Index: linux-2.6.16-rc1-mm2/mm/vmscan.c
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.16-rc1-mm2.orig/mm/vmscan.c	2006-01-23 10:09:27.000000000 -0800
+++ linux-2.6.16-rc1-mm2/mm/vmscan.c	2006-01-23 10:10:13.000000000 -0800
@@ -1831,6 +1831,7 @@ int zone_reclaim_mode __read_mostly;
 #define RECLAIM_ZONE (1<<0)	/* Run shrink_cache on the zone */
 #define RECLAIM_WRITE (1<<1)	/* Writeout pages during reclaim */
 #define RECLAIM_SWAP (1<<2)	/* Swap pages out during reclaim */
+#define RECLAIM_SLAB (1<<3)	/* Do a global slab shrink if the zone is out of memory */
 
 /*
  * Mininum time between zone reclaim scans
@@ -1896,6 +1897,19 @@ int zone_reclaim(struct zone *zone, gfp_
 
 	} while (sc.nr_reclaimed < nr_pages && sc.priority > 0);
 
+	if (sc.nr_reclaimed < nr_pages && (zone_reclaim_mode & RECLAIM_SLAB)) {
+		/*
+		 * shrink_slab does not currently allow us to determine
+		 * how many pages were freed in the zone. So we just
+		 * shake the slab and then go offnode for a single allocation.
+		 *
+		 * shrink_slab will free memory on all zones and may take
+		 * a long time.
+		 */
+		shrink_slab(sc.nr_scanned, gfp_mask, order);
+		sc.nr_reclaimed = 1;    /* Avoid getting the off node timeout */
+	}
+
 	p->reclaim_state = NULL;
 	current->flags &= ~PF_MEMALLOC;
 
Index: linux-2.6.16-rc1-mm2/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.16-rc1-mm2.orig/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt	2006-01-23 10:08:29.000000000 -0800
+++ linux-2.6.16-rc1-mm2/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt	2006-01-23 10:09:33.000000000 -0800
@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ This is a ORed together value of
 1	= Zone reclaim on
 2	= Zone reclaim writes dirty pages out
 4	= Zone reclaim swaps pages
+8	= Also do a global slab reclaim pass
 
 zone_reclaim_mode is set during bootup to 1 if it is determined that pages
 from remote zones will cause a significant performance reduction. The
@@ -157,6 +158,11 @@ nodes from the writeout happy process.
 Allowing regular swap effectively restricts allocations to the local
 node unless explicitly overridden by memory policy.
 
+It may be advisable to allow slab reclaim if the system makes heavy
+use of files and builds up large slab caches. However, the slab
+shrink operation is global, may take a long time and free slabs
+in all nodes of the system.
+
 ================================================================
 
 zone_reclaim_interval: