linux-stable.git/include/linux/mm_types.h, branch v6.18.2 Linux kernel stable tree Merge tag 'mm-stable-2025-10-01-19-00' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm 2025-10-03T01:18:33+00:00 Linus Torvalds torvalds@linux-foundation.org 2025-10-03T01:18:33+00:00 8804d970fab45726b3c7cd7f240b31122aa94219 Pull MM updates from Andrew Morton: - "mm, swap: improve cluster scan strategy" from Kairui Song improves performance and reduces the failure rate of swap cluster allocation - "support large align and nid in Rust allocators" from Vitaly Wool permits Rust allocators to set NUMA node and large alignment when perforning slub and vmalloc reallocs - "mm/damon/vaddr: support stat-purpose DAMOS" from Yueyang Pan extend DAMOS_STAT's handling of the DAMON operations sets for virtual address spaces for ops-level DAMOS filters - "execute PROCMAP_QUERY ioctl under per-vma lock" from Suren Baghdasaryan reduces mmap_lock contention during reads of /proc/pid/maps - "mm/mincore: minor clean up for swap cache checking" from Kairui Song performs some cleanup in the swap code - "mm: vm_normal_page*() improvements" from David Hildenbrand provides code cleanup in the pagemap code - "add persistent huge zero folio support" from Pankaj Raghav provides a block layer speedup by optionalls making the huge_zero_pagepersistent, instead of releasing it when its refcount falls to zero - "kho: fixes and cleanups" from Mike Rapoport adds a few touchups to the recently added Kexec Handover feature - "mm: make mm->flags a bitmap and 64-bit on all arches" from Lorenzo Stoakes turns mm_struct.flags into a bitmap. To end the constant struggle with space shortage on 32-bit conflicting with 64-bit's needs - "mm/swapfile.c and swap.h cleanup" from Chris Li cleans up some swap code - "selftests/mm: Fix false positives and skip unsupported tests" from Donet Tom fixes a few things in our selftests code - "prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to only provide THPs when advised" from David Hildenbrand "allows individual processes to opt-out of THP=always into THP=madvise, without affecting other workloads on the system". It's a long story - the [1/N] changelog spells out the considerations - "Add and use memdesc_flags_t" from Matthew Wilcox gets us started on the memdesc project. Please see https://kernelnewbies.org/MatthewWilcox/Memdescs and https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/post/introducing-memdesc - "Tiny optimization for large read operations" from Chi Zhiling improves the efficiency of the pagecache read path - "Better split_huge_page_test result check" from Zi Yan improves our folio splitting selftest code - "test that rmap behaves as expected" from Wei Yang adds some rmap selftests - "remove write_cache_pages()" from Christoph Hellwig removes that function and converts its two remaining callers - "selftests/mm: uffd-stress fixes" from Dev Jain fixes some UFFD selftests issues - "introduce kernel file mapped folios" from Boris Burkov introduces the concept of "kernel file pages". Using these permits btrfs to account its metadata pages to the root cgroup, rather than to the cgroups of random inappropriate tasks - "mm/pageblock: improve readability of some pageblock handling" from Wei Yang provides some readability improvements to the page allocator code - "mm/damon: support ARM32 with LPAE" from SeongJae Park teaches DAMON to understand arm32 highmem - "tools: testing: Use existing atomic.h for vma/maple tests" from Brendan Jackman performs some code cleanups and deduplication under tools/testing/ - "maple_tree: Fix testing for 32bit compiles" from Liam Howlett fixes a couple of 32-bit issues in tools/testing/radix-tree.c - "kasan: unify kasan_enabled() and remove arch-specific implementations" from Sabyrzhan Tasbolatov moves KASAN arch-specific initialization code into a common arch-neutral implementation - "mm: remove zpool" from Johannes Weiner removes zspool - an indirection layer which now only redirects to a single thing (zsmalloc) - "mm: task_stack: Stack handling cleanups" from Pasha Tatashin makes a couple of cleanups in the fork code - "mm: remove nth_page()" from David Hildenbrand makes rather a lot of adjustments at various nth_page() callsites, eventually permitting the removal of that undesirable helper function - "introduce kasan.write_only option in hw-tags" from Yeoreum Yun creates a KASAN read-only mode for ARM, using that architecture's memory tagging feature. It is felt that a read-only mode KASAN is suitable for use in production systems rather than debug-only - "mm: hugetlb: cleanup hugetlb folio allocation" from Kefeng Wang does some tidying in the hugetlb folio allocation code - "mm: establish const-correctness for pointer parameters" from Max Kellermann makes quite a number of the MM API functions more accurate about the constness of their arguments. This was getting in the way of subsystems (in this case CEPH) when they attempt to improving their own const/non-const accuracy - "Cleanup free_pages() misuse" from Vishal Moola fixes a number of code sites which were confused over when to use free_pages() vs __free_pages() - "Add Rust abstraction for Maple Trees" from Alice Ryhl makes the mapletree code accessible to Rust. Required by nouveau and by its forthcoming successor: the new Rust Nova driver - "selftests/mm: split_huge_page_test: split_pte_mapped_thp improvements" from David Hildenbrand adds a fix and some cleanups to the thp selftesting code - "mm, swap: introduce swap table as swap cache (phase I)" from Chris Li and Kairui Song is the first step along the path to implementing "swap tables" - a new approach to swap allocation and state tracking which is expected to yield speed and space improvements. This patchset itself yields a 5-20% performance benefit in some situations - "Some ptdesc cleanups" from Matthew Wilcox utilizes the new memdesc layer to clean up the ptdesc code a little - "Fix va_high_addr_switch.sh test failure" from Chunyu Hu fixes some issues in our 5-level pagetable selftesting code - "Minor fixes for memory allocation profiling" from Suren Baghdasaryan addresses a couple of minor issues in relatively new memory allocation profiling feature - "Small cleanups" from Matthew Wilcox has a few cleanups in preparation for more memdesc work - "mm/damon: add addr_unit for DAMON_LRU_SORT and DAMON_RECLAIM" from Quanmin Yan makes some changes to DAMON in furtherance of supporting arm highmem - "selftests/mm: Add -Wunreachable-code and fix warnings" from Muhammad Anjum adds that compiler check to selftests code and fixes the fallout, by removing dead code - "Improvements to Victim Process Thawing and OOM Reaper Traversal Order" from zhongjinji makes a number of improvements in the OOM killer: mainly thawing a more appropriate group of victim threads so they can release resources - "mm/damon: misc fixups and improvements for 6.18" from SeongJae Park is a bunch of small and unrelated fixups for DAMON - "mm/damon: define and use DAMON initialization check function" from SeongJae Park implement reliability and maintainability improvements to a recently-added bug fix - "mm/damon/stat: expose auto-tuned intervals and non-idle ages" from SeongJae Park provides additional transparency to userspace clients of the DAMON_STAT information - "Expand scope of khugepaged anonymous collapse" from Dev Jain removes some constraints on khubepaged's collapsing of anon VMAs. It also increases the success rate of MADV_COLLAPSE against an anon vma - "mm: do not assume file == vma->vm_file in compat_vma_mmap_prepare()" from Lorenzo Stoakes moves us further towards removal of file_operations.mmap(). This patchset concentrates upon clearing up the treatment of stacked filesystems - "mm: Improve mlock tracking for large folios" from Kiryl Shutsemau provides some fixes and improvements to mlock's tracking of large folios. /proc/meminfo's "Mlocked" field became more accurate - "mm/ksm: Fix incorrect accounting of KSM counters during fork" from Donet Tom fixes several user-visible KSM stats inaccuracies across forks and adds selftest code to verify these counters - "mm_slot: fix the usage of mm_slot_entry" from Wei Yang addresses some potential but presently benign issues in KSM's mm_slot handling * tag 'mm-stable-2025-10-01-19-00' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm: (372 commits) mm: swap: check for stable address space before operating on the VMA mm: convert folio_page() back to a macro mm/khugepaged: use start_addr/addr for improved readability hugetlbfs: skip VMAs without shareable locks in hugetlb_vmdelete_list alloc_tag: fix boot failure due to NULL pointer dereference mm: silence data-race in update_hiwater_rss mm/memory-failure: don't select MEMORY_ISOLATION mm/khugepaged: remove definition of struct khugepaged_mm_slot mm/ksm: get mm_slot by mm_slot_entry() when slot is !NULL hugetlb: increase number of reserving hugepages via cmdline selftests/mm: add fork inheritance test for ksm_merging_pages counter mm/ksm: fix incorrect KSM counter handling in mm_struct during fork drivers/base/node: fix double free in register_one_node() mm: remove PMD alignment constraint in execmem_vmalloc() mm/memory_hotplug: fix typo 'esecially' -> 'especially' mm/rmap: improve mlock tracking for large folios mm/filemap: map entire large folio faultaround mm/fault: try to map the entire file folio in finish_fault() mm/rmap: mlock large folios in try_to_unmap_one() mm/rmap: fix a mlock race condition in folio_referenced_one() ... 
Pull MM updates from Andrew Morton:

