Thread (13 messages) 13 messages, 3 authors, 2021-06-01

Re: [v3 PATCH 2/3] mm/mempolicy: don't handle MPOL_LOCAL like a fake MPOL_PREFERRED policy

From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Date: 2021-06-01 08:44:44
Also in: lkml

On Mon 31-05-21 22:05:55, Feng Tang wrote:
MPOL_LOCAL policy has been setup as a real policy, but it is still
handled like a faked POL_PREFERRED policy with one internal
MPOL_F_LOCAL flag bit set, and there are many places having to
judge the real 'prefer' or the 'local' policy, which are quite
confusing.

In current code, there are 4 cases that MPOL_LOCAL are used:
1. user specifies 'local' policy
2. user specifies 'prefer' policy, but with empty nodemask
3. system 'default' policy is used
4. 'prefer' policy + valid 'preferred' node with MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES
   flag set, and when it is 'rebind' to a nodemask which doesn't
   contains the 'preferred' node, it will perform as 'local' policy

So make 'local' a real policy instead of a fake 'prefer' one, and
kill MPOL_F_LOCAL bit, which can greatly reduce the confusion for
code reading.

For case 4, the logic of mpol_rebind_preferred() is confusing, as
Michal Hocko pointed out:

 "
 I do believe that rebinding preferred policy is just bogus and
 it should be dropped altogether on the ground that a preference
 is a mere hint from userspace where to start the allocation.
 Unless I am missing something cpusets will be always authoritative
 for the final placement. The preferred node just acts as a starting
 point and it should be really preserved when cpusets changes.
 Otherwise we have a very subtle behavior corner cases.
 "
So dump all the tricky transformation between 'prefer' and 'local',
and just record the new nodemask of rebinding.

Suggested-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Feng Tang <redacted>
I like this very much! It simplifies a tricky code and also a very
dubious behavior. I would like to hear from others whether there might
be some userspace depending on this obscure behavior though. One never
knows...

Some more notes/questions below

[...]
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
@@ -239,25 +240,19 @@ static int mpol_set_nodemask(struct mempolicy *pol,
 		  cpuset_current_mems_allowed, node_states[N_MEMORY]);
 
 	VM_BUG_ON(!nodes);
-	if (pol->mode == MPOL_PREFERRED && nodes_empty(*nodes))
-		nodes = NULL;	/* explicit local allocation */
-	else {
-		if (pol->flags & MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES)
-			mpol_relative_nodemask(&nsc->mask2, nodes, &nsc->mask1);
-		else
-			nodes_and(nsc->mask2, *nodes, nsc->mask1);
 
-		if (mpol_store_user_nodemask(pol))
-			pol->w.user_nodemask = *nodes;
-		else
-			pol->w.cpuset_mems_allowed =
-						cpuset_current_mems_allowed;
-	}
+	if (pol->flags & MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES)
+		mpol_relative_nodemask(&nsc->mask2, nodes, &nsc->mask1);
+	else
+		nodes_and(nsc->mask2, *nodes, nsc->mask1);
Maybe I've just got lost here but why don't you need to check for the
local policy anymore? mpol_new will take care of the MPOL_PREFERRED &&
nodes_empty special but why do we want/need all this for a local policy
at all?
 
-	if (nodes)
-		ret = mpol_ops[pol->mode].create(pol, &nsc->mask2);
+	if (mpol_store_user_nodemask(pol))
+		pol->w.user_nodemask = *nodes;
 	else
-		ret = mpol_ops[pol->mode].create(pol, NULL);
+		pol->w.cpuset_mems_allowed =
+					cpuset_current_mems_allowed;
please use a single line. This is just harder to read. You will cross
the line limit but readability should be preferred here.

[...]

I haven't spotted anything else.
-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs
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