 */ 70 */
63static unsigned long last_empty_jifs; 71static unsigned long last_empty_jifs;
@@ -68,7 +76,7 @@ static unsigned long last_empty_jifs;
68 * Thread pool management algorithm: 76 * Thread pool management algorithm:
69 * 77 *
70 * - The minimum and maximum number of pdflush instances are bound 78 * - The minimum and maximum number of pdflush instances are bound
71 * by MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS and MAX_PDFLUSH_THREADS. 79 * by nr_pdflush_threads_min and nr_pdflush_threads_max.
72 * 80 *
73 * - If there have been no idle pdflush instances for 1 second, create 81 * - If there have been no idle pdflush instances for 1 second, create
74 * a new one. 82 * a new one.
@@ -134,14 +142,13 @@ static int __pdflush(struct pdflush_work *my_work)
134 * To throttle creation, we reset last_empty_jifs. 142 * To throttle creation, we reset last_empty_jifs.
135 */ 143 */
136 if (time_after(jiffies, last_empty_jifs + 1 * HZ)) { 144 if (time_after(jiffies, last_empty_jifs + 1 * HZ)) {
137 if (list_empty(&pdflush_list)) { 145 if (list_empty(&pdflush_list) &&
138 if (nr_pdflush_threads < MAX_PDFLUSH_THREADS) { 146 nr_pdflush_threads < nr_pdflush_threads_max) {
139 last_empty_jifs = jiffies; 147 last_empty_jifs = jiffies;
140 nr_pdflush_threads++; 148 nr_pdflush_threads++;
141 spin_unlock_irq(&pdflush_lock); 149 spin_unlock_irq(&pdflush_lock);
142 start_one_pdflush_thread(); 150 start_one_pdflush_thread();
143 spin_lock_irq(&pdflush_lock); 151 spin_lock_irq(&pdflush_lock);
144 }
145 } 152 }
146 } 153 }
147 154
@@ -153,7 +160,7 @@ static int __pdflush(struct pdflush_work *my_work)
153 */ 160 */
154 if (list_empty(&pdflush_list)) 161 if (list_empty(&pdflush_list))
155 continue; 162 continue;
156 if (nr_pdflush_threads <= MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS) 163 if (nr_pdflush_threads <= nr_pdflush_threads_min)
157 continue; 164 continue;
158 pdf = list_entry(pdflush_list.prev, struct pdflush_work, list); 165 pdf = list_entry(pdflush_list.prev, struct pdflush_work, list);
159 if (time_after(jiffies, pdf->when_i_went_to_sleep + 1 * HZ)) { 166 if (time_after(jiffies, pdf->when_i_went_to_sleep + 1 * HZ)) {
@@ -259,9 +266,9 @@ static int __init pdflush_init(void)
259 * Pre-set nr_pdflush_threads... If we fail to create, 266 * Pre-set nr_pdflush_threads... If we fail to create,
260 * the count will be decremented. 267 * the count will be decremented.
261 */ 268 */
262 nr_pdflush_threads = MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS; 269 nr_pdflush_threads = nr_pdflush_threads_min;
263 270
264 for (i = 0; i < MIN_PDFLUSH_THREADS; i++) 271 for (i = 0; i < nr_pdflush_threads_min; i++)
265 start_one_pdflush_thread(); 272 start_one_pdflush_thread();
266 return 0; 273 return 0;
267} 274}