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-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst100
1 files changed, 96 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst
index c73b16930449..e4551579cb12 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/blockdev/zram.rst
@@ -348,8 +348,13 @@ this can be accomplished with::
echo huge_idle > /sys/block/zramX/writeback
+If a user chooses to writeback only incompressible pages (pages that none of
+algorithms can compress) this can be accomplished with::
+
+ echo incompressible > /sys/block/zramX/writeback
+
If an admin wants to write a specific page in zram device to the backing device,
-they could write a page index into the interface.
+they could write a page index into the interface::
echo "page_index=1251" > /sys/block/zramX/writeback
@@ -401,6 +406,87 @@ budget in next setting is user's job.
If admin wants to measure writeback count in a certain period, they could
know it via /sys/block/zram0/bd_stat's 3rd column.
+recompression
+-------------
+
+With CONFIG_ZRAM_MULTI_COMP, zram can recompress pages using alternative
+(secondary) compression algorithms. The basic idea is that alternative
+compression algorithm can provide better compression ratio at a price of
+(potentially) slower compression/decompression speeds. Alternative compression
+algorithm can, for example, be more successful compressing huge pages (those
+that default algorithm failed to compress). Another application is idle pages
+recompression - pages that are cold and sit in the memory can be recompressed
+using more effective algorithm and, hence, reduce zsmalloc memory usage.
+
+With CONFIG_ZRAM_MULTI_COMP, zram supports up to 4 compression algorithms:
+one primary and up to 3 secondary ones. Primary zram compressor is explained
+in "3) Select compression algorithm", secondary algorithms are configured
+using recomp_algorithm device attribute.
+
+Example:::
+
+ #show supported recompression algorithms
+ cat /sys/block/zramX/recomp_algorithm
+ #1: lzo lzo-rle lz4 lz4hc [zstd]
+ #2: lzo lzo-rle lz4 [lz4hc] zstd
+
+Alternative compression algorithms are sorted by priority. In the example
+above, zstd is used as the first alternative algorithm, which has priority
+of 1, while lz4hc is configured as a compression algorithm with priority 2.
+Alternative compression algorithm's priority is provided during algorithms
+configuration:::
+
+ #select zstd recompression algorithm, priority 1
+ echo "algo=zstd priority=1" > /sys/block/zramX/recomp_algorithm
+
+ #select deflate recompression algorithm, priority 2
+ echo "algo=deflate priority=2" > /sys/block/zramX/recomp_algorithm
+
+Another device attribute that CONFIG_ZRAM_MULTI_COMP enables is recompress,
+which controls recompression.
+
+Examples:::
+
+ #IDLE pages recompression is activated by `idle` mode
+ echo "type=idle" > /sys/block/zramX/recompress
+
+ #HUGE pages recompression is activated by `huge` mode
+ echo "type=huge" > /sys/block/zram0/recompress
+
+ #HUGE_IDLE pages recompression is activated by `huge_idle` mode
+ echo "type=huge_idle" > /sys/block/zramX/recompress
+
+The number of idle pages can be significant, so user-space can pass a size
+threshold (in bytes) to the recompress knob: zram will recompress only pages
+of equal or greater size:::
+
+ #recompress all pages larger than 3000 bytes
+ echo "threshold=3000" > /sys/block/zramX/recompress
+
+ #recompress idle pages larger than 2000 bytes
+ echo "type=idle threshold=2000" > /sys/block/zramX/recompress
+
+Recompression of idle pages requires memory tracking.
+
+During re-compression for every page, that matches re-compression criteria,
+ZRAM iterates the list of registered alternative compression algorithms in
+order of their priorities. ZRAM stops either when re-compression was
+successful (re-compressed object is smaller in size than the original one)
+and matches re-compression criteria (e.g. size threshold) or when there are
+no secondary algorithms left to try. If none of the secondary algorithms can
+successfully re-compressed the page such a page is marked as incompressible,
+so ZRAM will not attempt to re-compress it in the future.
+
+This re-compression behaviour, when it iterates through the list of
+registered compression algorithms, increases our chances of finding the
+algorithm that successfully compresses a particular page. Sometimes, however,
+it is convenient (and sometimes even necessary) to limit recompression to
+only one particular algorithm so that it will not try any other algorithms.
+This can be achieved by providing a algo=NAME parameter:::
+
+ #use zstd algorithm only (if registered)
+ echo "type=huge algo=zstd" > /sys/block/zramX/recompress
+
memory tracking
===============
@@ -411,9 +497,11 @@ pages of the process with*pagemap.
If you enable the feature, you could see block state via
/sys/kernel/debug/zram/zram0/block_state". The output is as follows::
- 300 75.033841 .wh.
- 301 63.806904 s...
- 302 63.806919 ..hi
+ 300 75.033841 .wh...
+ 301 63.806904 s.....
+ 302 63.806919 ..hi..
+ 303 62.801919 ....r.
+ 304 146.781902 ..hi.n
First column
zram's block index.
@@ -430,6 +518,10 @@ Third column
huge page
i:
idle page
+ r:
+ recompressed page (secondary compression algorithm)
+ n:
+ none (including secondary) of algorithms could compress it
First line of above example says 300th block is accessed at 75.033841sec
and the block's state is huge so it is written back to the backing