The "Memory Folios" Work Continues - Improving Linux Performance, 7% Faster Kernel Builds

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The "Memory Folios" Work Continues - Improving Linux Performance, 7% Faster Kernel Builds

Matthew Wilcox of Oracle today sent out his latest patch series implementing the new "memory folios" type for the Linux kernel in an effort to improve Linux memory management and allow for better efficiency that ultimately translates into measurable performance gains...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Memory-Folios-Linux-v11

[nsneck]

Interesting and impressive work. Of course looking forward to many more patchsets, with this maybe landing next year.

Why does this require separate patches to XFS, and why has this only been done for XFS? From the patches this seems to touch just the kernels memory management side, do filesystems really need separate logic for new MM paths?

[skeevy420]

Memory Folios.....THP....struct folio

I am the Great Cornholio. I need TP for my bunghole.

Yeah, this is one of those articles that's just a little above me. Somewhere around the middle it turns into "Well, at least those are words in English".

[boxie]

Interesting and impressive work. Of course looking forward to many more patchsets, with this maybe landing next year.

Why does this require separate patches to XFS, and why has this only been done for XFS? From the patches this seems to touch just the kernels memory management side, do filesystems really need separate logic for new MM paths?

I would suggest that is more that any kernel work needs a user (i.e. not adding new things without having something use it). If they can make XFS (which I am guessing is their default FS) faster, then that's a double win

[FireBurn]

Memory Folios.....THP....struct folio

I am the Great Cornholio. I need TP for my bunghole.

Yeah, this is one of those articles that's just a little above me. Somewhere around the middle it turns into "Well, at least those are words in English".

Don't worry, the author was clearly struggling too

[jabl]

Interesting and impressive work. Of course looking forward to many more patchsets, with this maybe landing next year.

Why does this require separate patches to XFS, and why has this only been done for XFS? From the patches this seems to touch just the kernels memory management side, do filesystems really need separate logic for new MM paths?

Filesystems are tightly integrated into the workings of the page cache, so yes, there is a close coupling between filesystems and the MM code. I haven't looked at the code, but I would guess that the XFS changes amount to working with 'folios' instead of individual pages. As for why XFS in particular, I guess that's just the fs the developer is most familiar with. It doesn't make sense to convert every filesystem yet before the core part is accepted upstream.

[CochainComplex]

Memory Folios.....THP....struct folio

I am the Great Cornholio. I need TP for my bunghole.

Yeah, this is one of those articles that's just a little above me. Somewhere around the middle it turns into "Well, at least those are words in English".

Hhhhehehehehh TP hehehe

[jabl]

Don't worry, the author was clearly struggling too

Here's a short and clear overview what it's about: https://lwn.net/Articles/849538/

[CochainComplex]

btw...

Brilliant Guy: writing this great patchset on memory folios
Linux Geek Community: ....."bungholio....hehehehehhhee TP !"
Brilliant Guy: ....

[Vistaus]

Hhhhehehehehh TP hehehe

Oh, grow up.