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SubjectRe: [PATCH v4 00/25] Page folios
On Sat, 13 Mar 2021, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Mar 2021 04:18:36 +0000 "Matthew Wilcox (Oracle)" <willy@infradead.org> wrote:
>
> > Our type system does not currently distinguish between tail pages and
> > head or single pages. This is a problem because we call compound_head()
> > multiple times (and the compiler cannot optimise it out), bloating the
> > kernel. It also makes programming hard as it is often unclear whether
> > a function operates on an individual page, or an entire compound page.
> >
> > This patch series introduces the struct folio, which is a type that
> > represents an entire compound page. This initial set reduces the kernel
> > size by approximately 6kB, although its real purpose is adding
> > infrastructure to enable further use of the folio.
>
> Geeze it's a lot of noise. More things to remember and we'll forever
> have a mismash of `page' and `folio' and code everywhere converting
> from one to the other. Ongoing addition of folio
> accessors/manipulators to overlay the existing page
> accessors/manipulators, etc.
>
> It's unclear to me that it's all really worth it. What feedback have
> you seen from others?

My own feeling and feedback have been much like yours.

I don't get very excited by type safety at this level; and although
I protested back when all those compound_head()s got tucked into the
*PageFlag() functions, the text size increase was not very much, and
I never noticed any adverse performance reports.

To me, it's distraction, churn and friction, ongoing for years; but
that's just me, and I'm resigned to the possibility that it will go in.
Matthew is not alone in wanting to pursue it: let others speak.

Hugh

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