 - "mm, swap: improve cluster scan strategy" from Kairui Song improves
   performance and reduces the failure rate of swap cluster allocation

 - "support large align and nid in Rust allocators" from Vitaly Wool
   permits Rust allocators to set NUMA node and large alignment when
   perforning slub and vmalloc reallocs

 - "mm/damon/vaddr: support stat-purpose DAMOS" from Yueyang Pan extend
   DAMOS_STAT's handling of the DAMON operations sets for virtual
   address spaces for ops-level DAMOS filters

 - "execute PROCMAP_QUERY ioctl under per-vma lock" from Suren
   Baghdasaryan reduces mmap_lock contention during reads of
   /proc/pid/maps

 - "mm/mincore: minor clean up for swap cache checking" from Kairui Song
   performs some cleanup in the swap code

 - "mm: vm_normal_page*() improvements" from David Hildenbrand provides
   code cleanup in the pagemap code

 - "add persistent huge zero folio support" from Pankaj Raghav provides
   a block layer speedup by optionalls making the
   huge_zero_pagepersistent, instead of releasing it when its refcount
   falls to zero

 - "kho: fixes and cleanups" from Mike Rapoport adds a few touchups to
   the recently added Kexec Handover feature

 - "mm: make mm->flags a bitmap and 64-bit on all arches" from Lorenzo
   Stoakes turns mm_struct.flags into a bitmap. To end the constant
   struggle with space shortage on 32-bit conflicting with 64-bit's
   needs

 - "mm/swapfile.c and swap.h cleanup" from Chris Li cleans up some swap
   code

 - "selftests/mm: Fix false positives and skip unsupported tests" from
   Donet Tom fixes a few things in our selftests code

 - "prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to only provide THPs when advised"
   from David Hildenbrand "allows individual processes to opt-out of
   THP=always into THP=madvise, without affecting other workloads on the
   system".

   It's a long story - the [1/N] changelog spells out the considerations

 - "Add and use memdesc_flags_t" from Matthew Wilcox gets us started on
   the memdesc project. Please see

      https://kernelnewbies.org/MatthewWilcox/Memdescs and
      https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/post/introducing-memdesc

 - "Tiny optimization for large read operations" from Chi Zhiling
   improves the efficiency of the pagecache read path

 - "Better split_huge_page_test result check" from Zi Yan improves our
   folio splitting selftest code

 - "test that rmap behaves as expected" from Wei Yang adds some rmap
   selftests

 - "remove write_cache_pages()" from Christoph Hellwig removes that
   function and converts its two remaining callers

 - "selftests/mm: uffd-stress fixes" from Dev Jain fixes some UFFD
   selftests issues

 - "introduce kernel file mapped folios" from Boris Burkov introduces
   the concept of "kernel file pages". Using these permits btrfs to
   account its metadata pages to the root cgroup, rather than to the
   cgroups of random inappropriate tasks

 - "mm/pageblock: improve readability of some pageblock handling" from
   Wei Yang provides some readability improvements to the page allocator
   code

 - "mm/damon: support ARM32 with LPAE" from SeongJae Park teaches DAMON
   to understand arm32 highmem

 - "tools: testing: Use existing atomic.h for vma/maple tests" from
   Brendan Jackman performs some code cleanups and deduplication under
   tools/testing/

 - "maple_tree: Fix testing for 32bit compiles" from Liam Howlett fixes
   a couple of 32-bit issues in tools/testing/radix-tree.c

 - "kasan: unify kasan_enabled() and remove arch-specific
   implementations" from Sabyrzhan Tasbolatov moves KASAN arch-specific
   initialization code into a common arch-neutral implementation

