mm: clarify __GFP_MEMALLOC usage
authorMichal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Wed, 3 Jun 2020 22:56:49 +0000 (15:56 -0700)
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Thu, 4 Jun 2020 03:09:43 +0000 (20:09 -0700)
commit574c1ae66c12410a08aeef8474936baa50e0371d
tree0380ac43d2e361fc1fcfc7e6b6ffdd637fab1589
parent47227d27e2fcb01a9e8f5958d8997cf47a820afc
mm: clarify __GFP_MEMALLOC usage

It seems that the existing documentation is not explicit about the
expected usage and potential risks enough.  While it is calls out that
users have to free memory when using this flag it is not really apparent
that users have to careful to not deplete memory reserves and that they
should implement some sort of throttling wrt.  freeing process.

This is partly based on Neil's explanation [1].

Let's also call out that a pre allocated pool allocator should be
considered.

[1] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/877dz0yxoa.fsf@notabene.neil.brown.name

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: coding style fixes]
[mhocko@kernel.org: update]
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200406070137.GC19426@dhcp22.suse.cz
Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
Cc: Joel Fernandes <joel@joelfernandes.org>
Cc: Neil Brown <neilb@suse.de>
Cc: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
Cc: John Hubbard <jhubbard@nvidia.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200403083543.11552-2-mhocko@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
include/linux/gfp.h