1 Memory Resource Controller(Memcg) Implementation Memo.
3 Base Kernel Version: based on 2.6.33-rc7-mm(candidate for 34).
5 Because VM is getting complex (one of reasons is memcg...), memcg's behavior
6 is complex. This is a document for memcg's internal behavior.
7 Please note that implementation details can be changed.
9 (*) Topics on API should be in Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt)
11 0. How to record usage ?
14 page_cgroup ....an object per page.
15 Allocated at boot or memory hotplug. Freed at memory hot removal.
17 swap_cgroup ... an entry per swp_entry.
18 Allocated at swapon(). Freed at swapoff().
20 The page_cgroup has USED bit and double count against a page_cgroup never
21 occurs. swap_cgroup is used only when a charged page is swapped-out.
25 a page/swp_entry may be charged (usage += PAGE_SIZE) at
27 mem_cgroup_newpage_charge()
28 Called at new page fault and Copy-On-Write.
30 mem_cgroup_try_charge_swapin()
31 Called at do_swap_page() (page fault on swap entry) and swapoff.
32 Followed by charge-commit-cancel protocol. (With swap accounting)
33 At commit, a charge recorded in swap_cgroup is removed.
35 mem_cgroup_cache_charge()
36 Called at add_to_page_cache()
38 mem_cgroup_cache_charge_swapin()
39 Called at shmem's swapin.
41 mem_cgroup_prepare_migration()
42 Called before migration. "extra" charge is done and followed by
43 charge-commit-cancel protocol.
44 At commit, charge against oldpage or newpage will be committed.
47 a page/swp_entry may be uncharged (usage -= PAGE_SIZE) by
49 mem_cgroup_uncharge_page()
50 Called when an anonymous page is fully unmapped. I.e., mapcount goes
51 to 0. If the page is SwapCache, uncharge is delayed until
52 mem_cgroup_uncharge_swapcache().
54 mem_cgroup_uncharge_cache_page()
55 Called when a page-cache is deleted from radix-tree. If the page is
56 SwapCache, uncharge is delayed until mem_cgroup_uncharge_swapcache().
58 mem_cgroup_uncharge_swapcache()
59 Called when SwapCache is removed from radix-tree. The charge itself
60 is moved to swap_cgroup. (If mem+swap controller is disabled, no
61 charge to swap occurs.)
63 mem_cgroup_uncharge_swap()
64 Called when swp_entry's refcnt goes down to 0. A charge against swap
67 mem_cgroup_end_migration(old, new)
68 At success of migration old is uncharged (if necessary), a charge
69 to new page is committed. At failure, charge to old page is committed.
71 3. charge-commit-cancel
72 In some case, we can't know this "charge" is valid or not at charging
74 To handle such case, there are charge-commit-cancel functions.
75 mem_cgroup_try_charge_XXX
76 mem_cgroup_commit_charge_XXX
77 mem_cgroup_cancel_charge_XXX
78 these are used in swap-in and migration.
80 At try_charge(), there are no flags to say "this page is charged".
81 at this point, usage += PAGE_SIZE.
83 At commit(), the function checks the page should be charged or not
84 and set flags or avoid charging.(usage -= PAGE_SIZE)
86 At cancel(), simply usage -= PAGE_SIZE.
88 Under below explanation, we assume CONFIG_MEM_RES_CTRL_SWAP=y.
91 Anonymous page is newly allocated at
92 - page fault into MAP_ANONYMOUS mapping.
94 It is charged right after it's allocated before doing any page table
95 related operations. Of course, it's uncharged when another page is used
96 for the fault address.
98 At freeing anonymous page (by exit() or munmap()), zap_pte() is called
99 and pages for ptes are freed one by one.(see mm/memory.c). Uncharges
100 are done at page_remove_rmap() when page_mapcount() goes down to 0.
102 Another page freeing is by page-reclaim (vmscan.c) and anonymous
103 pages are swapped out. In this case, the page is marked as
104 PageSwapCache(). uncharge() routine doesn't uncharge the page marked
105 as SwapCache(). It's delayed until __delete_from_swap_cache().
108 At swap-in, the page is taken from swap-cache. There are 2 cases.
110 (a) If the SwapCache is newly allocated and read, it has no charges.
111 (b) If the SwapCache has been mapped by processes, it has been
114 This swap-in is one of the most complicated work. In do_swap_page(),
115 following events occur when pte is unchanged.
117 (1) the page (SwapCache) is looked up.
119 (3) try_charge_swapin()
120 (4) reuse_swap_page() (may call delete_swap_cache())
121 (5) commit_charge_swapin()
124 Considering following situation for example.
126 (A) The page has not been charged before (2) and reuse_swap_page()
127 doesn't call delete_from_swap_cache().
