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diff --git a/Documentation/vm/ksm.rst b/Documentation/vm/ksm.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..d32016d9be2c --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/vm/ksm.rst @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +.. _ksm: + +======================= +Kernel Samepage Merging +======================= + +KSM is a memory-saving de-duplication feature, enabled by CONFIG_KSM=y, +added to the Linux kernel in 2.6.32. See ``mm/ksm.c`` for its implementation, +and http://lwn.net/Articles/306704/ and http://lwn.net/Articles/330589/ + +The userspace interface of KSM is described in :ref:`Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst <admin_guide_ksm>` + +Design +====== + +Overview +-------- + +.. kernel-doc:: mm/ksm.c + :DOC: Overview + +Reverse mapping +--------------- +KSM maintains reverse mapping information for KSM pages in the stable +tree. + +If a KSM page is shared between less than ``max_page_sharing`` VMAs, +the node of the stable tree that represents such KSM page points to a +list of :c:type:`struct rmap_item` and the ``page->mapping`` of the +KSM page points to the stable tree node. + +When the sharing passes this threshold, KSM adds a second dimension to +the stable tree. The tree node becomes a "chain" that links one or +more "dups". Each "dup" keeps reverse mapping information for a KSM +page with ``page->mapping`` pointing to that "dup". + +Every "chain" and all "dups" linked into a "chain" enforce the +invariant that they represent the same write protected memory content, +even if each "dup" will be pointed by a different KSM page copy of +that content. + +This way the stable tree lookup computational complexity is unaffected +if compared to an unlimited list of reverse mappings. It is still +enforced that there cannot be KSM page content duplicates in the +stable tree itself. + +The deduplication limit enforced by ``max_page_sharing`` is required +to avoid the virtual memory rmap lists to grow too large. The rmap +walk has O(N) complexity where N is the number of rmap_items +(i.e. virtual mappings) that are sharing the page, which is in turn +capped by ``max_page_sharing``. So this effectively spreads the linear +O(N) computational complexity from rmap walk context over different +KSM pages. The ksmd walk over the stable_node "chains" is also O(N), +but N is the number of stable_node "dups", not the number of +rmap_items, so it has not a significant impact on ksmd performance. In +practice the best stable_node "dup" candidate will be kept and found +at the head of the "dups" list. + +High values of ``max_page_sharing`` result in faster memory merging +(because there will be fewer stable_node dups queued into the +stable_node chain->hlist to check for pruning) and higher +deduplication factor at the expense of slower worst case for rmap +walks for any KSM page which can happen during swapping, compaction, +NUMA balancing and page migration. + +The ``stable_node_dups/stable_node_chains`` ratio is also affected by the +``max_page_sharing`` tunable, and an high ratio may indicate fragmentation +in the stable_node dups, which could be solved by introducing +fragmentation algorithms in ksmd which would refile rmap_items from +one stable_node dup to another stable_node dup, in order to free up +stable_node "dups" with few rmap_items in them, but that may increase +the ksmd CPU usage and possibly slowdown the readonly computations on +the KSM pages of the applications. + +The whole list of stable_node "dups" linked in the stable_node +"chains" is scanned periodically in order to prune stale stable_nodes. +The frequency of such scans is defined by +``stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs`` sysfs tunable. + +Reference +--------- +.. kernel-doc:: mm/ksm.c + :functions: mm_slot ksm_scan stable_node rmap_item + +-- +Izik Eidus, +Hugh Dickins, 17 Nov 2009 |