MGLRU v14 Released For Improving Linux Low-Memory Performance

While Linux 6.0 will bring a lot of shiny new features, Multi-Gen LRU (MGLRU) is one of the anticipated changes that isn't going to land now until Linux 6.1. But in the interim, MGLRU v14 was posted today that re-bases the code against 6.0-rc1 to help facilitate more testing of this kernel change that primarily helps Linux systems under memory pressure.

MGLRU has been performing very well in my own testing and the performance benchmarks are looking very great from this kernel feature already in use by Google's Android and Chrome OS platforms. MGLRU is about reworking the Linux kernel's page reclamation code after Google engineers found the existing code too consuming on the CPU and often making more eviction choices.

MGLRU is expected for Linux 6.1 alongside the kernel's Maple Tree work. Linus Torvalds had also been looking -- and hoping -- MGLRU would have been ready for the 6.0 merge window but alas the timing didn't work out.

MGLRU v14 has been re-based against the latest mm-unstable code of Andrew Morton's branch and re-tested with the Linux 6.0-rc1 state. Everything seems to be in good shape come the v6.1 merge window in about two months.

More details on MGLRU for those interested via the v14 patch series.