linux/Documentation/filesystems
David Rientjes 2da02997e0 mm: add dirty_background_bytes and dirty_bytes sysctls
This change introduces two new sysctls to /proc/sys/vm:
dirty_background_bytes and dirty_bytes.

dirty_background_bytes is the counterpart to dirty_background_ratio and
dirty_bytes is the counterpart to dirty_ratio.

With growing memory capacities of individual machines, it's no longer
sufficient to specify dirty thresholds as a percentage of the amount of
dirtyable memory over the entire system.

dirty_background_bytes and dirty_bytes specify quantities of memory, in
bytes, that represent the dirty limits for the entire system.  If either
of these values is set, its value represents the amount of dirty memory
that is needed to commence either background or direct writeback.

When a `bytes' or `ratio' file is written, its counterpart becomes a
function of the written value.  For example, if dirty_bytes is written to
be 8096, 8K of memory is required to commence direct writeback.
dirty_ratio is then functionally equivalent to 8K / the amount of
dirtyable memory:

	dirtyable_memory = free pages + mapped pages + file cache

	dirty_background_bytes = dirty_background_ratio * dirtyable_memory
		-or-
	dirty_background_ratio = dirty_background_bytes / dirtyable_memory

		AND

	dirty_bytes = dirty_ratio * dirtyable_memory
		-or-
	dirty_ratio = dirty_bytes / dirtyable_memory

Only one of dirty_background_bytes and dirty_background_ratio may be
specified at a time, and only one of dirty_bytes and dirty_ratio may be
specified.  When one sysctl is written, the other appears as 0 when read.

The `bytes' files operate on a page size granularity since dirty limits
are compared with ZVC values, which are in page units.

Prior to this change, the minimum dirty_ratio was 5 as implemented by
get_dirty_limits() although /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio would show any user
written value between 0 and 100.  This restriction is maintained, but
dirty_bytes has a lower limit of only one page.

Also prior to this change, the dirty_background_ratio could not equal or
exceed dirty_ratio.  This restriction is maintained in addition to
restricting dirty_background_bytes.  If either background threshold equals
or exceeds that of the dirty threshold, it is implicitly set to half the
dirty threshold.

Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
Cc: Andrea Righi <righi.andrea@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2009-01-06 15:59:03 -08:00
..
configfs docsrc: build Documentation/ sources 2008-08-12 16:07:30 -07:00
9p.txt 9p: add virtio transport 2007-10-23 13:47:31 -05:00
00-INDEX Documentation: move rpc-cache.txt to filesystems/ 2008-04-11 13:20:52 -06:00
adfs.txt Fix typos in /Documentation : 'U-Z' 2006-11-30 04:58:40 +01:00
affs.txt [PATCH] kernel Doc/ URL corrections 2005-11-22 09:14:30 -08:00
afs.txt [AFS]: Update the AFS fs documentation. 2007-04-26 15:57:43 -07:00
autofs4-mount-control.txt autofs4: device node ioctl documentation 2008-10-16 11:21:39 -07:00
automount-support.txt VFS: Unexport do_kern_mount() and clean up simple_pin_fs() 2006-06-09 09:34:16 -04:00
befs.txt Fix typos in Documentation/: 'Q'-'R' 2006-10-03 22:54:15 +02:00
bfs.txt remove mention of CONFIG_KMOD from documentation 2008-07-22 19:24:29 +10:00
cifs.txt
coda.txt
cramfs.txt
dentry-locking.txt [PATCH] VFS: split dentry locking documentation 2005-11-07 07:53:56 -08:00
devpts.txt Document usage of multiple-instances of devpts 2009-01-02 10:19:36 -08:00
directory-locking Documentation: Fix up docs still talking about i_sem 2007-05-24 10:16:17 -07:00
dlmfs.txt Fix typos in Documentation/: 'D'-'E' 2006-10-03 22:47:42 +02:00
dnotify.txt Documentation: move dnotify.txt to filesystems/ 2008-02-07 08:42:17 -08:00
ecryptfs.txt eCryptfs: Move ecryptfs docs into Documentation/filesystems/ 2007-07-17 10:23:08 -07:00
Exporting exportfs: update documentation 2007-10-22 08:13:21 -07:00
ext2.txt Fix typos in Documentation/: 'N'-'P' 2006-10-03 22:52:05 +02:00
ext3.txt ext3: add an option to control error handling on file data 2008-10-20 08:52:37 -07:00
ext4.txt ext4: Update Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt 2008-10-17 09:15:14 -04:00
fiemap.txt vfs: vfs-level fiemap interface 2008-10-08 19:44:18 -04:00
files.txt fix f_count description in Documentation/filesystems/files.txt 2008-12-31 18:07:42 -05:00
fuse.txt [PATCH] fuse: fix typo 2006-12-30 10:56:45 -08:00
gfs2-glocks.txt [GFS2] Glock documentation 2008-06-27 09:39:53 +01:00
gfs2.txt [GFS2] Update documentation 2006-04-25 15:44:04 -04:00
hfs.txt
hfsplus.txt Documentation: document HFSPlus 2007-07-31 15:39:38 -07:00
hpfs.txt misc doc and kconfig typos 2007-05-09 08:58:15 +02:00
inotify.txt [PATCH] inotify (5/5): update kernel documentation 2006-06-20 05:25:19 -04:00
isofs.txt isofs: implement dmode option 2008-02-08 09:22:38 -08:00
jfs.txt JFS: document uid, gid, and umask mount options in jfs.txt 2007-03-09 10:27:31 -06:00
Locking kill ->dir_notify() 2008-12-31 18:07:43 -05:00
locks.txt Documentation: move locks.txt in filesystems/ 2007-10-09 18:32:45 -04:00
mandatory-locking.txt locks: add warning about mandatory locking races 2007-10-09 18:32:45 -04:00
ncpfs.txt
nfs-rdma.txt nfs: rewrap NFS/RDMA documentation to 80 lines 2008-06-30 15:24:43 -04:00
nfsroot.txt doc: typo in Documentation/filesystems/nfsroot.txt 2008-10-16 11:21:31 -07:00
ntfs.txt NTFS: update homepage 2008-09-02 19:21:37 -07:00
ocfs2.txt ocfs2: add mount option and Kconfig option for acl 2009-01-05 08:36:52 -08:00
omfs.txt omfs: add filesystem documentation 2008-07-26 12:00:05 -07:00
porting iget: remove iget() and the read_inode() super op as being obsolete 2008-02-07 08:42:29 -08:00
proc.txt mm: add dirty_background_bytes and dirty_bytes sysctls 2009-01-06 15:59:03 -08:00
quota.txt quota: documentation for sending "below quota" messages via netlink and tiny doc update 2008-08-12 16:07:27 -07:00
ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt Trivial Documentation/filesystems/ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt fix 2008-11-30 11:40:56 -08:00
relay.txt relay: add buffer-only channels; useful for early logging 2008-07-26 12:00:04 -07:00
romfs.txt
rpc-cache.txt Documentation: move rpc-cache.txt to filesystems/ 2008-04-11 13:20:52 -06:00
seq_file.txt Document seq_path_root() 2008-04-25 11:56:37 -06:00
sharedsubtree.txt Documentation: move sharedsubtrees.txt to filesystems/ 2008-02-07 08:42:17 -08:00
smbfs.txt
spufs.txt Fix typos in /Documentation : 'U-Z' 2006-11-30 04:58:40 +01:00
sysfs-pci.txt x86: PAT export resource_wc in pci sysfs 2008-06-12 10:12:42 +02:00
sysfs.txt sysfs: add /sys/dev/{char,block} to lookup sysfs path by major:minor 2008-07-21 21:54:40 -07:00
sysv-fs.txt [PATCH] fs/sysv/: doc cleanup 2006-12-07 08:39:44 -08:00
tmpfs.txt mempolicy: update NUMA memory policy documentation 2008-04-28 08:58:19 -07:00
ubifs.txt UBIFS: fix numerous spelling mistakes 2008-12-31 14:13:25 +02:00
udf.txt [PATCH] Update udf documentation to reflect current state of read/write support 2006-11-16 11:43:38 -08:00
ufs.txt [PATCH] ufs2 write: mount as rw 2007-02-12 09:48:40 -08:00
vfat.txt fat: Fix ATTR_RO for directory 2008-11-06 15:41:21 -08:00
vfs.txt kill ->dir_notify() 2008-12-31 18:07:43 -05:00
xfs.txt [XFS] remove restricted chown parameter from xfs linux 2008-10-30 18:30:09 +11:00
xip.txt DOC: update xip method info 2008-11-12 17:17:17 -08:00