 - "mm: remove zpool" from Johannes Weiner removes zspool - an
   indirection layer which now only redirects to a single thing
   (zsmalloc)

 - "mm: task_stack: Stack handling cleanups" from Pasha Tatashin makes a
   couple of cleanups in the fork code

 - "mm: remove nth_page()" from David Hildenbrand makes rather a lot of
   adjustments at various nth_page() callsites, eventually permitting
   the removal of that undesirable helper function

 - "introduce kasan.write_only option in hw-tags" from Yeoreum Yun
   creates a KASAN read-only mode for ARM, using that architecture's
   memory tagging feature. It is felt that a read-only mode KASAN is
   suitable for use in production systems rather than debug-only

 - "mm: hugetlb: cleanup hugetlb folio allocation" from Kefeng Wang does
   some tidying in the hugetlb folio allocation code

 - "mm: establish const-correctness for pointer parameters" from Max
   Kellermann makes quite a number of the MM API functions more accurate
   about the constness of their arguments. This was getting in the way
   of subsystems (in this case CEPH) when they attempt to improving
   their own const/non-const accuracy

 - "Cleanup free_pages() misuse" from Vishal Moola fixes a number of
   code sites which were confused over when to use free_pages() vs
   __free_pages()

 - "Add Rust abstraction for Maple Trees" from Alice Ryhl makes the
   mapletree code accessible to Rust. Required by nouveau and by its
   forthcoming successor: the new Rust Nova driver

 - "selftests/mm: split_huge_page_test: split_pte_mapped_thp
   improvements" from David Hildenbrand adds a fix and some cleanups to
   the thp selftesting code

 - "mm, swap: introduce swap table as swap cache (phase I)" from Chris
   Li and Kairui Song is the first step along the path to implementing
   "swap tables" - a new approach to swap allocation and state tracking
   which is expected to yield speed and space improvements. This
   patchset itself yields a 5-20% performance benefit in some situations

 - "Some ptdesc cleanups" from Matthew Wilcox utilizes the new memdesc
   layer to clean up the ptdesc code a little

 - "Fix va_high_addr_switch.sh test failure" from Chunyu Hu fixes some
   issues in our 5-level pagetable selftesting code

 - "Minor fixes for memory allocation profiling" from Suren Baghdasaryan
   addresses a couple of minor issues in relatively new memory
   allocation profiling feature

 - "Small cleanups" from Matthew Wilcox has a few cleanups in
   preparation for more memdesc work

 - "mm/damon: add addr_unit for DAMON_LRU_SORT and DAMON_RECLAIM" from
   Quanmin Yan makes some changes to DAMON in furtherance of supporting
   arm highmem

 - "selftests/mm: Add -Wunreachable-code and fix warnings" from Muhammad
   Anjum adds that compiler check to selftests code and fixes the
   fallout, by removing dead code

 - "Improvements to Victim Process Thawing and OOM Reaper Traversal
   Order" from zhongjinji makes a number of improvements in the OOM
   killer: mainly thawing a more appropriate group of victim threads so
   they can release resources

 - "mm/damon: misc fixups and improvements for 6.18" from SeongJae Park
   is a bunch of small and unrelated fixups for DAMON

 - "mm/damon: define and use DAMON initialization check function" from
   SeongJae Park implement reliability and maintainability improvements
   to a recently-added bug fix

 - "mm/damon/stat: expose auto-tuned intervals and non-idle ages" from
   SeongJae Park provides additional transparency to userspace clients
   of the DAMON_STAT information

 - "Expand scope of khugepaged anonymous collapse" from Dev Jain removes
   some constraints on khubepaged's collapsing of anon VMAs. It also
   increases the success rate of MADV_COLLAPSE against an anon vma

 - "mm: do not assume file == vma->vm_file in compat_vma_mmap_prepare()"
   from Lorenzo Stoakes moves us further towards removal of
   file_operations.mmap(). This patchset concentrates upon clearing up
   the treatment of stacked filesystems

 - "mm: Improve mlock tracking for large folios" from Kiryl Shutsemau
   provides some fixes and improvements to mlock's tracking of large
   folios. /proc/meminfo's "Mlocked" field became more accurate

 - "mm/ksm: Fix incorrect accounting of KSM counters during fork" from
   Donet Tom fixes several user-visible KSM stats inaccuracies across
   forks and adds selftest code to verify these counters

 - "mm_slot: fix the usage of mm_slot_entry" from Wei Yang addresses
   some potential but presently benign issues in KSM's mm_slot handling

* tag 'mm-stable-2025-10-01-19-00' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm: (372 commits)
  mm: swap: check for stable address space before operating on the VMA
  mm: convert folio_page() back to a macro
  mm/khugepaged: use start_addr/addr for improved readability
  hugetlbfs: skip VMAs without shareable locks in hugetlb_vmdelete_list
  alloc_tag: fix boot failure due to NULL pointer dereference
  mm: silence data-race in update_hiwater_rss
  mm/memory-failure: don't select MEMORY_ISOLATION
  mm/khugepaged: remove definition of struct khugepaged_mm_slot
  mm/ksm: get mm_slot by mm_slot_entry() when slot is !NULL
  hugetlb: increase number of reserving hugepages via cmdline
  selftests/mm: add fork inheritance test for ksm_merging_pages counter
  mm/ksm: fix incorrect KSM counter handling in mm_struct during fork
  drivers/base/node: fix double free in register_one_node()
  mm: remove PMD alignment constraint in execmem_vmalloc()
  mm/memory_hotplug: fix typo 'esecially' -> 'especially'
  mm/rmap: improve mlock tracking for large folios
  mm/filemap: map entire large folio faultaround
  mm/fault: try to map the entire file folio in finish_fault()
  mm/rmap: mlock large folios in try_to_unmap_one()
  mm/rmap: fix a mlock race condition in folio_referenced_one()
  ...
Merge tag 'execve-v6.18-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux 2025-09-30T00:19:35+00:00 Linus Torvalds torvalds@linux-foundation.org 2025-09-30T00:19:35+00:00 50157eaa0c13bb5aac5cc45330bf055d95d4af57 Pull execve updates from Kees Cook: - binfmt_elf: preserve original ELF e_flags for core dumps (Svetlana Parfenova) - exec: Fix incorrect type for ret (Xichao Zhao) - binfmt_elf: Replace offsetof() with struct_size() in fill_note_info() (Xichao Zhao) * tag 'execve-v6.18-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux: binfmt_elf: preserve original ELF e_flags for core dumps binfmt_elf: Replace offsetof() with struct_size() in fill_note_info() exec: Fix incorrect type for ret 
Pull execve updates from Kees Cook:

 - binfmt_elf: preserve original ELF e_flags for core dumps (Svetlana
   Parfenova)

 - exec: Fix incorrect type for ret (Xichao Zhao)

 - binfmt_elf: Replace offsetof() with struct_size() in fill_note_info()
   (Xichao Zhao)

* tag 'execve-v6.18-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux:
  binfmt_elf: preserve original ELF e_flags for core dumps
  binfmt_elf: Replace offsetof() with struct_size() in fill_note_info()
  exec: Fix incorrect type for ret
mm/hugetlb: fix copy_hugetlb_page_range() to use ->pt_share_count 2025-09-25T23:10:34+00:00 Jane Chu jane.chu@oracle.com 2025-09-16T00:45:20+00:00 14967a9c7d247841b0312c48dcf8cd29e55a4cc8 commit 59d9094df3d79 ("mm: hugetlb: independent PMD page table shared count") introduced ->pt_share_count dedicated to hugetlb PMD share count tracking, but omitted fixing copy_hugetlb_page_range(), leaving the function relying on page_count() for tracking that no longer works. When lazy page table copy for hugetlb is disabled, that is, revert commit bcd51a3c679d ("hugetlb: lazy page table copies in fork()") fork()'ing with hugetlb PMD sharing quickly lockup - [ 239.446559] watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#75 stuck for 27s! [ 239.446611] RIP: 0010:native_queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x7e/0x2e0 [ 239.446631] Call Trace: [ 239.446633] <TASK> [ 239.446636] _raw_spin_lock+0x3f/0x60 [ 239.446639] copy_hugetlb_page_range+0x258/0xb50 [ 239.446645] copy_page_range+0x22b/0x2c0 [ 239.446651] dup_mmap+0x3e2/0x770 [ 239.446654] dup_mm.constprop.0+0x5e/0x230 [ 239.446657] copy_process+0xd17/0x1760 [ 239.446660] kernel_clone+0xc0/0x3e0 [ 239.446661] __do_sys_clone+0x65/0xa0 [ 239.446664] do_syscall_64+0x82/0x930 [ 239.446668] ? count_memcg_events+0xd2/0x190 [ 239.446671] ? syscall_trace_enter+0x14e/0x1f0 [ 239.446676] ? syscall_exit_work+0x118/0x150 [ 239.446677] ? arch_exit_to_user_mode_prepare.constprop.0+0x9/0xb0 [ 239.446681] ? clear_bhb_loop+0x30/0x80 [ 239.446684] ? clear_bhb_loop+0x30/0x80 [ 239.446686] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e There are two options to resolve the potential latent issue: 1. warn against PMD sharing in copy_hugetlb_page_range(), 2. fix it. This patch opts for the second option. While at it, simplify the comment, the details are not actually relevant anymore. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250916004520.1604530-1-jane.chu@oracle.com Fixes: 59d9094df3d7 ("mm: hugetlb: independent PMD page table shared count") Signed-off-by: Jane Chu <jane.chu@oracle.com> Reviewed-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com> Acked-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com> Cc: Liu Shixin <liushixin2@huawei.com> Cc: Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
commit 59d9094df3d79 ("mm: hugetlb: independent PMD page table shared
count") introduced ->pt_share_count dedicated to hugetlb PMD share count
tracking, but omitted fixing copy_hugetlb_page_range(), leaving the
function relying on page_count() for tracking that no longer works.

When lazy page table copy for hugetlb is disabled, that is, revert commit
bcd51a3c679d ("hugetlb: lazy page table copies in fork()") fork()'ing with
hugetlb PMD sharing quickly lockup -

[  239.446559] watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#75 stuck for 27s!
[  239.446611] RIP: 0010:native_queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x7e/0x2e0
[  239.446631] Call Trace:
[  239.446633]  <TASK>
[  239.446636]  _raw_spin_lock+0x3f/0x60
[  239.446639]  copy_hugetlb_page_range+0x258/0xb50
[  239.446645]  copy_page_range+0x22b/0x2c0
[  239.446651]  dup_mmap+0x3e2/0x770
[  239.446654]  dup_mm.constprop.0+0x5e/0x230
[  239.446657]  copy_process+0xd17/0x1760
[  239.446660]  kernel_clone+0xc0/0x3e0
[  239.446661]  __do_sys_clone+0x65/0xa0
[  239.446664]  do_syscall_64+0x82/0x930
[  239.446668]  ? count_memcg_events+0xd2/0x190
[  239.446671]  ? syscall_trace_enter+0x14e/0x1f0
[  239.446676]  ? syscall_exit_work+0x118/0x150
[  239.446677]  ? arch_exit_to_user_mode_prepare.constprop.0+0x9/0xb0
[  239.446681]  ? clear_bhb_loop+0x30/0x80
[  239.446684]  ? clear_bhb_loop+0x30/0x80
[  239.446686]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

