diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/sysctl')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/sysctl/ctl_unnumbered.txt | 22 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt | 45 |
2 files changed, 67 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/ctl_unnumbered.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/ctl_unnumbered.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..23003a8ea3e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/sysctl/ctl_unnumbered.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ + +Except for a few extremely rare exceptions user space applications do not use +the binary sysctl interface. Instead everyone uses /proc/sys/... with +readable ascii names. + +Recently the kernel has started supporting setting the binary sysctl value to +CTL_UNNUMBERED so we no longer need to assign a binary sysctl path to allow +sysctls to show up in /proc/sys. + +Assigning binary sysctl numbers is an endless source of conflicts in sysctl.h, +breaking of the user space ABI (because of those conflicts), and maintenance +problems. A complete pass through all of the sysctl users revealed multiple +instances where the sysctl binary interface was broken and had gone undetected +for years. + +So please do not add new binary sysctl numbers. They are unneeded and +problematic. + +If you really need a new binary sysctl number please first merge your sysctl +into the kernel and then as a separate patch allocate a binary sysctl number. + +(ebiederm@xmission.com, June 2007) diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt index 8cfca173d4b..df3ff2095f9 100644 --- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt +++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt @@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/vm: - min_slab_ratio - panic_on_oom - mmap_min_address +- numa_zonelist_order ============================================================== @@ -231,3 +232,47 @@ security module. Setting this value to something like 64k will allow the vast majority of applications to work correctly and provide defense in depth against future potential kernel bugs. +============================================================== + +numa_zonelist_order + +This sysctl is only for NUMA. +'where the memory is allocated from' is controlled by zonelists. +(This documentation ignores ZONE_HIGHMEM/ZONE_DMA32 for simple explanation. + you may be able to read ZONE_DMA as ZONE_DMA32...) + +In non-NUMA case, a zonelist for GFP_KERNEL is ordered as following. +ZONE_NORMAL -> ZONE_DMA +This means that a memory allocation request for GFP_KERNEL will +get memory from ZONE_DMA only when ZONE_NORMAL is not available. + +In NUMA case, you can think of following 2 types of order. +Assume 2 node NUMA and below is zonelist of Node(0)'s GFP_KERNEL + +(A) Node(0) ZONE_NORMAL -> Node(0) ZONE_DMA -> Node(1) ZONE_NORMAL +(B) Node(0) ZONE_NORMAL -> Node(1) ZONE_NORMAL -> Node(0) ZONE_DMA. + +Type(A) offers the best locality for processes on Node(0), but ZONE_DMA +will be used before ZONE_NORMAL exhaustion. This increases possibility of +out-of-memory(OOM) of ZONE_DMA because ZONE_DMA is tend to be small. + +Type(B) cannot offer the best locality but is more robust against OOM of +the DMA zone. + +Type(A) is called as "Node" order. Type (B) is "Zone" order. + +"Node order" orders the zonelists by node, then by zone within each node. +Specify "[Nn]ode" for zone order + +"Zone Order" orders the zonelists by zone type, then by node within each +zone. Specify "[Zz]one"for zode order. + +Specify "[Dd]efault" to request automatic configuration. Autoconfiguration +will select "node" order in following case. +(1) if the DMA zone does not exist or +(2) if the DMA zone comprises greater than 50% of the available memory or +(3) if any node's DMA zone comprises greater than 60% of its local memory and + the amount of local memory is big enough. + +Otherwise, "zone" order will be selected. Default order is recommended unless +this is causing problems for your system/application. |