memcg: add interface to move charge at task migration

[~andy/linux] / Documentation / cgroups / memory.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt b/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt
index b871f2552b45760e87de534ef119ab5e6dcdd102..e726fb0df71962b76ac53613079fb62b741448c3 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt
@@ -262,10 +262,12 @@ some of the pages cached in the cgroup (page cache pages).
 4.2 Task migration
 
 When a task migrates from one cgroup to another, it's charge is not
-carried forward. The pages allocated from the original cgroup still
+carried forward by default. The pages allocated from the original cgroup still
 remain charged to it, the charge is dropped when the page is freed or
 reclaimed.
 
+Note: You can move charges of a task along with task migration. See 8.
+
 4.3 Removing a cgroup
 
 A cgroup can be removed by rmdir, but as discussed in sections 4.1 and 4.2, a
@@ -414,7 +416,57 @@ NOTE1: Soft limits take effect over a long period of time, since they involve
 NOTE2: It is recommended to set the soft limit always below the hard limit,
        otherwise the hard limit will take precedence.
 
-8. TODO
+8. Move charges at task migration
+
+Users can move charges associated with a task along with task migration, that
+is, uncharge task's pages from the old cgroup and charge them to the new cgroup.
+
+8.1 Interface
+
+This feature is disabled by default. It can be enabled(and disabled again) by
+writing to memory.move_charge_at_immigrate of the destination cgroup.
+
+If you want to enable it:
+
+# echo (some positive value) > memory.move_charge_at_immigrate
+
+Note: Each bits of move_charge_at_immigrate has its own meaning about what type
+      of charges should be moved. See 8.2 for details.
+Note: Charges are moved only when you move mm->owner, IOW, a leader of a thread
+      group.
+Note: If we cannot find enough space for the task in the destination cgroup, we
+      try to make space by reclaiming memory. Task migration may fail if we
+      cannot make enough space.
+Note: It can take several seconds if you move charges in giga bytes order.
+
+And if you want disable it again:
+
+# echo 0 > memory.move_charge_at_immigrate
+
+8.2 Type of charges which can be move
+
+Each bits of move_charge_at_immigrate has its own meaning about what type of
+charges should be moved.
+
+  bit | what type of charges would be moved ?
+ -----+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+   0  | A charge of an anonymous page(or swap of it) used by the target task.
+      | Those pages and swaps must be used only by the target task. You must
+      | enable Swap Extension(see 2.4) to enable move of swap charges.
+
+Note: Those pages and swaps must be charged to the old cgroup.
+Note: More type of pages(e.g. file cache, shmem,) will be supported by other
+      bits in future.
+
+8.3 TODO
+
+- Add support for other types of pages(e.g. file cache, shmem, etc.).
+- Implement madvise(2) to let users decide the vma to be moved or not to be
+  moved.
+- All of moving charge operations are done under cgroup_mutex. It's not good
+  behavior to hold the mutex too long, so we may need some trick.
+
+9. TODO
 
 1. Add support for accounting huge pages (as a separate controller)
 2. Make per-cgroup scanner reclaim not-shared pages first