mm/page-writeback.c: print a warning if the vm dirtiness settings are illogical

The vm direct limit setting must be set greater than vm background limit
setting.  Otherwise print a warning to help the operator to figure out
that the vm dirtiness settings is in illogical state.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/[email protected]
Signed-off-by: Yafang Shao <[email protected]>
Cc: Jan Kara <[email protected]>
Cc: Michal Hocko <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>

diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
index 9baf66a9ef4e7e57f24388d3da3130da83503195..30fd16b141968dccfc216f55343bbfd6dc21b245 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
@@ -157,6 +157,10 @@ Note: the minimum value allowed for dirty_bytes is two pages (in bytes); any
 value lower than this limit will be ignored and the old configuration will be
 retained.
 
+Note: the value of dirty_bytes also must be set greater than
+dirty_background_bytes or the amount of memory corresponding to
+dirty_background_ratio.
+
 ==============================================================
 
 dirty_expire_centisecs
@@ -176,6 +180,9 @@ generating disk writes will itself start writing out dirty data.
 
 The total available memory is not equal to total system memory.
 
+Note: dirty_ratio must be set greater than dirty_background_ratio or
+ratio corresponding to dirty_background_bytes.
+
 ==============================================================
 
 dirty_writeback_centisecs

diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 76a43c17761b4e0735e18d2aa65f536b66aa0edb..768fe4e37e6aedcb1b5f98633b8c5ad65aab1db3 100644 (file)
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -433,8 +433,11 @@ static void domain_dirty_limits(struct dirty_throttle_control *dtc)
        else
                bg_thresh = (bg_ratio * available_memory) / PAGE_SIZE;
 
-       if (bg_thresh >= thresh)
+       if (unlikely(bg_thresh >= thresh)) {
+               pr_warn("vm direct limit must be set greater than background limit.\n");
                bg_thresh = thresh / 2;
+       }
+
        tsk = current;
        if (tsk->flags & PF_LESS_THROTTLE || rt_task(tsk)) {
                bg_thresh += bg_thresh / 4 + global_wb_domain.dirty_limit / 32;