There are two options to resolve the potential latent issue:
  1. warn against PMD sharing in copy_hugetlb_page_range(),
  2. fix it.
This patch opts for the second option.
While at it, simplify the comment, the details are not actually relevant
anymore.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250916004520.1604530-1-jane.chu@oracle.com
Fixes: 59d9094df3d7 ("mm: hugetlb: independent PMD page table shared count")
Signed-off-by: Jane Chu <jane.chu@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>
Acked-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Liu Shixin <liushixin2@huawei.com>
Cc: Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
mm: specify separate file and vm_file params in vm_area_desc 2025-09-23T03:17:11+00:00 Lorenzo Stoakes lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com 2025-09-03T17:48:41+00:00 af6703838ecb1513efdd2502a8f7bb6472c5ce96 Patch series "mm: do not assume file == vma->vm_file in compat_vma_mmap_prepare()", v2. As part of the efforts to eliminate the problematic f_op->mmap callback, a new callback - f_op->mmap_prepare was provided. While we are converting these callbacks, we must deal with 'stacked' filesystems and drivers - those which in their own f_op->mmap callback invoke an inner f_op->mmap callback. To accomodate for this, a compatibility layer is provided that, via vfs_mmap(), detects if f_op->mmap_prepare is provided and if so, generates a vm_area_desc containing the VMA's metadata and invokes the call. So far, we have provided desc->file equal to vma->vm_file. However this is not necessarily valid, especially in the case of stacked drivers which wish to assign a new file after the inner hook is invoked. To account for this, we adjust vm_area_desc to have both file and vm_file fields. The .vm_file field is strictly set to vma->vm_file (or in the case of a new mapping, what will become vma->vm_file). However, .file is set to whichever file vfs_mmap() is invoked with when using the compatibilty layer. Therefore, if the VMA's file needs to be updated in .mmap_prepare, desc->vm_file should be assigned, whilst desc->file should be read. No current f_op->mmap_prepare users assign desc->file so this is safe to do. This makes the .mmap_prepare callback in the context of a stacked filesystem or driver completely consistent with the existing .mmap implementations. While we're here, we do a few small cleanups, and ensure that we const-ify things correctly in the vm_area_desc struct to avoid hooks accidentally trying to assign fields they should not. This patch (of 2): Stacked filesystems and drivers may invoke mmap hooks with a struct file pointer that differs from the overlying file. We will make this functionality possible in a subsequent patch. In order to prepare for this, let's update vm_area_struct to separately provide desc->file and desc->vm_file parameters. The desc->file parameter is the file that the hook is expected to operate upon, and is not assignable (though the hok may wish to e.g. update the file's accessed time for instance). The desc->vm_file defaults to what will become vma->vm_file and is what the hook must reassign should it wish to change the VMA"s vma->vm_file. For now we keep desc->file, vm_file the same to remain consistent. No f_op->mmap_prepare() callback sets a new vma->vm_file currently, so this is safe to change. While we're here, make the mm_struct desc->mm pointers at immutable as well as the desc->mm field itself. As part of this change, also update the single hook which this would otherwise break - mlock_future_ok(), invoked by secretmem_mmap_prepare()). We additionally update set_vma_from_desc() to compare fields in a more logical fashion, checking the (possibly) user-modified fields as the first operand against the existing value as the second one. Additionally, update VMA tests to accommodate changes. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/cover.1756920635.git.lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/3fa15a861bb7419f033d22970598aa61850ea267.1756920635.git.lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org> Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz> Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com> Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com> Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org> Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com> Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz> Cc: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
Patch series "mm: do not assume file == vma->vm_file in
compat_vma_mmap_prepare()", v2.

As part of the efforts to eliminate the problematic f_op->mmap callback, a
new callback - f_op->mmap_prepare was provided.

While we are converting these callbacks, we must deal with 'stacked'
filesystems and drivers - those which in their own f_op->mmap callback
invoke an inner f_op->mmap callback.

To accomodate for this, a compatibility layer is provided that, via
vfs_mmap(), detects if f_op->mmap_prepare is provided and if so, generates
a vm_area_desc containing the VMA's metadata and invokes the call.

So far, we have provided desc->file equal to vma->vm_file.  However this
is not necessarily valid, especially in the case of stacked drivers which
wish to assign a new file after the inner hook is invoked.

To account for this, we adjust vm_area_desc to have both file and vm_file
fields.  The .vm_file field is strictly set to vma->vm_file (or in the
case of a new mapping, what will become vma->vm_file).

However, .file is set to whichever file vfs_mmap() is invoked with when
using the compatibilty layer.

Therefore, if the VMA's file needs to be updated in .mmap_prepare,
desc->vm_file should be assigned, whilst desc->file should be read.

No current f_op->mmap_prepare users assign desc->file so this is safe to
do.

This makes the .mmap_prepare callback in the context of a stacked
filesystem or driver completely consistent with the existing .mmap
implementations.

While we're here, we do a few small cleanups, and ensure that we const-ify
things correctly in the vm_area_desc struct to avoid hooks accidentally
trying to assign fields they should not.


This patch (of 2):

Stacked filesystems and drivers may invoke mmap hooks with a struct file
pointer that differs from the overlying file.  We will make this
functionality possible in a subsequent patch.

In order to prepare for this, let's update vm_area_struct to separately
provide desc->file and desc->vm_file parameters.

The desc->file parameter is the file that the hook is expected to operate
upon, and is not assignable (though the hok may wish to e.g.  update the
file's accessed time for instance).

The desc->vm_file defaults to what will become vma->vm_file and is what
the hook must reassign should it wish to change the VMA"s vma->vm_file.

For now we keep desc->file, vm_file the same to remain consistent.

No f_op->mmap_prepare() callback sets a new vma->vm_file currently, so
this is safe to change.

While we're here, make the mm_struct desc->mm pointers at immutable as
well as the desc->mm field itself.

As part of this change, also update the single hook which this would
otherwise break - mlock_future_ok(), invoked by secretmem_mmap_prepare()).

We additionally update set_vma_from_desc() to compare fields in a more
logical fashion, checking the (possibly) user-modified fields as the first
operand against the existing value as the second one.

Additionally, update VMA tests to accommodate changes.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/cover.1756920635.git.lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/3fa15a861bb7419f033d22970598aa61850ea267.1756920635.git.lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
mm: remove page->order 2025-09-21T21:22:32+00:00 Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) willy@infradead.org 2025-09-10T14:29:19+00:00 9d003dec972563efb8ce14c9962af3652d0e201d We already use page->private for storing the order of a page while it's in the buddy allocator system; extend that to also storing the order while it's in the pcp_llist. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250910142923.2465470-4-willy@infradead.org Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org> Acked-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org> Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
We already use page->private for storing the order of a page while it's in
the buddy allocator system; extend that to also storing the order while
it's in the pcp_llist.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250910142923.2465470-4-willy@infradead.org
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
ptdesc: convert __page_flags to pt_flags 2025-09-21T21:22:26+00:00 Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) willy@infradead.org 2025-09-08T17:11:00+00:00 522abd92279a8ea55bcc687f77697d4c0aaba6c0 Patch series "Some ptdesc cleanups". The first two patches here are preparation for splitting struct ptdesc from struct page and struct folio. I think their only dependency is on the memdesc_flags_t patches from August which is in mm-new. The third patch is just something I noticed while working on the code. This patch (of 3): Use the new memdesc_flags_t type to show that these are the same bits as page/folio/slab and thesefore have the zone/node/section information in them. Remove a use of ptdesc_folio() by converting pagetable_is_reserved() to use test_bit() directly. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250908171104.2409217-1-willy@infradead.org Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250908171104.2409217-2-willy@infradead.org Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> Cc: Vishal Moola (Oracle) <vishal.moola@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
Patch series "Some ptdesc cleanups".

