tree bd87aaa23c81eec42cd91dd23c3ebe168f44c922
parent e6ad640bc404eb298dd1880113131768ddf5c6a8
author xu xin <cgel.zte@gmail.com> 1661870318 +0000
committer Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 1664246789 -0700

ksm: count allocated ksm rmap_items for each process

Patch series "ksm: count allocated rmap_items and update documentation",
v5.

KSM can save memory by merging identical pages, but also can consume
additional memory, because it needs to generate rmap_items to save each
scanned page's brief rmap information.

To determine how beneficial the ksm-policy (like madvise), they are using
brings, so we add a new interface /proc/<pid>/ksm_stat for each process
The value "ksm_rmap_items" in it indicates the total allocated ksm
rmap_items of this process.

The detailed description can be seen in the following patches' commit
message.


This patch (of 2):

KSM can save memory by merging identical pages, but also can consume
additional memory, because it needs to generate rmap_items to save each
scanned page's brief rmap information.  Some of these pages may be merged,
but some may not be abled to be merged after being checked several times,
which are unprofitable memory consumed.

The information about whether KSM save memory or consume memory in
system-wide range can be determined by the comprehensive calculation of
pages_sharing, pages_shared, pages_unshared and pages_volatile.  A simple
approximate calculation:

	profit =~ pages_sharing * sizeof(page) - (all_rmap_items) *
	         sizeof(rmap_item);

where all_rmap_items equals to the sum of pages_sharing, pages_shared,
pages_unshared and pages_volatile.

But we cannot calculate this kind of ksm profit inner single-process wide
because the information of ksm rmap_item's number of a process is lacked. 
For user applications, if this kind of information could be obtained, it
helps upper users know how beneficial the ksm-policy (like madvise) they
are using brings, and then optimize their app code.  For example, one
application madvise 1000 pages as MERGEABLE, while only a few pages are
really merged, then it's not cost-efficient.

So we add a new interface /proc/<pid>/ksm_stat for each process in which
the value of ksm_rmap_itmes is only shown now and so more values can be
added in future.

So similarly, we can calculate the ksm profit approximately for a single
process by:

	profit =~ ksm_merging_pages * sizeof(page) - ksm_rmap_items *
		 sizeof(rmap_item);

where ksm_merging_pages is shown at /proc/<pid>/ksm_merging_pages, and
ksm_rmap_items is shown in /proc/<pid>/ksm_stat.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20220830143731.299702-1-xu.xin16@zte.com.cn
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20220830143838.299758-1-xu.xin16@zte.com.cn
Signed-off-by: xu xin <xu.xin16@zte.com.cn>
Reviewed-by: Xiaokai Ran <ran.xiaokai@zte.com.cn>
Reviewed-by: Yang Yang <yang.yang29@zte.com.cn>
Signed-off-by: CGEL ZTE <cgel.zte@gmail.com>
Cc: Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@gmail.com>
Cc: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Cc: Izik Eidus <izik.eidus@ravellosystems.com>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>