On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 7:12 AM, Ingo Molnar [off-list ref] wrote:

Subject: [PATCH] mm/rmap, migration: Make rmap_walk_anon() and
 try_to_unmap_anon() more scalable

rmap_walk_anon() and try_to_unmap_anon() appears to be too
careful about locking the anon vma: while it needs protection
against anon vma list modifications, it does not need exclusive
access to the list itself.

Transforming this exclusive lock to a read-locked rwsem removes
a global lock from the hot path of page-migration intense
threaded workloads which can cause pathological performance like
this:

    96.43%        process 0  [kernel.kallsyms]  [k] perf_trace_sched_switch
                  |
                  --- perf_trace_sched_switch
                      __schedule
                      schedule
                      schedule_preempt_disabled
                      __mutex_lock_common.isra.6
                      __mutex_lock_slowpath
                      mutex_lock
                     |
                     |--50.61%-- rmap_walk
                     |          move_to_new_page
                     |          migrate_pages
                     |          migrate_misplaced_page
                     |          __do_numa_page.isra.69
                     |          handle_pte_fault
                     |          handle_mm_fault
                     |          __do_page_fault
                     |          do_page_fault
                     |          page_fault
                     |          __memset_sse2
                     |          |
                     |           --100.00%-- worker_thread
                     |                     |
                     |                      --100.00%-- start_thread
                     |
                      --49.39%-- page_lock_anon_vma
                                try_to_unmap_anon
                                try_to_unmap
                                migrate_pages
                                migrate_misplaced_page
                                __do_numa_page.isra.69
                                handle_pte_fault
                                handle_mm_fault
                                __do_page_fault
                                do_page_fault
                                page_fault
                                __memset_sse2
                                |
                                 --100.00%-- worker_thread
                                           start_thread

With this change applied the profile is now nicely flat
and there's no anon-vma related scheduling/blocking.

Wouldn't the same reasoning apply to i_mmap_mutex ? Should we make
that a rwsem as well ? I take it that Ingo's test case does not show
this, but i_mmap_mutex's role with file pages is actually quite
similar to the anon_vma lock with anon pages...

-- 
Michel "Walken" Lespinasse
A program is never fully debugged until the last user dies.

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