LWN article on the various memory compression methods

[curaga]

http://lwn.net/Articles/545244/

It details the differences between zram, zcache and zswap.

[coreplayer2]

Very interesting, thanks

[curaga]

How it all relates to TC:

We use zram by default, and ship zcache so it can be configured by the user if needed.

The name of the bootcode, nozswap, comes from back when zram was called compcache.

[tinypoodle]

We use zram by default, and ship zcache so it can be configured by the user if needed.

The name of the bootcode, nozswap, comes from back when zram was called compcache.

As zswap just has been introduced in main - while zram and zcache remain in staging at current - I'd like to suggest considering renaming the "nozswap" boot code, in order to avoid (future) confusion.

For reference:
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/ZSWAP.html
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/ZRAM.html
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/ZCACHE.html

[curaga]

Yes, with the 5.0 major release breaking the existing use would be more acceptable. Any suggestions for a good, short name? I'm out of them for the moment.

[curaga]

I'm not sure that's descriptive enough, as you can use zram on your own as a compressed ramdisk to store anything.

[tinypoodle]

True, but the way I understand it, "no*" boot codes would often refer to preventing some feature from being activated and configured with particular defaults at boot time, while not excluding a later activation with a potentially different configuration by user after boot.