On Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 02:01:14PM +0100, Jesper Dangaard Brouer wrote:
> This patchset use the bulk ALLOC side of the kmem_cache bulk APIs, for
> SKB allocations. The bulk free side got enabled in merge commit
> 3134b9f019f2 ("net: mitigating kmem_cache free slowpath").
>
> The first two patches is a followup on the free-side, which enables
> bulk-free in the drivers mlx4 and mlx5 (dev_kfree_skb -> napi_consume_skb).
>
> Rest of patchset is focused on bulk alloc-side. We start with a
> conservative bulk alloc of 8 SKB, which all drivers using the
> napi_alloc_skb() call will benefit from. Then the API is extended to,
> allow driver hinting on needed SKBs (only some drivers know this
> size), and mlx5 driver is the first user of hinting.
patches 1-5 look very good to me. Should help all cases afaik.
As far as 6-7 about hints I have a question. Does this hint
actually makes the difference? The fixed bulk alloc of 8 probably
easier for the main slub, but when mlx5 starts doing 'work_done' as
a hint there will be more 'random' bulking going on.
Was wondering whether you have the perf numbers to back up 6/7
