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Johannes Weiner 204cb79ad4 kernel: sysctl: make drop_caches write-only
Currently, the drop_caches proc file and sysctl read back the last value
written, suggesting this is somehow a stateful setting instead of a
one-time command.  Make it write-only, like e.g.  compact_memory.

While mitigating a VM problem at scale in our fleet, there was confusion
about whether writing to this file will permanently switch the kernel into
a non-caching mode.  This influences the decision making in a tense
situation, where tens of people are trying to fix tens of thousands of
affected machines: Do we need a rollback strategy?  What are the
performance implications of operating in a non-caching state for several
days?  It also caused confusion when the kernel team said we may need to
write the file several times to make sure it's effective ("But it already
reads back 3?").

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20191031221602.9375-1-hannes@cmpxchg.org
Signed-off-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Acked-by: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Acked-by: Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2019-12-01 12:59:07 -08:00
arch x86/kasan: support KASAN_VMALLOC 2019-12-01 12:59:06 -08:00
block for-5.5/disk-revalidate-20191122 2019-11-25 11:37:01 -08:00
certs PKCS#7: Refactor verify_pkcs7_signature() 2019-08-05 18:40:18 -04:00
crypto Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/herbert/crypto-2.6 2019-11-25 19:49:58 -08:00
Documentation kasan: support backing vmalloc space with real shadow memory 2019-12-01 12:59:05 -08:00
drivers drivers/base/memory.c: drop the mem_sysfs_mutex 2019-12-01 12:59:04 -08:00
fs fs/direct-io.c: keep dio_warn_stale_pagecache() when CONFIG_BLOCK=n 2019-12-01 06:29:18 -08:00
include mm: vmscan: enforce inactive:active ratio at the reclaim root 2019-12-01 12:59:07 -08:00
init Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next 2019-11-25 20:02:57 -08:00
ipc ipc/sem.c: convert to use built-in RCU list checking 2019-09-25 17:51:41 -07:00
kernel kernel: sysctl: make drop_caches write-only 2019-12-01 12:59:07 -08:00
lib kasan: add test for vmalloc 2019-12-01 12:59:05 -08:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Rename other to deprecated 2019-05-03 06:34:32 -06:00
mm mm/vmscan.c: fix typo in comment 2019-12-01 12:59:07 -08:00
net for-5.5/io_uring-post-20191128 2019-11-28 10:43:39 -08:00
samples New tracing features: 2019-11-27 11:42:01 -08:00
scripts scripts/spelling.txt: add more spellings to spelling.txt 2019-12-01 06:29:17 -08:00
security drm main pull for 5.5-rc1 2019-11-27 17:45:48 -08:00
sound sound updates for 5.5-rc1 2019-11-26 20:04:35 -08:00
tools selftests: vm: add fragment CONFIG_TEST_VMALLOC 2019-12-01 12:59:05 -08:00
usr kbuild: update compile-test header list for v5.4-rc2 2019-10-05 15:29:49 +09:00
virt KVM: Fix jump label out_free_* in kvm_init() 2019-11-23 11:29:17 +01:00
.clang-format clang-format: Update with the latest for_each macro list 2019-08-31 10:00:51 +02:00
.cocciconfig
.get_maintainer.ignore Opt out of scripts/get_maintainer.pl 2019-05-16 10:53:40 -07:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set git diff driver for C source code files 2016-10-07 18:46:30 -07:00
.gitignore Modules updates for v5.4 2019-09-22 10:34:46 -07:00
.mailmap Merge branch 'efi-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2019-11-26 14:52:11 -08:00
COPYING COPYING: use the new text with points to the license files 2018-03-23 12:41:45 -06:00
CREDITS MAINTAINERS: Remove Simon as Renesas SoC Co-Maintainer 2019-10-10 08:12:51 -07:00
Kbuild kbuild: do not descend to ./Kbuild when cleaning 2019-08-21 21:03:58 +09:00
Kconfig docs: kbuild: convert docs to ReST and rename to *.rst 2019-06-14 14:21:21 -06:00
MAINTAINERS \n 2019-11-30 11:34:33 -08:00
Makefile Linux 5.4 2019-11-24 16:32:01 -08:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.