From 75d7dd4138edd54f3b539698cb4c78a8494d305c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Stefan Roesch Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2023 21:09:38 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] mm/ksm: document smart scan mode This adds documentation for the smart scan mode of KSM. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix typo] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: document that smart_scan defaults to on] Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230926040939.516161-4-shr@devkernel.io Signed-off-by: Stefan Roesch Reviewed-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: Johannes Weiner Cc: Rik van Riel Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton --- Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst | 9 +++++++++ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst index 776f244bdae4..9d235c1bbbf2 100644 --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst @@ -155,6 +155,15 @@ stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs scan. It's a noop if not a single KSM page hit the ``max_page_sharing`` yet. +smart_scan + Historically KSM checked every candidate page for each scan. It did + not take into account historic information. When smart scan is + enabled, pages that have previously not been de-duplicated get + skipped. How often these pages are skipped depends on how often + de-duplication has already been tried and failed. By default this + optimization is enabled. The ``pages_skipped`` metric shows how + effective the setting is. + The effectiveness of KSM and MADV_MERGEABLE is shown in ``/sys/kernel/mm/ksm/``: general_profit -- 2.20.1