Thread (18 messages) 18 messages, 4 authors, 2010-08-20

[PATCH/RFCv3 0/6] The Contiguous Memory Allocator framework

From: Michał Nazarewicz <hidden>
Date: 2010-08-20 08:13:18
Also in: linux-media, linux-mm, lkml

On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:57:51 +0200, FUJITA Tomonori [off-list ref] wrote:
On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:38:10 +0200
**UNKNOWN CHARSET** [off-list ref] wrote:
quoted
On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:12:50 +0200, FUJITA Tomonori [off-list ref] wrote:
quoted
quoted
1. Integration on API level meaning that some kind of existing API is used
    instead of new cma_*() calls.  CMA adds notion of devices and memory
    types which is new to all the other APIs (coherent has notion of devices
    but that's not enough).  This basically means that no existing API can be
    used for CMA.  On the other hand, removing notion of devices and memory
    types would defeat the whole purpose of CMA thus destroying the solution
    that CMA provides.
You can create something similar to the existing API for memory
allocator.
That may be tricky.  cma_alloc() takes four parameters each of which is
required for CMA.  No other existing set of API uses all those arguments.
This means, CMA needs it's own, somehow unique API.  I don't quite see
how the APIs may be unified or "made similar".  Of course, I'm gladly
accepting suggestions.
Have you even tried to search 'blk_kmalloc' on google?
I have and I haven't seen any way how

   void *()(struct request_queue *q, unsigned size, gfp_t gfp);

prototype could be applied to CMA.  I admit that I haven't read the whole
discussion of the patch and maybe I'm missing something about Andi's patches
but I don't see how CMA could but from what I've understood blk_kmalloc() is
dissimilar to CMA.  I'll be glad if you could show me where I'm wrong.
I wrote "similar to the existing API', not "reuse the existing API".
Yes, but I don't really know what you have in mind.  CMA is similar to various
APIs in various ways: it's similar to any allocator since it takes size in bytes,
it's similar to coherent since it takes device, it's similar to bootmem/memblock/etc
since it takes alignment.  I would appreciate if you could give some examples of what
you mean by similar and ideas haw CMA's API may be improved.
quoted
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2. Reuse of memory pools meaning that memory reserved by CMA can then be
    used by other allocation mechanisms.  This is of course possible.  For
    instance coherent could easily be implemented as a wrapper to CMA.
    This is doable and can be done in the future after CMA gets more
    recognition.

3. Reuse of algorithms meaning that allocation algorithms used by other
    allocators will be used with CMA regions.  This is doable as well and
    can be done in the future.
Well, why can't we do the above before the inclusion?
Because it's quite a bit of work and instead of diverting my attention I'd
prefer to make CMA as good as possible and then integrate it with other
subsystems.  Also, adding the integration would change the patch from being
4k lines to being like 40k lines.
4k to 40k? I'm not sure. But If I see something like the following, I
suspect that there is a better way to integrate this into the existing
infrastructure.

mm/cma-best-fit.c                   |  407 +++++++++++++++
Ah, sorry.  I misunderstood you.  I thought you were replying to both 2. and 3.
above.

If we only take allocating algorithm then you're right.  Reusing existing one
should not increase the patch size plus it would be probably a better solution.

No matter, I would rather first work and core CMA without worrying about reusing
kmalloc()/coherent/etc. code especially since providing a plugable allocator API
integration with existing allocating algorithms can be made later on.  To put it
short I want first to make it work and then improve it.

-- 
Best regards,                                        _     _
| Humble Liege of Serenely Enlightened Majesty of  o' \,=./ `o
| Computer Science,  Micha? "mina86" Nazarewicz       (o o)
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