Re: [PATCH v6 6/6] zsmalloc: Implement writeback mechanism for zsmalloc

[Sergey Senozhatsky]

On (22/11/21 22:12), Johannes Weiner wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 11:15:20AM +0900, Sergey Senozhatsky wrote:
> > On (22/11/18 16:15), Nhat Pham wrote:
> > > +
> > > +static int zs_zpool_shrink(void *pool, unsigned int pages,
> > > +			unsigned int *reclaimed)
> > > +{
> > > +	unsigned int total = 0;
> > > +	int ret = -EINVAL;
> > > +
> > > +	while (total < pages) {
> > > +		ret = zs_reclaim_page(pool, 8);
> > > +		if (ret < 0)
> > > +			break;
> > > +		total++;
> > > +	}
> > > +
> > > +	if (reclaimed)
> > > +		*reclaimed = total;
> > > +
> > > +	return ret;
> > > +}
> > 
> > A silly question: why do we need a retry loop in zs_reclaim_page()?
> 
> Individual objects in a zspage can be busy (swapped in simultaneously
> for example), which will prevent the zspage from being freed. Zswap
> currently requests reclaim of one backend page at a time (another
> project...), so if we don't retry we're not meeting the reclaim goal
> and cause rejections for new stores.

What I meant was: if zs_reclaim_page() makes only partial progress
with the current LRU tail zspage and returns -EAGAIN, then we just
don't increment `total` and continue looping in zs_zpool_shrink().
On each iteration zs_reclaim_page() picks the new LRU tail (if any)
and tries to write it back.

> The number 8 is cribbed from zbud and z3fold.

OK.