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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-06 01:02:30 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-06 01:02:30 +0000
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Adding upstream version 4.19.249.upstream/4.19.249
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+zram: Compressed RAM based block devices
+----------------------------------------
+
+* Introduction
+
+The zram module creates RAM based block devices named /dev/zram<id>
+(<id> = 0, 1, ...). Pages written to these disks are compressed and stored
+in memory itself. These disks allow very fast I/O and compression provides
+good amounts of memory savings. Some of the usecases include /tmp storage,
+use as swap disks, various caches under /var and maybe many more :)
+
+Statistics for individual zram devices are exported through sysfs nodes at
+/sys/block/zram<id>/
+
+* Usage
+
+There are several ways to configure and manage zram device(-s):
+a) using zram and zram_control sysfs attributes
+b) using zramctl utility, provided by util-linux (util-linux@vger.kernel.org).
+
+In this document we will describe only 'manual' zram configuration steps,
+IOW, zram and zram_control sysfs attributes.
+
+In order to get a better idea about zramctl please consult util-linux
+documentation, zramctl man-page or `zramctl --help'. Please be informed
+that zram maintainers do not develop/maintain util-linux or zramctl, should
+you have any questions please contact util-linux@vger.kernel.org
+
+Following shows a typical sequence of steps for using zram.
+
+WARNING
+=======
+For the sake of simplicity we skip error checking parts in most of the
+examples below. However, it is your sole responsibility to handle errors.
+
+zram sysfs attributes always return negative values in case of errors.
+The list of possible return codes:
+-EBUSY -- an attempt to modify an attribute that cannot be changed once
+the device has been initialised. Please reset device first;
+-ENOMEM -- zram was not able to allocate enough memory to fulfil your
+needs;
+-EINVAL -- invalid input has been provided.
+
+If you use 'echo', the returned value that is changed by 'echo' utility,
+and, in general case, something like:
+
+ echo 3 > /sys/block/zram0/max_comp_streams
+ if [ $? -ne 0 ];
+ handle_error
+ fi
+
+should suffice.
+
+1) Load Module:
+ modprobe zram num_devices=4
+ This creates 4 devices: /dev/zram{0,1,2,3}
+
+num_devices parameter is optional and tells zram how many devices should be
+pre-created. Default: 1.
+
+2) Set max number of compression streams
+Regardless the value passed to this attribute, ZRAM will always
+allocate multiple compression streams - one per online CPUs - thus
+allowing several concurrent compression operations. The number of
+allocated compression streams goes down when some of the CPUs
+become offline. There is no single-compression-stream mode anymore,
+unless you are running a UP system or has only 1 CPU online.
+
+To find out how many streams are currently available:
+ cat /sys/block/zram0/max_comp_streams
+
+3) Select compression algorithm
+Using comp_algorithm device attribute one can see available and
+currently selected (shown in square brackets) compression algorithms,
+change selected compression algorithm (once the device is initialised
+there is no way to change compression algorithm).
+
+Examples:
+ #show supported compression algorithms
+ cat /sys/block/zram0/comp_algorithm
+ lzo [lz4]
+
+ #select lzo compression algorithm
+ echo lzo > /sys/block/zram0/comp_algorithm
+
+For the time being, the `comp_algorithm' content does not necessarily
+show every compression algorithm supported by the kernel. We keep this
+list primarily to simplify device configuration and one can configure
+a new device with a compression algorithm that is not listed in
+`comp_algorithm'. The thing is that, internally, ZRAM uses Crypto API
+and, if some of the algorithms were built as modules, it's impossible
+to list all of them using, for instance, /proc/crypto or any other
+method. This, however, has an advantage of permitting the usage of
+custom crypto compression modules (implementing S/W or H/W compression).
+
+4) Set Disksize
+Set disk size by writing the value to sysfs node 'disksize'.
+The value can be either in bytes or you can use mem suffixes.
+Examples:
+ # Initialize /dev/zram0 with 50MB disksize
+ echo $((50*1024*1024)) > /sys/block/zram0/disksize
+
+ # Using mem suffixes
+ echo 256K > /sys/block/zram0/disksize
+ echo 512M > /sys/block/zram0/disksize
+ echo 1G > /sys/block/zram0/disksize
+
+Note:
+There is little point creating a zram of greater than twice the size of memory
+since we expect a 2:1 compression ratio. Note that zram uses about 0.1% of the
+size of the disk when not in use so a huge zram is wasteful.
+
+5) Set memory limit: Optional
+Set memory limit by writing the value to sysfs node 'mem_limit'.
+The value can be either in bytes or you can use mem suffixes.
+In addition, you could change the value in runtime.