The first two patches here are preparation for splitting struct ptdesc
from struct page and struct folio.  I think their only dependency is on
the memdesc_flags_t patches from August which is in mm-new.  The third
patch is just something I noticed while working on the code.


This patch (of 3):

Use the new memdesc_flags_t type to show that these are the same bits as
page/folio/slab and thesefore have the zone/node/section information in
them.  Remove a use of ptdesc_folio() by converting
pagetable_is_reserved() to use test_bit() directly.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250908171104.2409217-1-willy@infradead.org
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250908171104.2409217-2-willy@infradead.org
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Vishal Moola (Oracle) <vishal.moola@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
mm: remove mlock_count from struct page 2025-09-21T21:22:16+00:00 Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) willy@infradead.org 2025-09-03T19:10:39+00:00 94326d3130b5e78a35265bbf7822148372b39231 All users now use folio->mlock_count so we can remove this element of struct page. Move the useful comments over to struct folio. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250903191041.1630338-1-willy@infradead.org Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org> Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
All users now use folio->mlock_count so we can remove this element of
struct page.  Move the useful comments over to struct folio.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250903191041.1630338-1-willy@infradead.org
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
mm: constify ptdesc_pmd_pts_count() and folio_get_private() 2025-09-21T21:22:14+00:00 Max Kellermann max.kellermann@ionos.com 2025-09-01T20:50:18+00:00 89bf840b84bb53393436426cd4acd80604bd26fd These functions from mm_types.h are trivial getters that should never write to the given pointers. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250901205021.3573313-10-max.kellermann@ionos.com Signed-off-by: Max Kellermann <max.kellermann@ionos.com> Reviewed-by: Vishal Moola (Oracle) <vishal.moola@gmail.com> Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz> Acked-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) <rppt@kernel.org> Acked-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev> Cc: Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> Cc: Andreas Larsson <andreas@gaisler.com> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org> Cc: Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com> Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com> Cc: Borislav Betkov <bp@alien8.de> Cc: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org> Cc: Christian Zankel <chris@zankel.net> Cc: David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com> Cc: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net> Cc: Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Heiko Carstens <hca@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de> Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com> Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com> Cc: James Bottomley <james.bottomley@HansenPartnership.com> Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz> Cc: Jocelyn Falempe <jfalempe@redhat.com> Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com> Cc: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org> Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org> Cc: Max Filippov <jcmvbkbc@gmail.com> Cc: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com> Cc: "Nysal Jan K.A" <nysal@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Cc: Russel King <linux@armlinux.org.uk> Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com> Cc: Sven Schnelle <svens@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Thomas Gleinxer <tglx@linutronix.de> Cc: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com> Cc: Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com> Cc: Wei Xu <weixugc@google.com> Cc: Yuanchu Xie <yuanchu@google.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
These functions from mm_types.h are trivial getters that should never
write to the given pointers.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250901205021.3573313-10-max.kellermann@ionos.com
Signed-off-by: Max Kellermann <max.kellermann@ionos.com>
Reviewed-by: Vishal Moola (Oracle) <vishal.moola@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Acked-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) <rppt@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Cc: Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Andreas Larsson <andreas@gaisler.com>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Cc: Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com>
Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
Cc: Borislav Betkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: Christian Zankel <chris@zankel.net>
Cc: David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
Cc: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Heiko Carstens <hca@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: James Bottomley <james.bottomley@HansenPartnership.com>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: Jocelyn Falempe <jfalempe@redhat.com>
Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com>
Cc: Mark Brown <broonie@kernel.org>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Max Filippov <jcmvbkbc@gmail.com>
Cc: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: "Nysal Jan K.A" <nysal@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Russel King <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Sven Schnelle <svens@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleinxer <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
Cc: Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Wei Xu <weixugc@google.com>
Cc: Yuanchu Xie <yuanchu@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
mm: introduce memdesc_flags_t 2025-09-13T23:55:07+00:00 Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) willy@infradead.org 2025-08-05T17:22:51+00:00 53fbef56e07df822ea3029109ffca25328c2e5ac Patch series "Add and use memdesc_flags_t". At some point struct page will be separated from struct slab and struct folio. This is a step towards that by introducing a type for the 'flags' word of all three structures. This gives us a certain amount of type safety by establishing that some of these unsigned longs are different from other unsigned longs in that they contain things like node ID, section number and zone number in the upper bits. That lets us have functions that can be easily called by anyone who has a slab, folio or page (but not easily by anyone else) to get the node or zone. There's going to be some unusual merge problems with this as some odd bits of the kernel decide they want to print out the flags value or something similar by writing page->flags and now they'll need to write page->flags.f instead. That's most of the churn here. Maybe we should be removing these things from the debug output? This patch (of 11): Wrap the unsigned long flags in a typedef. In upcoming patches, this will provide a strong hint that you can't just pass a random unsigned long to functions which take this as an argument. [willy@infradead.org: s/flags/flags.f/ in several architectures] Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/aKMgPRLD-WnkPxYm@casper.infradead.org [nicola.vetrini@gmail.com: mips: fix compilation error] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+G9fYvkpmqGr6wjBNHY=dRp71PLCoi2341JxOudi60yqaeUdg@mail.gmail.com/ Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250825214245.1838158-1-nicola.vetrini@gmail.com Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250805172307.1302730-1-willy@infradead.org Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250805172307.1302730-2-willy@infradead.org Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org> Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org> Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com> Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
Patch series "Add and use memdesc_flags_t".

At some point struct page will be separated from struct slab and struct
folio.  This is a step towards that by introducing a type for the 'flags'
word of all three structures.  This gives us a certain amount of type
safety by establishing that some of these unsigned longs are different
from other unsigned longs in that they contain things like node ID,
section number and zone number in the upper bits.  That lets us have
functions that can be easily called by anyone who has a slab, folio or
page (but not easily by anyone else) to get the node or zone.

There's going to be some unusual merge problems with this as some odd bits
of the kernel decide they want to print out the flags value or something
similar by writing page->flags and now they'll need to write page->flags.f
instead.  That's most of the churn here.  Maybe we should be removing
these things from the debug output?


