linux/include
Martin Bligh 3bb1a852ab [PATCH] vmscan: Fix temp_priority race
The temp_priority field in zone is racy, as we can walk through a reclaim
path, and just before we copy it into prev_priority, it can be overwritten
(say with DEF_PRIORITY) by another reclaimer.

The same bug is contained in both try_to_free_pages and balance_pgdat, but
it is fixed slightly differently.  In balance_pgdat, we keep a separate
priority record per zone in a local array.  In try_to_free_pages there is
no need to do this, as the priority level is the same for all zones that we
reclaim from.

Impact of this bug is that temp_priority is copied into prev_priority, and
setting this artificially high causes reclaimers to set distress
artificially low.  They then fail to reclaim mapped pages, when they are,
in fact, under severe memory pressure (their priority may be as low as 0).
This causes the OOM killer to fire incorrectly.

From: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>

__zone_reclaim() isn't modifying zone->prev_priority.  But zone->prev_priority
is used in the decision whether or not to bring mapped pages onto the inactive
list.  Hence there's a risk here that __zone_reclaim() will fail because
zone->prev_priority ir large (ie: low urgency) and lots of mapped pages end up
stuck on the active list.

Fix that up by decreasing (ie making more urgent) zone->prev_priority as
__zone_reclaim() scans the zone's pages.

This bug perhaps explains why ZONE_RECLAIM_PRIORITY was created.  It should be
possible to remove that now, and to just start out at DEF_PRIORITY?

Cc: Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <clameter@engr.sgi.com>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-10-28 11:30:50 -07:00
..
acpi ACPI: Processor native C-states using MWAIT 2006-10-14 00:35:39 -04:00
asm-alpha [PATCH] Consolidate check_signature 2006-10-11 11:14:23 -07:00
asm-arm [ARM] 3902/1: Enable GPIO81-84 on PXA255 2006-10-24 22:02:48 +01:00
asm-arm26 fix file specification in comments 2006-10-03 23:01:26 +02:00
asm-avr32 [PATCH] AVR32: add io{read,write}{8,16,32}{be,} support 2006-10-25 20:26:33 -07:00
asm-cris [PATCH] remove remaining errno and __KERNEL_SYSCALLS__ references 2006-10-02 07:57:23 -07:00
asm-frv [PATCH] FRV: Use the correct preemption primitives in kmap_atomic() and co 2006-10-16 08:32:29 -07:00
asm-generic [PATCH] drivers: wait for threaded probes between initcall levels 2006-10-27 15:34:51 -07:00
asm-h8300 [PATCH] remove remaining errno and __KERNEL_SYSCALLS__ references 2006-10-02 07:57:23 -07:00
asm-i386 ACPI: Processor native C-states using MWAIT 2006-10-14 00:35:39 -04:00
asm-ia64 [IA64] remove unused PAL_CALL_IC_OFF 2006-10-17 14:53:52 -07:00
asm-m32r [PATCH] Consolidate check_signature 2006-10-11 11:14:23 -07:00
asm-m68k [PATCH] sun3_ioremap() prototype 2006-10-15 11:00:58 -07:00
asm-m68knommu [PATCH] m68knommu: sync syscalls with m68k 2006-10-13 08:35:39 -07:00
asm-mips [MIPS] Fix aliasing bug in copy_to_user_page / copy_from_user_page 2006-10-21 23:17:35 +01:00
asm-parisc [PARISC] pdc_init no longer exists 2006-10-07 05:22:30 -06:00
asm-powerpc [POWERPC] Fix CHRP platforms with only 8259 2006-10-25 13:49:22 +10:00
asm-ppc [PATCH] Consolidate check_signature 2006-10-11 11:14:23 -07:00
asm-s390 [S390] Fix pte type checking. 2006-10-18 18:30:51 +02:00
asm-sh sh: Convert INTC2 to IRQ table registration. 2006-10-20 15:30:55 +09:00
asm-sh64 [PATCH] Consolidate check_signature 2006-10-11 11:14:23 -07:00
asm-sparc [SPARC]: Clean up asm-sparc/elf.h pollution in userspace. 2006-10-20 00:29:33 -07:00
asm-sparc64 [SPARC64]: 8-byte align return value from compat_alloc_user_space() 2006-10-22 21:53:30 -07:00
asm-um [PATCH] uml: remove some leftover PPC code 2006-10-20 10:26:36 -07:00
asm-v850 [PATCH] remove remaining errno and __KERNEL_SYSCALLS__ references 2006-10-02 07:57:23 -07:00
asm-x86_64 [PATCH] x86-64: Only look at per_cpu data for online cpus. 2006-10-25 01:00:23 +02:00
asm-xtensa fix file specification in comments 2006-10-03 23:01:26 +02:00
crypto [CRYPTO] digest: Added user API for new hash type 2006-09-21 11:46:17 +10:00
keys
linux [PATCH] vmscan: Fix temp_priority race 2006-10-28 11:30:50 -07:00
math-emu
media V4L/DVB (4666): Ensure the WM8775 driver is loaded generically for any board. 2006-10-03 15:13:48 -03:00
mtd Merge branch 'master' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6 2006-10-01 17:55:53 +01:00
net [NET]: kernel-doc fix for sock.h 2006-10-22 20:38:00 -07:00
pcmcia
rdma IB/sa: fix ib_sa_selector names 2006-09-22 15:22:55 -07:00
rxrpc
scsi [SCSI] replace u8 and u32 with __u8 and __u32 in scsi.h for user space 2006-10-25 15:14:34 -07:00
sound [ALSA] version 1.0.13 2006-10-22 10:56:24 +02:00
video fix file specification in comments 2006-10-03 23:01:26 +02:00
Kbuild [HEADERS] One line per header in Kbuild files to reduce conflicts 2006-09-19 12:43:58 +01:00