Thread (71 messages) 71 messages, 8 authors, 2015-09-17

Re: [PATCH v3 3/3] Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt: document hugetlb RSS

From: Naoya Horiguchi <hidden>
Date: 2015-08-12 00:04:48
Also in: lkml

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 05:44:54PM -0700, David Rientjes wrote:
On Mon, 10 Aug 2015, Naoya Horiguchi wrote:
quoted
diff --git v4.2-rc4.orig/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt v4.2-rc4/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
index 6f7fafde0884..cb8565e150ed 100644
--- v4.2-rc4.orig/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
+++ v4.2-rc4/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ For example, to get the status information of a process, all you have to do is
   VmLck:         0 kB
   VmHWM:       476 kB
   VmRSS:       476 kB
+  VmHugetlbRSS:  0 kB
   VmData:      156 kB
   VmStk:        88 kB
   VmExe:        68 kB
@@ -230,6 +231,7 @@ Table 1-2: Contents of the status files (as of 4.1)
  VmLck                       locked memory size
  VmHWM                       peak resident set size ("high water mark")
  VmRSS                       size of memory portions
+ VmHugetlbRSS                size of hugetlb memory portions
  VmData                      size of data, stack, and text segments
  VmStk                       size of data, stack, and text segments
  VmExe                       size of text segment
@@ -440,8 +442,12 @@ indicates the amount of memory currently marked as referenced or accessed.
 "Anonymous" shows the amount of memory that does not belong to any file.  Even
 a mapping associated with a file may contain anonymous pages: when MAP_PRIVATE
 and a page is modified, the file page is replaced by a private anonymous copy.
-"Swap" shows how much would-be-anonymous memory is also used, but out on
-swap.
+"Swap" shows how much would-be-anonymous memory is also used, but out on swap.
+Since 4.3, "RSS" contains the amount of mappings for hugetlb pages. Although
+RSS of hugetlb mappings is maintained separately from normal mappings
+(displayed in "VmHugetlbRSS" field of /proc/PID/status,) /proc/PID/smaps shows
+both mappings in "RSS" field. Userspace applications clearly distinguish the
+type of mapping with 'ht' flag in "VmFlags" field.
 
 "VmFlags" field deserves a separate description. This member represents the kernel
 flags associated with the particular virtual memory area in two letter encoded
My objection to adding hugetlb memory to the RSS field of /proc/pid/smaps 
still stands and can be addressed in the thread of the first patch.  Since 
this includes wording that describes that change, then the objection would 
also cover that.
OK, I'll update this in accordance with the change on the first patch.
With regard to adding VmHugetlbRSS, I think the change is fine, and I 
appreciate that you call it VmHugetlbRSS and not VmHugeRSS since that 
would be confused with thp.
I plan to rename the field, then the new name will/should be unconfusing
between thp and hugetlb.
My only concern regarding VmHugetlbRSS would be extendability and whether 
we will eventually, or even today, want to differentiate between various 
hugetlb page sizes.  For example, if 1GB hugetlb pages on x86 are a 
precious resource, then how do I determine which process has mapped it 
rather than 512 2MB hugetlb pages?
"KernelPageSize" field in /proc/PID/smaps is aware of hugetlb page sizes,
so I expected userspace to detect the size itself. But /proc/PID/status shows
only proccess-wide info, so userspace applications must read both of these
files to know the usage per hugepage size, which might be inconvenient.

One idea is to show the new field like "VmHugetlbRSS: 2x512kB 1x1GB" for
both of /proc/PID/{status,smaps}, which passes the full hugetlb info in a
single line so easier to parse and process. Or some other fields shows in
"kB", so "VmHugetlbRSS: 1052672 kB (2x512kB 1x1GB)" is possible for human
readability.

Thank you very much for the feedback, I'll repost soon, but any additional
comment is appreciated.

Naoya�{.n�+���zwZ��,j���n�˛���m�b��f�)���w+h����&�K�rJ+�Z+��ފw�r��L2Ǟ��i��0�X�����?��zf���ky���[hv�������zf��K�rJ+��
Keyboard shortcuts
hback out one level
jnext message in thread
kprevious message in thread
ldrill in
Escclose help / fold thread tree
?toggle this help