This patch (of 11):

Wrap the unsigned long flags in a typedef.  In upcoming patches, this will
provide a strong hint that you can't just pass a random unsigned long to
functions which take this as an argument.

[willy@infradead.org: s/flags/flags.f/ in several architectures]
  Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/aKMgPRLD-WnkPxYm@casper.infradead.org
[nicola.vetrini@gmail.com: mips: fix compilation error]
  Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+G9fYvkpmqGr6wjBNHY=dRp71PLCoi2341JxOudi60yqaeUdg@mail.gmail.com/
  Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250825214245.1838158-1-nicola.vetrini@gmail.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250805172307.1302730-1-willy@infradead.org
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250805172307.1302730-2-willy@infradead.org
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to optionally exclude VM_HUGEPAGE 2025-09-13T23:55:05+00:00 David Hildenbrand david@redhat.com 2025-08-15T13:54:53+00:00 9dc21bbd62edeae6f63e6f25e1edb7167452457b Patch series "prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to only provide THPs when advised", v5. This will allow individual processes to opt-out of THP = "always" into THP = "madvise", without affecting other workloads on the system. This has been extensively discussed on the mailing list and has been summarized very well by David in the first patch which also includes the links to alternatives, please refer to the first patch commit message for the motivation for this series. Patch 1 adds the PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED flag to implement this, along with the MMF changes. Patch 2 is a cleanup patch for tva_flags that will allow the forced collapse case to be transmitted to vma_thp_disabled (which is done in patch 3). Patch 4 adds documentation for PR_SET_THP_DISABLE/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE. Patches 6-7 implement the selftests for PR_SET_THP_DISABLE for completely disabling THPs (old behaviour) and only enabling it at advise (PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED). This patch (of 7): People want to make use of more THPs, for example, moving from the "never" system policy to "madvise", or from "madvise" to "always". While this is great news for every THP desperately waiting to get allocated out there, apparently there are some workloads that require a bit of care during that transition: individual processes may need to opt-out from this behavior for various reasons, and this should be permitted without needing to make all other workloads on the system similarly opt-out. The following scenarios are imaginable: (1) Switch from "none" system policy to "madvise"/"always", but keep THPs disabled for selected workloads. (2) Stay at "none" system policy, but enable THPs for selected workloads, making only these workloads use the "madvise" or "always" policy. (3) Switch from "madvise" system policy to "always", but keep the "madvise" policy for selected workloads: allocate THPs only when advised. (4) Stay at "madvise" system policy, but enable THPs even when not advised for selected workloads -- "always" policy. Once can emulate (2) through (1), by setting the system policy to "madvise"/"always" while disabling THPs for all processes that don't want THPs. It requires configuring all workloads, but that is a user-space problem to sort out. (4) can be emulated through (3) in a similar way. Back when (1) was relevant in the past, as people started enabling THPs, we added PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, so relevant workloads that were not ready yet (i.e., used by Redis) were able to just disable THPs completely. Redis still implements the option to use this interface to disable THPs completely. With PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, we added a way to force-disable THPs for a workload -- a process, including fork+exec'ed process hierarchy. That essentially made us support (1): simply disable THPs for all workloads that are not ready for THPs yet, while still enabling THPs system-wide. The quest for handling (3) and (4) started, but current approaches (completely new prctl, options to set other policies per process, alternatives to prctl -- mctrl, cgroup handling) don't look particularly promising. Likely, the future will use bpf or something similar to implement better policies, in particular to also make better decisions about THP sizes to use, but this will certainly take a while as that work just started. Long story short: a simple enable/disable is not really suitable for the future, so we're not willing to add completely new toggles. While we could emulate (3)+(4) through (1)+(2) by simply disabling THPs completely for these processes, this is a step backwards, because these processes can no longer allocate THPs in regions where THPs were explicitly advised: regions flagged as VM_HUGEPAGE. Apparently, that imposes a problem for relevant workloads, because "not THPs" is certainly worse than "THPs only when advised". Could we simply relax PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, to "disable THPs unless not explicitly advised by the app through MAD_HUGEPAGE"? *maybe*, but this would change the documented semantics quite a bit, and the versatility to use it for debugging purposes, so I am not 100% sure that is what we want -- although it would certainly be much easier. So instead, as an easy way forward for (3) and (4), add an option to make PR_SET_THP_DISABLE disable *less* THPs for a process. In essence, this patch: (A) Adds PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED, to be used as a flag in arg3 of prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE) when disabling THPs (arg2 != 0). prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, 1, PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED). (B) Makes prctl(PR_GET_THP_DISABLE) return 3 if PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED was set while disabling. Previously, it would return 1 if THPs were disabled completely. Now it returns the set flags as well: 3 if PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED was set. (C) Renames MMF_DISABLE_THP to MMF_DISABLE_THP_COMPLETELY, to express the semantics clearly. Fortunately, there are only two instances outside of prctl() code. (D) Adds MMF_DISABLE_THP_EXCEPT_ADVISED to express "no THP except for VMAs with VM_HUGEPAGE" -- essentially "thp=madvise" behavior Fortunately, we only have to extend vma_thp_disabled(). (E) Indicates "THP_enabled: 0" in /proc/pid/status only if THPs are disabled completely Only indicating that THPs are disabled when they are really disabled completely, not only partially. For now, we don't add another interface to obtained whether THPs are disabled partially (PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED was set). If ever required, we could add a new entry. The documented semantics in the man page for PR_SET_THP_DISABLE "is inherited by a child created via fork(2) and is preserved across execve(2)" is maintained. This behavior, for example, allows for disabling THPs for a workload through the launching process (e.g., systemd where we fork() a helper process to then exec()). For now, MADV_COLLAPSE will *fail* in regions without VM_HUGEPAGE and VM_NOHUGEPAGE. As MADV_COLLAPSE is a clear advise that user space thinks a THP is a good idea, we'll enable that separately next (requiring a bit of cleanup first). There is currently not way to prevent that a process will not issue PR_SET_THP_DISABLE itself to re-enable THP. There are not really known users for re-enabling it, and it's against the purpose of the original interface. So if ever required, we could investigate just forbidding to re-enable them, or make this somehow configurable. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250815135549.130506-1-usamaarif642@gmail.com Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250815135549.130506-2-usamaarif642@gmail.com Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com> Acked-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com> Tested-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com> Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com> Cc: Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org> Cc: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com> Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com> Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org> Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com> Cc: Mariano Pache <npache@redhat.com> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com> Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org> Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com> Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com> Cc: SeongJae Park <sj@kernel.org> Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev> Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com> Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz> Cc: Yafang <laoar.shao@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> 
Patch series "prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to only provide THPs when
advised", v5.

