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    SubjectRe: broken VM in 2.4.10-pre9
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    Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> writes:

    > > On September 17, 2001 06:03 pm, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
    > > > In linux we have avoided reverse maps (unlike the BSD's) which tends
    > > > to make the common case fast at the expense of making it more
    > > > difficult to handle times when the VM system is under extreme load and
    > > > we are swapping etc.
    > >
    > > What do you suppose is the cost of the reverse map? I get the impression you
    >
    > > think it's more expensive than it is.
    >
    > We can keep the typical page table cost lower than now (including reverse
    > maps) just by doing some common sense small cleanups to get the page struct
    > down to 48 bytes on x86

    I have to admit the first time I looked at reverse maps our struct page
    was much lighter weight, then now (64 bytes x86 UP). And our cost per
    page was noticeably fewer bytes than the BSDs. average_mem_per_page =
    sizeof(struct page) + sizeof(pte_t) + sizeof(reverse_pte_t)*average_user_per_page.
    But struct page has grown pretty significantly since then, and could
    use a cleanup.

    So I figure it is worth going through and computing the costs of
    reverse page tables and not, dismissing them out of hand. But the
    fact that the linux VM could get good performance in most
    circumstances without reverse page tables has always enchanted me.

    That added to the fact that last time someone ran the numbers linux
    was considerably faster than the BSD for mm type operations when not
    swapping. And this is the common case.

    I admit reverse page tables make it easier under a high load to get
    good paging performance, as the algorithms are more straigh forward.
    But I have not seen the argument that not having reverse maps make it
    undoable. In fact previous versions of linux seem to put the proof
    that you can get at least reasonable swapping under load without
    reverse page tables.

    There is also the cache thrashing case. While scaning page table
    entries it is probably impossible to prevent cache thrashing, but
    reverse page tables look like they make it worse.

    With respect to the current VM the primary complaint I have heard is
    that anonymous pages are not in the page cache so cannot be aged. At
    least that was the complaint that started this thread. For adding
    pages to the page cache we currently have conflicting tensions. Do we
    want it in the page cache to age better or do we not want to allocate
    the swap space yet?

    So my suggestion was to look at getting anonymous pages backed by what
    amounts to a shared memory segment. In that vein. By using an extent
    based data structure we can get the cost down under the current 8 bits
    per page that we have for the swap counts, and make allocating swap
    pages faster. And we want to cluster related swap pages anyway so
    an extent based system is a natural fit.

    If we loose the requirement that swapped out pages need to be in the
    page tables. It becomes a trivial issue to drop page tables with all of
    their pages swapped out. Plus there are a million other special cases
    we can remove from the current VM.

    So right now I can see a bigger benefit from anonymouse pages with a
    ``backing store'' then I can from reverse maps.

    Eric



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