From: Christoph Lameter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:01:36 -0700 (PDT)
> Modify the functions in the affected arches to check for PageSlab() and > use a NULL mapping if such a page is encountered. This may only be > necessary for parisc and arm since sparc64 and xtensa do not scan over > processes mapping a page but I have modified those two arches also for > correctnesses sake since they use page_mapping() in flush_dcache_page(). > > Still a better solution would be to not use the slab allocator at all for > the objects that are used to send commands to the devices. These are not > permanent and grabbing a page from the pcp lists and putting it back is > likely as fast as performing a kmalloc. Jens Axboe wants to get references to the page structs behind kmalloc() allocated pages in his networking splice work. We pass scatterlists around, but networking buffers are composed of a kmalloc()'d data header area for packet headers and some of the initial packet data, then a true scatterlist of page/offset/len triplets. Splice wants to work with pages everwhere. This is a reocurring theme, we should provide some kind of solution to these issues instead of wishing they would go away. We could make a special allocator in the networking that carves chunks out of pages but I'm sure you'll find that about as stupid and wasteful as I do :-) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/