+Examples:
+ # limit /dev/zram0 with 50MB memory
+ echo $((50*1024*1024)) > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit
+
+ # Using mem suffixes
+ echo 256K > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit
+ echo 512M > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit
+ echo 1G > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit
+
+ # To disable memory limit
+ echo 0 > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit
+
+6) Activate:
+ mkswap /dev/zram0
+ swapon /dev/zram0
+
+ mkfs.ext4 /dev/zram1
+ mount /dev/zram1 /tmp
+
+7) Add/remove zram devices
+
+zram provides a control interface, which enables dynamic (on-demand) device
+addition and removal.
+
+In order to add a new /dev/zramX device, perform read operation on hot_add
+attribute. This will return either new device's device id (meaning that you
+can use /dev/zram<id>) or error code.
+
+Example:
+ cat /sys/class/zram-control/hot_add
+ 1
+
+To remove the existing /dev/zramX device (where X is a device id)
+execute
+ echo X > /sys/class/zram-control/hot_remove
+
+8) Stats:
+Per-device statistics are exported as various nodes under /sys/block/zram<id>/
+
+A brief description of exported device attributes. For more details please
+read Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-block-zram.
+
+Name access description
+---- ------ -----------
+disksize RW show and set the device's disk size
+initstate RO shows the initialization state of the device
+reset WO trigger device reset
+mem_used_max WO reset the `mem_used_max' counter (see later)
+mem_limit WO specifies the maximum amount of memory ZRAM can use
+ to store the compressed data
+max_comp_streams RW the number of possible concurrent compress operations
+comp_algorithm RW show and change the compression algorithm
+compact WO trigger memory compaction
+debug_stat RO this file is used for zram debugging purposes
+backing_dev RW set up backend storage for zram to write out
+
+
+User space is advised to use the following files to read the device statistics.
+
+File /sys/block/zram<id>/stat
+
+Represents block layer statistics. Read Documentation/block/stat.txt for
+details.
+
+File /sys/block/zram<id>/io_stat
+
+The stat file represents device's I/O statistics not accounted by block
+layer and, thus, not available in zram<id>/stat file. It consists of a
+single line of text and contains the following stats separated by
+whitespace:
+ failed_reads the number of failed reads
+ failed_writes the number of failed writes
+ invalid_io the number of non-page-size-aligned I/O requests
+ notify_free Depending on device usage scenario it may account
+ a) the number of pages freed because of swap slot free
+ notifications or b) the number of pages freed because of
+ REQ_DISCARD requests sent by bio. The former ones are
+ sent to a swap block device when a swap slot is freed,
+ which implies that this disk is being used as a swap disk.
+ The latter ones are sent by filesystem mounted with
+ discard option, whenever some data blocks are getting
+ discarded.
+
+File /sys/block/zram<id>/mm_stat
+
+The stat file represents device's mm statistics. It consists of a single
+line of text and contains the following stats separated by whitespace:
+ orig_data_size uncompressed size of data stored in this disk.
+ This excludes same-element-filled pages (same_pages) since
+ no memory is allocated for them.
+ Unit: bytes
+ compr_data_size compressed size of data stored in this disk
+ mem_used_total the amount of memory allocated for this disk. This
+ includes allocator fragmentation and metadata overhead,
+ allocated for this disk. So, allocator space efficiency
+ can be calculated using compr_data_size and this statistic.
+ Unit: bytes
+ mem_limit the maximum amount of memory ZRAM can use to store
+ the compressed data
+ mem_used_max the maximum amount of memory zram have consumed to
+ store the data
+ same_pages the number of same element filled pages written to this disk.
+ No memory is allocated for such pages.
+ pages_compacted the number of pages freed during compaction
+ huge_pages the number of incompressible pages
+
+9) Deactivate:
+ swapoff /dev/zram0
+ umount /dev/zram1
+
+10) Reset:
+ Write any positive value to 'reset' sysfs node
+ echo 1 > /sys/block/zram0/reset
+ echo 1 > /sys/block/zram1/reset
+
+ This frees all the memory allocated for the given device and
+ resets the disksize to zero. You must set the disksize again
+ before reusing the device.
+
+* Optional Feature
+
+= writeback
+
+With incompressible pages, there is no memory saving with zram.
+Instead, with CONFIG_ZRAM_WRITEBACK, zram can write incompressible page
+to backing storage rather than keeping it in memory.
+User should set up backing device via /sys/block/zramX/backing_dev
+before disksize setting.
+
+= memory tracking
+
+With CONFIG_ZRAM_MEMORY_TRACKING, user can know information of the
+zram block. It could be useful to catch cold or incompressible
+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 ..h
+
+First column is zram's block index.
+Second column is access time since the system was booted
+Third column is state of the block.
+(s: same page
+w: written page to backing store
+h: huge page)
+
+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
+storage. It's a debugging feature so anyone shouldn't rely on it to work
+properly.
+
+Nitin Gupta
+ngupta@vflare.org