[3.8.y.z extended stable] Patch "dm: allocate buffer for messages with small number of arguments using" has been added to staging queue

[Kamal Mostafa]

This is a note to let you know that I have just added a patch titled

    dm: allocate buffer for messages with small number of arguments using

to the linux-3.8.y-queue branch of the 3.8.y.z extended stable tree 
which can be found at:

 http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/linux.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/linux-3.8.y-queue

This patch is scheduled to be released in version 3.8.13.14.

If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to this tree, please 
reply to this email.

For more information about the 3.8.y.z tree, see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Dev/ExtendedStable

Thanks.
-Kamal

------

>From 697305f628f3e2b804d500201fb0d38ad55cb017 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka at redhat.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:55:45 -0400
Subject: dm: allocate buffer for messages with small number of arguments using
 GFP_NOIO

commit f36afb3957353d2529cb2b00f78fdccd14fc5e9c upstream.

dm-mpath and dm-thin must process messages even if some device is
suspended, so we allocate argv buffer with GFP_NOIO. These messages have
a small fixed number of arguments.

On the other hand, dm-switch needs to process bulk data using messages
so excessive use of GFP_NOIO could cause trouble.

The patch also lowers the default number of arguments from 64 to 8, so
that there is smaller load on GFP_NOIO allocations.

Signed-off-by: Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka at redhat.com>
Acked-by: Alasdair G Kergon <agk at redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Mike Snitzer <snitzer at redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Kamal Mostafa <kamal at canonical.com>
---
 drivers/md/dm-table.c | 18 ++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/md/dm-table.c b/drivers/md/dm-table.c
index 62545f6..ee51e08 100644
--- a/drivers/md/dm-table.c
+++ b/drivers/md/dm-table.c
@@ -581,14 +581,28 @@ static int adjoin(struct dm_table *table, struct dm_target *ti)

 /*
  * Used to dynamically allocate the arg array.
+ *
+ * We do first allocation with GFP_NOIO because dm-mpath and dm-thin must
+ * process messages even if some device is suspended. These messages have a
+ * small fixed number of arguments.
+ *
+ * On the other hand, dm-switch needs to process bulk data using messages and
+ * excessive use of GFP_NOIO could cause trouble.
  */
 static char **realloc_argv(unsigned *array_size, char **old_argv)
 {
 	char **argv;
 	unsigned new_size;
+	gfp_t gfp;

-	new_size = *array_size ? *array_size * 2 : 64;
-	argv = kmalloc(new_size * sizeof(*argv), GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (*array_size) {
+		new_size = *array_size * 2;
+		gfp = GFP_KERNEL;
+	} else {
+		new_size = 8;
+		gfp = GFP_NOIO;
+	}
+	argv = kmalloc(new_size * sizeof(*argv), gfp);
 	if (argv) {
 		memcpy(argv, old_argv, *array_size * sizeof(*argv));
 		*array_size = new_size;
--
1.8.3.2