128 (B) The page has not been charged before (2) and reuse_swap_page()
129 calls delete_from_swap_cache().
130 (C) The page has been charged before (2) and reuse_swap_page() doesn't
131 call delete_from_swap_cache().
132 (D) The page has been charged before (2) and reuse_swap_page() calls
133 delete_from_swap_cache().
135 memory.usage/memsw.usage changes to this page/swp_entry will be
138 Before (2) 0/ 1 0/ 1 1/ 1 1/ 1
139 ===========================================
140 (3) +1/+1 +1/+1 +1/+1 +1/+1
142 (5) 0/-1 0/ 0 -1/-1 0/ 0
144 ===========================================
145 Result 1/ 1 1/ 1 1/ 1 1/ 1
147 In any cases, charges to this page should be 1/ 1.
150 At swap-out, typical state transition is below.
152 (a) add to swap cache. (marked as SwapCache)
153 swp_entry's refcnt += 1.
155 swp_entry's refcnt += # of ptes.
156 (c) write back to swap.
157 (d) delete from swap cache. (remove from SwapCache)
158 swp_entry's refcnt -= 1.
161 At (b), the page is marked as SwapCache and not uncharged.
162 At (d), the page is removed from SwapCache and a charge in page_cgroup
163 is moved to swap_cgroup.
165 Finally, at task exit,
166 (e) zap_pte() is called and swp_entry's refcnt -=1 -> 0.
167 Here, a charge in swap_cgroup disappears.
170 Page Cache is charged at
171 - add_to_page_cache_locked().
174 - __remove_from_page_cache().
176 The logic is very clear. (About migration, see below)
177 Note: __remove_from_page_cache() is called by remove_from_page_cache()
178 and __remove_mapping().
180 6. Shmem(tmpfs) Page Cache
181 Memcg's charge/uncharge have special handlers of shmem. The best way
182 to understand shmem's page state transition is to read mm/shmem.c.
183 But brief explanation of the behavior of memcg around shmem will be
184 helpful to understand the logic.
186 Shmem's page (just leaf page, not direct/indirect block) can be on
187 - radix-tree of shmem's inode.
189 - Both on radix-tree and SwapCache. This happens at swap-in
193 - A new page is added to shmem's radix-tree.
194 - A swp page is read. (move a charge from swap_cgroup to page_cgroup)
196 - A page is removed from radix-tree and not SwapCache.
197 - When SwapCache is removed, a charge is moved to swap_cgroup.
198 - When swp_entry's refcnt goes down to 0, a charge in swap_cgroup
202 One of the most complicated functions is page-migration-handler.
203 Memcg has 2 routines. Assume that we are migrating a page's contents
204 from OLDPAGE to NEWPAGE.
206 Usual migration logic is..
207 (a) remove the page from LRU.
208 (b) allocate NEWPAGE (migration target)
209 (c) lock by lock_page().
210 (d) unmap all mappings.
211 (e-1) If necessary, replace entry in radix-tree.
212 (e-2) move contents of a page.
213 (f) map all mappings again.
214 (g) pushback the page to LRU.
215 (-) OLDPAGE will be freed.
217 Before (g), memcg should complete all necessary charge/uncharge to
221 - If OLDPAGE is anonymous, all charges will be dropped at (d) because
222 try_to_unmap() drops all mapcount and the page will not be
225 - If OLDPAGE is SwapCache, charges will be kept at (g) because
226 __delete_from_swap_cache() isn't called at (e-1)
228 - If OLDPAGE is page-cache, charges will be kept at (g) because
229 remove_from_swap_cache() isn't called at (e-1)
231 memcg provides following hooks.
233 - mem_cgroup_prepare_migration(OLDPAGE)
234 Called after (b) to account a charge (usage += PAGE_SIZE) against
235 memcg which OLDPAGE belongs to.
237 - mem_cgroup_end_migration(OLDPAGE, NEWPAGE)
238 Called after (f) before (g).
239 If OLDPAGE is used, commit OLDPAGE again. If OLDPAGE is already
240 charged, a charge by prepare_migration() is automatically canceled.
241 If NEWPAGE is used, commit NEWPAGE and uncharge OLDPAGE.
243 But zap_pte() (by exit or munmap) can be called while migration,
244 we have to check if OLDPAGE/NEWPAGE is a valid page after commit().
247 Each memcg has its own private LRU. Now, its handling is under global
248 VM's control (means that it's handled under global zone->lru_lock).
249 Almost all routines around memcg's LRU is called by global LRU's
250 list management functions under zone->lru_lock().
252 A special function is mem_cgroup_isolate_pages(). This scans
253 memcg's private LRU and call __isolate_lru_page() to extract a page
255 (By __isolate_lru_page(), the page is removed from both of global and
261 Tests for racy cases.
263 9.1 Small limit to memcg.
