linux/Documentation
Tiberiu A Georgescu cbbb69d3c4 Documentation: update pagemap with shmem exceptions
This patch follows the discussions on previous documentation patch
threads [1][2].  It presents the exception case of shared memory
management from the pagemap's point of view.  It briefly describes what
is missing, why it is missing and alternatives to the pagemap for page
info retrieval in user space.

In short, the kernel does not keep track of PTEs for swapped out shared
pages within the processes that references them.  Thus, the
proc/pid/pagemap tool cannot print the swap destination of the shared
memory pages, instead setting the pagemap entry to zero for both
non-allocated and swapped out pages.  This can create confusion for
users who need information on swapped out pages.

The reasons why maintaining the PTEs of all swapped out shared pages
among all processes while maintaining similar performance is not a
trivial task, or a desirable change, have been discussed extensively
[1][3][4][5].  There are also arguments for why this arguably missing
information should eventually be exposed to the user in either a future
pagemap patch, or by an alternative tool.

[1]: https://marc.info/?m=162878395426774
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20210920164931.175411-1-tiberiu.georgescu@nutanix.com/
[3]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20210730160826.63785-1-tiberiu.georgescu@nutanix.com/
[4]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20210807032521.7591-1-peterx@redhat.com/
[5]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20210715201651.212134-1-peterx@redhat.com/

Mention the current missing information in the pagemap and alternatives
on how to retrieve it, in case someone stumbles upon unexpected
behaviour.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20210923064618.157046-1-tiberiu.georgescu@nutanix.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20210923064618.157046-2-tiberiu.georgescu@nutanix.com
Signed-off-by: Tiberiu A Georgescu <tiberiu.georgescu@nutanix.com>
Reviewed-by: Ivan Teterevkov <ivan.teterevkov@nutanix.com>
Reviewed-by: Florian Schmidt <florian.schmidt@nutanix.com>
Reviewed-by: Carl Waldspurger <carl.waldspurger@nutanix.com>
Reviewed-by: Jonathan Davies <jonathan.davies@nutanix.com>
Reviewed-by: Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2021-11-06 13:30:36 -07:00
..
ABI Misc driver patches for 5.15-rc1, second round 2021-09-10 11:31:47 -07:00
accounting
admin-guide Documentation: update pagemap with shmem exceptions 2021-11-06 13:30:36 -07:00
arm Documentation: arm: marvell: Add 88F6825 model into list 2021-08-24 13:26:32 -06:00
arm64 Merge remote-tracking branch 'tip/sched/arm64' into for-next/core 2021-08-31 09:10:00 +01:00
block Documentation: block: blk-mq: Fix small typo in multi-queue docs 2021-08-24 13:30:00 -06:00
bpf libbpf: Rename libbpf documentation index file 2021-08-18 08:45:25 -07:00
cdrom
core-api irqchip fixes for 5.15, take #1 2021-09-24 14:11:04 +02:00
cpu-freq cpufreq: Remove ready() callback 2021-09-02 18:04:17 +02:00
crypto
dev-tools Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2021-09-08 12:55:35 -07:00
devicetree Pin control fixes for the v5.15 series: 2021-10-25 09:47:18 -07:00
doc-guide
driver-api cxl for v5.15 2021-09-09 11:48:27 -07:00
fault-injection Char / Misc driver changes for 5.15-rc1 2021-09-01 08:35:06 -07:00
fb
features RISC-V Patches for the 5.15 Merge Window, Part 2 2021-09-11 14:29:42 -07:00
filesystems Fixed xfstests generic/016 generic/021 generic/022 generic/041 generic/274 generic/423, 2021-10-15 09:58:11 -04:00
firmware_class
firmware-guide docs: firmware-guide: acpi: dsd: graph.rst: replace some characters 2021-07-25 14:35:46 -06:00
fpga fpga: fix spelling mistakes 2021-07-21 19:54:21 -07:00
gpu Merge tag 'amd-drm-fixes-5.15-2021-10-06' of https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/agd5f/linux into drm-fixes 2021-10-08 11:40:21 +10:00
hid
hwmon hwmon: (k10temp) Remove residues of current and voltage 2021-09-12 17:56:36 -07:00
i2c Documentation: i2c: add i2c-sysfs into index 2021-08-10 22:58:32 +02:00
ia64
ide
iio
infiniband
input
isdn
kbuild Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2021-09-08 12:55:35 -07:00
kernel-hacking docs: kernel-hacking: Remove inappropriate text 2021-09-03 15:56:45 -06:00
leds Documentation: leds: standartizing LED names 2021-08-20 10:26:24 +02:00
litmus-tests
livepatch
locking Documentation: locking: fix references 2021-08-24 13:20:39 -06:00
m68k
maintainer
mhi
mips
misc-devices
netlabel
networking mctp: unify sockaddr_mctp types 2021-10-18 13:47:09 +01:00
nios2
nvdimm
openrisc
parisc
PCI pci-v5.15-changes 2021-09-07 19:13:42 -07:00
pcmcia
power Documentation: power: include kernel-doc in Energy Model doc 2021-09-07 21:17:28 +02:00
powerpc powerpc/doc: Fix htmldocs errors 2021-08-27 00:56:34 +10:00
process Merge branch 'gcc-min-version-5.1' (make gcc-5.1 the minimum version) 2021-09-13 10:43:04 -07:00
RCU
riscv
s390
scheduler
scsi
security
sh
sound Yet another set of documentation changes: 2021-09-01 18:49:47 -07:00
sparc
sphinx docs: sphinx-requirements: Move sphinx_rtd_theme to top 2021-08-12 09:15:38 -06:00
sphinx-static
spi
staging
target
timers
trace Tracing updates for 5.15: 2021-09-05 11:50:41 -07:00
translations Merge branch 'gcc-min-version-5.1' (make gcc-5.1 the minimum version) 2021-09-13 10:43:04 -07:00
usb docs: usb: fix malformed table 2021-08-05 12:31:51 +02:00
userspace-api ptp: Document the PTP_CLK_MAGIC ioctl number 2021-10-27 17:02:51 -07:00
virt ARM: 2021-09-07 13:40:51 -07:00
vm Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2021-09-08 12:55:35 -07:00
w1
watchdog
x86 Another collection of documentation patches, mostly fixes but also includes 2021-09-08 16:28:14 -07:00
xtensa
.gitignore
arch.rst
asm-annotations.rst
atomic_bitops.txt
atomic_t.txt Documentation/atomic_t: Document forward progress expectations 2021-08-04 15:16:47 +02:00
Changes
CodingStyle
conf.py docs: pdfdocs: Fix typo in CJK-language specific font settings 2021-09-06 16:53:39 -06:00
COPYING-logo
docutils.conf
dontdiff
index.rst
Kconfig
logo.gif
Makefile
memory-barriers.txt
SubmittingPatches
watch_queue.rst