“slab_tiny” boot option proposed for very low-memory Linux systems
A Linux RFC would replace the build-time CONFIG_SLUB_TINY choice with a slab_tiny boot parameter, letting embedded systems enable the smaller-footprint slab allocator at boot. The option targets machines with extremely limited memory; using it on larger systems is discouraged because disabling per-CPU object caching can hurt SMP scalability.
Some footprint savings tied to dead-code elimination and fast-path inlining cannot be made boot-time selectable, so the proposal gives up those smaller gains in exchange for runtime choice and simpler code. This is an RFC, not a merged change. The Phoronix forum page returned 403, so no comment reactions were available.