--- /dev/null
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=============
+Multi-Gen LRU
+=============
+The multi-gen LRU is an alternative LRU implementation that optimizes
+page reclaim and improves performance under memory pressure. Page
+reclaim decides the kernel's caching policy and ability to overcommit
+memory. It directly impacts the kswapd CPU usage and RAM efficiency.
+
+Quick start
+===========
+Build the kernel with the following configurations.
+
+* ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN=y``
+* ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_ENABLED=y``
+
+All set!
+
+Runtime options
+===============
+``/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/`` contains stable ABIs described in the
+following subsections.
+
+Kill switch
+-----------
+``enabled`` accepts different values to enable or disable the
+following components. Its default value depends on
+``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_ENABLED``. All the components should be enabled
+unless some of them have unforeseen side effects. Writing to
+``enabled`` has no effect when a component is not supported by the
+hardware, and valid values will be accepted even when the main switch
+is off.
+
+====== ===============================================================
+Values Components
+====== ===============================================================
+0x0001 The main switch for the multi-gen LRU.
+0x0002 Clearing the accessed bit in leaf page table entries in large
+ batches, when MMU sets it (e.g., on x86). This behavior can
+ theoretically worsen lock contention (mmap_lock). If it is
+ disabled, the multi-gen LRU will suffer a minor performance
+ degradation for workloads that contiguously map hot pages,
+ whose accessed bits can be otherwise cleared by fewer larger
+ batches.
+0x0004 Clearing the accessed bit in non-leaf page table entries as
+ well, when MMU sets it (e.g., on x86). This behavior was not
+ verified on x86 varieties other than Intel and AMD. If it is
+ disabled, the multi-gen LRU will suffer a negligible
+ performance degradation.
+[yYnN] Apply to all the components above.
+====== ===============================================================
+
+E.g.,
+::
+
+ echo y >/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled
+ cat /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled
+ 0x0007
+ echo 5 >/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled
+ cat /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled
+ 0x0005
+
+Thrashing prevention
+--------------------
+Personal computers are more sensitive to thrashing because it can
+cause janks (lags when rendering UI) and negatively impact user
+experience. The multi-gen LRU offers thrashing prevention to the
+majority of laptop and desktop users who do not have ``oomd``.
+
+Users can write ``N`` to ``min_ttl_ms`` to prevent the working set of
+``N`` milliseconds from getting evicted. The OOM killer is triggered
+if this working set cannot be kept in memory. In other words, this
+option works as an adjustable pressure relief valve, and when open, it
+terminates applications that are hopefully not being used.
+
+Based on the average human detectable lag (~100ms), ``N=1000`` usually
+eliminates intolerable janks due to thrashing. Larger values like
+``N=3000`` make janks less noticeable at the risk of premature OOM
+kills.
+
+The default value ``0`` means disabled.
+
+Experimental features
+=====================
+``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen`` accepts commands described in the
+following subsections. Multiple command lines are supported, so does
+concatenation with delimiters ``,`` and ``;``.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen_full`` provides additional stats for
+debugging. ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_STATS=y`` keeps historical stats from
+evicted generations in this file.
+
+Working set estimation
+----------------------
+Working set estimation measures how much memory an application needs
+in a given time interval, and it is usually done with little impact on
+the performance of the application. E.g., data centers want to
+optimize job scheduling (bin packing) to improve memory utilizations.
+When a new job comes in, the job scheduler needs to find out whether
+each server it manages can allocate a certain amount of memory for
+this new job before it can pick a candidate. To do so, the job
+scheduler needs to estimate the working sets of the existing jobs.
+
+When it is read, ``lru_gen`` returns a histogram of numbers of pages
+accessed over different time intervals for each memcg and node.
+``MAX_NR_GENS`` decides the number of bins for each histogram. The
+histograms are noncumulative.
+::
+
+ memcg memcg_id memcg_path
+ node node_id
+ min_gen_nr age_in_ms nr_anon_pages nr_file_pages
+ ...
+ max_gen_nr age_in_ms nr_anon_pages nr_file_pages
+
+Each bin contains an estimated number of pages that have been accessed
+within ``age_in_ms``. E.g., ``min_gen_nr`` contains the coldest pages
+and ``max_gen_nr`` contains the hottest pages, since ``age_in_ms`` of
+the former is the largest and that of the latter is the smallest.
+
+Users can write the following command to ``lru_gen`` to create a new
+generation ``max_gen_nr+1``:
+
+ ``+ memcg_id node_id max_gen_nr [can_swap [force_scan]]``
+
+``can_swap`` defaults to the swap setting and, if it is set to ``1``,
+it forces the scan of anon pages when swap is off, and vice versa.
+``force_scan`` defaults to ``1`` and, if it is set to ``0``, it
+employs heuristics to reduce the overhead, which is likely to reduce
+the coverage as well.
+
+A typical use case is that a job scheduler runs this command at a
+certain time interval to create new generations, and it ranks the
+servers it manages based on the sizes of their cold pages defined by
+this time interval.
+
+Proactive reclaim
+-----------------
+Proactive reclaim induces page reclaim when there is no memory
+pressure. It usually targets cold pages only. E.g., when a new job
+comes in, the job scheduler wants to proactively reclaim cold pages on
+the server it selected, to improve the chance of successfully landing
+this new job.
+
+Users can write the following command to ``lru_gen`` to evict
+generations less than or equal to ``min_gen_nr``.
+
+ ``- memcg_id node_id min_gen_nr [swappiness [nr_to_reclaim]]``
+
+``min_gen_nr`` should be less than ``max_gen_nr-1``, since
+``max_gen_nr`` and ``max_gen_nr-1`` are not fully aged (equivalent to
+the active list) and therefore cannot be evicted. ``swappiness``
+overrides the default value in ``/proc/sys/vm/swappiness``.
+``nr_to_reclaim`` limits the number of pages to evict.
+
+A typical use case is that a job scheduler runs this command before it
+tries to land a new job on a server. If it fails to materialize enough
+cold pages because of the overestimation, it retries on the next
+server according to the ranking result obtained from the working set
+estimation step. This less forceful approach limits the impacts on the
+existing jobs.
projects / platform / kernel / linux-rpi.git / commitdiff