On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 10:14 AM, Alexandra Yates <
alexandra.yates(a)linux.intel.com> wrote:
> As powertop list is for subscribers only, here Takashi's
> findings concerning a big memory waste fowarded:
>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
>
> Subject: Too much memory consumption by powertop
> Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 05:32:41 PM
> From: Takashi Iwai <tiwai(a)suse.de>
> To: powertop(a)lists.01.org
> CC: trenn(a)suse.de
>
> Hi,
>
> I noticed that powertop consumes way too much memory than needed. It
> constantly takes over 170MB RES, sometimes over 200MB.
>
> Then I looked at profile, and it showed that most of memory is
> allocated for newpad_sp(). Indeed, the current code allocates a pad
> of the fixed size of 1000x1000 (!) for each tab, and we have five
> tabs, so five times of that. No wonder that such a small neat CUI
> program is so hungry.
>
> For example, a hack like below already reduces the memory footprint
> to around 20MB, 90% cut. Not bad.
>
> --- a/src/display.cpp
> +++ b/src/display.cpp
> @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ void create_tab(const string &name, cons
> if (!w)
> w = new(class tab_window);
>
> - w->win = newpad(1000,1000);
> + w->win = newpad(80,160); // XXX FIXME XXX
> tab_names.push_back(name);
> tab_windows[name] = w;
> tab_translations[name] = translation;
>
> Can anyone look into this and give a better / smarter solution?
To avoid the high memory consumption on testing run it on HTML mode so
that the powertop.html report is generated in the background.
Right, but if you do want to run it in a terminal, 80x160 would limit the
size of the viewport to just a standard 80cols worth, which isn't very wide.
Maybe a more sensible 250x250 size would be a good default, as I seem to be
able to fill a 1080p screen with just under 250 columns, and it would give
some scrolling overhead?
that's at least a 16x reduction already compared to 1000x1000.
You could dynamically calculate the number based on the terminal
properties, but that would likely break on terminal resizes.
Cheers,
Auke