264 When you do test to do racy case, it's good test to set memcg's limit
265 to be very small rather than GB. Many races found in the test under
267 (Memory behavior under GB and Memory behavior under MB shows very
268 different situation.)
271 Historically, memcg's shmem handling was poor and we saw some amount
272 of troubles here. This is because shmem is page-cache but can be
273 SwapCache. Test with shmem/tmpfs is always good test.
276 For NUMA, migration is an another special case. To do easy test, cpuset
277 is useful. Following is a sample script to do migration.
279 mount -t cgroup -o cpuset none /opt/cpuset
282 echo 1 > /opt/cpuset/01/cpuset.cpus
283 echo 0 > /opt/cpuset/01/cpuset.mems
284 echo 1 > /opt/cpuset/01/cpuset.memory_migrate
286 echo 1 > /opt/cpuset/02/cpuset.cpus
287 echo 1 > /opt/cpuset/02/cpuset.mems
288 echo 1 > /opt/cpuset/02/cpuset.memory_migrate
290 In above set, when you moves a task from 01 to 02, page migration to
291 node 0 to node 1 will occur. Following is a script to migrate all
298 /bin/echo $pid >$2/tasks 2>/dev/null
305 G1_TASK=`cat ${G1}/tasks`
306 G2_TASK=`cat ${G2}/tasks`
307 move_task "${G1_TASK}" ${G2} &
310 memory hotplug test is one of good test.
311 to offline memory, do following.
312 # echo offline > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state
313 (XXX is the place of memory)
314 This is an easy way to test page migration, too.
317 When using hierarchy, mkdir/rmdir test should be done.
318 Use tests like the following.
320 echo 1 >/opt/cgroup/01/memory/use_hierarchy
321 mkdir /opt/cgroup/01/child_a
322 mkdir /opt/cgroup/01/child_b
325 add limit to 01/child_b
326 run jobs under child_a and child_b
328 create/delete following groups at random while jobs are running.
329 /opt/cgroup/01/child_a/child_aa
330 /opt/cgroup/01/child_b/child_bb
331 /opt/cgroup/01/child_c
333 running new jobs in new group is also good.
335 9.6 Mount with other subsystems.
336 Mounting with other subsystems is a good test because there is a
337 race and lock dependency with other cgroup subsystems.
340 # mount -t cgroup none /cgroup -o cpuset,memory,cpu,devices
342 and do task move, mkdir, rmdir etc...under this.
345 Besides management of swap is one of complicated parts of memcg,
346 call path of swap-in at swapoff is not same as usual swap-in path..
347 It's worth to be tested explicitly.
349 For example, test like following is good.
351 # mount -t cgroup none /cgroup -o memory
353 # echo 40M > /cgroup/test/memory.limit_in_bytes
354 # echo 0 > /cgroup/test/tasks
355 Run malloc(100M) program under this. You'll see 60M of swaps.
357 # move all tasks in /cgroup/test to /cgroup
362 Of course, tmpfs v.s. swapoff test should be tested, too.
365 Out-of-memory caused by memcg's limit will kill tasks under
366 the memcg. When hierarchy is used, a task under hierarchy
367 will be killed by the kernel.
368 In this case, panic_on_oom shouldn't be invoked and tasks
369 in other groups shouldn't be killed.
371 It's not difficult to cause OOM under memcg as following.
372 Case A) when you can swapoff
374 #echo 50M > /memory.limit_in_bytes
377 Case B) when you use mem+swap limitation.
378 #echo 50M > memory.limit_in_bytes
379 #echo 50M > memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes
382 9.9 Move charges at task migration
383 Charges associated with a task can be moved along with task migration.
387 #echo $$ >/cgroup/A/tasks
388 run some programs which uses some amount of memory in /cgroup/A.
392 #echo 1 >/cgroup/B/memory.move_charge_at_immigrate
393 #echo "pid of the program running in group A" >/cgroup/B/tasks
395 You can see charges have been moved by reading *.usage_in_bytes or
396 memory.stat of both A and B.
397 See 8.2 of Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt to see what value should be
398 written to move_charge_at_immigrate.
400 9.10 Memory thresholds
401 Memory controler implements memory thresholds using cgroups notification
402 API. You can use Documentation/cgroups/cgroup_event_listener.c to test
405 (Shell-A) Create cgroup and run event listener
407 # ./cgroup_event_listener /cgroup/A/memory.usage_in_bytes 5M
409 (Shell-B) Add task to cgroup and try to allocate and free memory
410 # echo $$ >/cgroup/A/tasks
411 # a="$(dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=10)"
414 You will see message from cgroup_event_listener every time you cross
417 Use /cgroup/A/memory.memsw.usage_in_bytes to test memsw thresholds.
419 It's good idea to test root cgroup as well.