mm: add /proc controls for pdflush threads

Add /proc entries to give the admin the ability to control the minimum and
maximum number of pdflush threads.  This allows finer control of pdflush
on both large and small machines.

The rationale is simply one size does not fit all.  Admins on large and/or
small systems may want to tune the min/max pdflush thread count to best
suit their needs.  Right now the min/max is hardcoded to 2/8.  While
probably a fair estimate for smaller machines, large machines with large
numbers of CPUs and large numbers of filesystems/block devices may benefit
from larger numbers of threads working on different block devices.

Even if the background flushing algorithm is radically changed, it is
still likely that multiple threads will be involved and admins would still
desire finer control on the min/max other than to have to recompile the
kernel.

The patch adds '/proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_min' and
'/proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads_max' with r/w permissions.

The minimum value for nr_pdflush_threads_min is 1 and the maximum value is
the current value of nr_pdflush_threads_max.  This minimum is required
since additional thread creation is performed in a pdflush thread itself.

The minimum value for nr_pdflush_threads_max is the current value of
nr_pdflush_threads_min and the maximum value can be 1000.

Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt is also updated.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix comment, fix whitespace, use __read_mostly]
Signed-off-by: Peter W Morreale <pmorreale@novell.com>
Reviewed-by: Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 28 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
index 3197fc83bc5..97c4b328432 100644
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/vm:
 - nr_hugepages
 - nr_overcommit_hugepages
 - nr_pdflush_threads
+- nr_pdflush_threads_min
+- nr_pdflush_threads_max
 - nr_trim_pages         (only if CONFIG_MMU=n)
 - numa_zonelist_order
 - oom_dump_tasks
@@ -463,6 +465,32 @@ The default value is 0.
 
 ==============================================================
 
+nr_pdflush_threads_min
+
+This value controls the minimum number of pdflush threads.
+
+At boot time, the kernel will create and maintain 'nr_pdflush_threads_min'
+threads for the kernel's lifetime.
+
+The default value is 2.  The minimum value you can specify is 1, and
+the maximum value is the current setting of 'nr_pdflush_threads_max'.
+
+See 'nr_pdflush_threads_max' below for more information.
+
+==============================================================
+
+nr_pdflush_threads_max
+
+This value controls the maximum number of pdflush threads that can be
+created.  The pdflush algorithm will create a new pdflush thread (up to
+this maximum) if no pdflush threads have been available for >= 1 second.
+
+The default value is 8.  The minimum value you can specify is the
+current value of 'nr_pdflush_threads_min' and the
+maximum is 1000.
+
+==============================================================
+
 overcommit_memory:
 
 This value contains a flag that enables memory overcommitment.