kernel_optimize_test/arch/powerpc
Nick Piggin c2452f3278 shrink struct dentry
struct dentry is one of the most critical structures in the kernel. So it's
sad to see it going neglected.

With CONFIG_PROFILING turned on (which is probably the common case at least
for distros and kernel developers), sizeof(struct dcache) == 208 here
(64-bit). This gives 19 objects per slab.

I packed d_mounted into a hole, and took another 4 bytes off the inline
name length to take the padding out from the end of the structure. This
shinks it to 200 bytes. I could have gone the other way and increased the
length to 40, but I'm aiming for a magic number, read on...

I then got rid of the d_cookie pointer. This shrinks it to 192 bytes. Rant:
why was this ever a good idea? The cookie system should increase its hash
size or use a tree or something if lookups are a problem. Also the "fast
dcookie lookups" in oprofile should be moved into the dcookie code -- how
can oprofile possibly care about the dcookie_mutex? It gets dropped after
get_dcookie() returns so it can't be providing any sort of protection.

At 192 bytes, 21 objects fit into a 4K page, saving about 3MB on my system
with ~140 000 entries allocated. 192 is also a multiple of 64, so we get
nice cacheline alignment on 64 and 32 byte line systems -- any given dentry
will now require 3 cachelines to touch all fields wheras previously it
would require 4.

I know the inline name size was chosen quite carefully, however with the
reduction in cacheline footprint, it should actually be just about as fast
to do a name lookup for a 36 character name as it was before the patch (and
faster for other sizes). The memory footprint savings for names which are
<= 32 or > 36 bytes long should more than make up for the memory cost for
33-36 byte names.

Performance is a feature...

Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
2008-12-31 18:07:38 -05:00
..
boot Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
configs Merge branch 'next' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jwboyer/powerpc-4xx into next 2008-12-17 11:01:43 +11:00
include/asm Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
kernel Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
kvm powerpc: Fix KVM build on ppc440 2008-12-23 14:58:30 +11:00
lib Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
math-emu powerpc: Add SPE/EFP math emulation for E500v1/v2 processors. 2008-12-03 08:19:16 -06:00
mm Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
oprofile shrink struct dentry 2008-12-31 18:07:38 -05:00
platforms Merge branch 'core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip 2008-12-30 16:10:19 -08:00
sysdev Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
xmon powerpc: Prepare xmon_save_regs for use with kdump 2008-12-23 15:13:28 +11:00
Kconfig Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulus/powerpc 2008-12-28 16:54:33 -08:00
Kconfig.debug powerpc: Allow the max stack trace depth to be configured 2008-12-03 20:46:35 +11:00
Makefile powerpc: Remove unncessary SPE related compiler flag 2008-12-03 08:19:10 -06:00