This will allow individual processes to opt-out of THP = "always" into THP
= "madvise", without affecting other workloads on the system.  This has
been extensively discussed on the mailing list and has been summarized
very well by David in the first patch which also includes the links to
alternatives, please refer to the first patch commit message for the
motivation for this series.

Patch 1 adds the PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED flag to implement this,
along with the MMF changes.

Patch 2 is a cleanup patch for tva_flags that will allow the forced
collapse case to be transmitted to vma_thp_disabled (which is done in
patch 3).

Patch 4 adds documentation for PR_SET_THP_DISABLE/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE.

Patches 6-7 implement the selftests for PR_SET_THP_DISABLE for completely
disabling THPs (old behaviour) and only enabling it at advise
(PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED).


This patch (of 7):

People want to make use of more THPs, for example, moving from the "never"
system policy to "madvise", or from "madvise" to "always".

While this is great news for every THP desperately waiting to get
allocated out there, apparently there are some workloads that require a
bit of care during that transition: individual processes may need to
opt-out from this behavior for various reasons, and this should be
permitted without needing to make all other workloads on the system
similarly opt-out.

The following scenarios are imaginable:

(1) Switch from "none" system policy to "madvise"/"always", but keep THPs
    disabled for selected workloads.

(2) Stay at "none" system policy, but enable THPs for selected
    workloads, making only these workloads use the "madvise" or "always"
    policy.

(3) Switch from "madvise" system policy to "always", but keep the
    "madvise" policy for selected workloads: allocate THPs only when
    advised.

(4) Stay at "madvise" system policy, but enable THPs even when not advised
    for selected workloads -- "always" policy.

Once can emulate (2) through (1), by setting the system policy to
"madvise"/"always" while disabling THPs for all processes that don't want
THPs.  It requires configuring all workloads, but that is a user-space
problem to sort out.

(4) can be emulated through (3) in a similar way.

Back when (1) was relevant in the past, as people started enabling THPs,
we added PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, so relevant workloads that were not ready yet
(i.e., used by Redis) were able to just disable THPs completely.  Redis
still implements the option to use this interface to disable THPs
completely.

With PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, we added a way to force-disable THPs for a
workload -- a process, including fork+exec'ed process hierarchy.  That
essentially made us support (1): simply disable THPs for all workloads
that are not ready for THPs yet, while still enabling THPs system-wide.

The quest for handling (3) and (4) started, but current approaches
(completely new prctl, options to set other policies per process,
alternatives to prctl -- mctrl, cgroup handling) don't look particularly
promising.  Likely, the future will use bpf or something similar to
implement better policies, in particular to also make better decisions
about THP sizes to use, but this will certainly take a while as that work
just started.

Long story short: a simple enable/disable is not really suitable for the
future, so we're not willing to add completely new toggles.

While we could emulate (3)+(4) through (1)+(2) by simply disabling THPs
completely for these processes, this is a step backwards, because these
processes can no longer allocate THPs in regions where THPs were
explicitly advised: regions flagged as VM_HUGEPAGE.  Apparently, that
imposes a problem for relevant workloads, because "not THPs" is certainly
worse than "THPs only when advised".

Could we simply relax PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, to "disable THPs unless not
explicitly advised by the app through MAD_HUGEPAGE"?  *maybe*, but this
would change the documented semantics quite a bit, and the versatility to
use it for debugging purposes, so I am not 100% sure that is what we want
-- although it would certainly be much easier.

So instead, as an easy way forward for (3) and (4), add an option to
make PR_SET_THP_DISABLE disable *less* THPs for a process.

In essence, this patch:

(A) Adds PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED, to be used as a flag in arg3
    of prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE) when disabling THPs (arg2 != 0).

    prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, 1, PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED).

(B) Makes prctl(PR_GET_THP_DISABLE) return 3 if
    PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED was set while disabling.

    Previously, it would return 1 if THPs were disabled completely. Now
    it returns the set flags as well: 3 if PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED
    was set.

(C) Renames MMF_DISABLE_THP to MMF_DISABLE_THP_COMPLETELY, to express
    the semantics clearly.

    Fortunately, there are only two instances outside of prctl() code.

(D) Adds MMF_DISABLE_THP_EXCEPT_ADVISED to express "no THP except for VMAs
    with VM_HUGEPAGE" -- essentially "thp=madvise" behavior

    Fortunately, we only have to extend vma_thp_disabled().

(E) Indicates "THP_enabled: 0" in /proc/pid/status only if THPs are
    disabled completely

    Only indicating that THPs are disabled when they are really disabled
    completely, not only partially.

    For now, we don't add another interface to obtained whether THPs
    are disabled partially (PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED was set). If
    ever required, we could add a new entry.

The documented semantics in the man page for PR_SET_THP_DISABLE "is
inherited by a child created via fork(2) and is preserved across
execve(2)" is maintained.  This behavior, for example, allows for
disabling THPs for a workload through the launching process (e.g., systemd
where we fork() a helper process to then exec()).

For now, MADV_COLLAPSE will *fail* in regions without VM_HUGEPAGE and
VM_NOHUGEPAGE.  As MADV_COLLAPSE is a clear advise that user space thinks
a THP is a good idea, we'll enable that separately next (requiring a bit
of cleanup first).

There is currently not way to prevent that a process will not issue
PR_SET_THP_DISABLE itself to re-enable THP.  There are not really known
users for re-enabling it, and it's against the purpose of the original
interface.  So if ever required, we could investigate just forbidding to
re-enable them, or make this somehow configurable.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250815135549.130506-1-usamaarif642@gmail.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250815135549.130506-2-usamaarif642@gmail.com
Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Acked-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Tested-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
Cc: Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>
Cc: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com>
Cc: Mariano Pache <npache@redhat.com>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>
Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Cc: SeongJae Park <sj@kernel.org>
Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: Yafang <laoar.shao@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>