Kernel dynamic memory allocation tracking and reduction - Revision history

Tim Bird at 18:13, 15 August 2012

2012-08-15T18:13:07Z

Tim Bird: /* Description */

2012-08-02T00:01:42Z

‎Description

Tim Bird: /* Contractor Candidates */

2012-05-30T22:16:02Z

‎Contractor Candidates

Tim Bird: /* Related work */

2012-05-23T17:18:04Z

‎Related work

Hisaomunakata at 05:15, 17 May 2012

2012-05-17T05:15:28Z

Hisaomunakata: Created page with "; Summary: kernel dynamic memory allocation tracking and reduction ; Proposer: Tim Bird, Sony Network Entertainment == Description == The purpose of this project is to identify..."

2012-05-17T05:13:58Z

Created page with "; Summary: kernel dynamic memory allocation tracking and reduction ; Proposer: Tim Bird, Sony Network Entertainment == Description == The purpose of this project is to identify..."

New page

; Summary: kernel dynamic memory allocation tracking and reduction

; Proposer: Tim Bird, Sony Network Entertainment

== Description ==
The purpose of this project is to identify (and hopefully reduce) extraneous
dynamic memory allocations by the Linux kernel, in an effort to reduce overall
the runtime kernel memory footprint. For systems with less than 4M, this is
still important.

This project would consist of identifying kernel dynamic memory allocations,
and "wasted areas" due to memory fragmentation, bad fit between requested
and provided memory areas, and overhead caused by the allocator itself.
The goal would be to determine which parts of the Linux kernel
allocated too much memory, or wasted memory through fragmentation or
inefficiency, and to improve them.

Other efforts, to identify and optimize static memory utilization are
well-know and still available. Linux-tiny used to have a patch which
implemented the slab memory allocator, to provide detailed information
about each caller of kmalloc and kmem_cache_alloc().
It would be nice to revive this work, and use it to improve the memory
footprint of the kernel.

== Related work ==
* /proc/slabinfo and tools/vm/slabinfo
* does tools/vm/slabinfo cross-compile?
* CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC and CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB and CONFIG_TRACING
* does tracing, with appropriate event capture, and a post-processing tool, accomplish what is needed?
* see slob-accounting.patch at: http://elinux.org/index.php?title=Linux_Tiny_Patch_Details
* CONFIG_DEBUG_SLOB_ACCOUNT and CONFIG_KMALLOC_ACCOUNTING
* Tim has an updated, but never published patches:
* /proc/cache_account, casort, slabalyze
* /proc/kmalloc-accounting (replaced by cache_account?)

== Scope ==
Unknown

== Contractor Candidates ==
None so far

== Comments ==

[[Category:Project proposals 2012]]

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 It would be nice to revive this work, and use it to improve the memory
 footprint of the kernel.
 == Related work ==

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Other efforts, to identify and optimize static memory utilization are
 well-know and still available. Linux-tiny used to have a patch which
-implemented the slab memory allocator, to provide detailed information
+instrumented the slab memory allocator, to provide detailed information
 about each caller of kmalloc and kmem_cache_alloc().
 It would be nice to revive this work, and use it to improve the memory

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 == Contractor Candidates ==
-None so far
+Ezequiel Garcia
 == Comments ==
 [[Category:Project proposals 2012]]

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 == Related work ==
 * /proc/slabinfo and tools/vm/slabinfo
-* does tools/vm/slabinfo cross-compile?
+** does tools/vm/slabinfo cross-compile?
 * CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC and CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB and CONFIG_TRACING
-* does tracing, with appropriate event capture, and a post-processing tool, accomplish what is needed?
+* Can ftrace, with appropriate event capture, and a post-processing tool, accomplish what is needed?
 * see slob-accounting.patch at: http://elinux.org/index.php?title=Linux_Tiny_Patch_Details
-* CONFIG_DEBUG_SLOB_ACCOUNT and CONFIG_KMALLOC_ACCOUNTING
+** CONFIG_DEBUG_SLOB_ACCOUNT and CONFIG_KMALLOC_ACCOUNTING
-* Tim has an updated, but never published patches:
+* Tim has some updated but never published patches:
-* /proc/cache_account, casort, slabalyze
+** /proc/cache_account, casort, slabalyze
-* /proc/kmalloc-accounting (replaced by cache_account?)
+** /proc/kmalloc-accounting (replaced by cache_account?)
-−
 == Scope ==