Re: [PATCH] mm: remove unused alloc_pages_bulk_list()

From: Yang Shi
Date: Tue Dec 20 2022 - 12:56:44 EST


On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 2:07 AM Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 08:34:58AM +0000, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> > + Mel
> >
> > On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 04:56:03AM +0000, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > > I think we're waiting to see if any users show up. It's only been 18
> > > months or so, so perhaps wait a little longer?
> >
> > Apologies, I should have researched the background of this further. I see it was
> > added speculatively in 0f87d9d30f.
> >
> > > Also, if we do get rid of this, then __alloc_pages_bulk() can lose
> > > the "list" argument.
> >
> > Ack. Will do a v2 if Mel feels it's appropriate to remove at this stage,
> > otherwise we can drop the idea and wait for users to emerge.
>
> I reckon we should give it another few months until May. There has been
> one user recently that tried to use list but it turned out arrays were
> more appropriate.

Another recent try was the patches for dm-crypt. However Mel suggested
adding a callback interface instead of using list since list is not
necessary for that usecase. Or are we talking about the same one?

I didn't get time to implement Mel's suggestion yet due to my
employment change. Hopefully I can find some time after the new year.

>
> --
> Mel Gorman
> SUSE Labs
>