From a69797fb36452865252f10c8ac9ef6781d07e3d7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Usama Arif Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:23:23 -0700 Subject: mm/vmstat, mm/memcontrol: add _monotonic vmstat readers Patch series "mm/vmscan: reduce lru_lock contention via vmstat-derived scan-balance cost", v5. The anon/file scan balance heuristic in get_scan_count() is fed by two scalars in struct lruvec (anon_cost, file_cost) that every reclaim producer updates under lruvec->lru_lock. The cost-recording work itself is trivial, but it both contends for and contributes to contention on lru_lock - which is often a contention point on memory-pressured workloads. Specifically: - shrink_inactive_list() re-acquires lru_lock at function exit just to call lru_note_cost_unlock_irq(). - shrink_active_list() does the same after rotation accounting. - workingset_refault() takes folio_lruvec_lock_irq() purely to record the refault cost. - prepare_scan_control() snapshots anon_cost/file_cost under lru_lock. - lru_note_cost_unlock_irq() itself walks parent_lruvec() and re-acquires lru_lock on every ancestor, multiplying the cost of every update by memcg-hierarchy depth. This series removes those producer-side acquisitions entirely. The rotation inputs become per-LRU PGROTATE_{ANON,FILE} vmstat counters. NR_VMSCAN_WRITE already captures reclaim-driven pageout at writeout(); charge it through lruvec_stat_mod_folio() so it is available per lruvec and aggregated through the memcg hierarchy. Reclaim does not submit filesystem folios for writeback from this path, so pageout contributes only to anon cost. WORKINGSET_RESTORE_* already captures the refault input. PGROTATE_* are also useful independently of scan balancing. They are cumulative base-page events, not unique-page counts. Classic inactive reclaim records scan work that does not produce immediate reclaim or demotion, while active reclaim records referenced executable file folios retained on the active list. MGLRU records initially isolated pages that remain unreclaimed after its retry passes. Read alongside pgscan_* and pgsteal_*, their deltas identify which LRU type is consuming reclaim CPU without producing immediate yield. Unlike the existing pgrotated event, they do not imply a move to the inactive-list tail. prepare_scan_control() reads the raw cost signals without lru_lock: anon = PGROTATE_ANON + (NR_VMSCAN_WRITE + WORKINGSET_RESTORE_ANON) * SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX file = PGROTATE_FILE + WORKINGSET_RESTORE_FILE * SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX It folds the deltas into a per-lruvec accumulator. A dedicated per-lruvec cost_lock, not touched by isolate_lru_folios(), move_folios_to_lru(), or folio_add_lru(), serialises the accumulator RMW and the lrusize/4 halving check. Hierarchy aggregation is implicit in rstat propagation, so the parent_lruvec() walk and the lru_reparent_memcg() cost-splice both disappear. Moving accumulation and decay to the reclaim side also improves the cost model across reclaim gaps. With producer-side decay, events that happen while reclaim is idle still age each other before reclaim ever samples the costs. If a workload refaults a large anon set and then a smaller file set before reclaim runs again, the later file activity can age the earlier anon activity out of the cost model. The new scheme observes the whole between-reclaim delta and decays anon and file proportionally, so the scan-balance history better represents what happened since the last reclaim pass. Trade-offs: - Cost reads see rstat-aggregated values that can lag until periodic / reader-triggered flushing. - Per-lruvec footprint grows by 4 unsigned longs + a spinlock (a struct lru_cost { count, last_rotated, last_io } per side), which is a small cost. - NR_VMSCAN_WRITE now also updates the folio's lruvec/memcg stat, adding memcg stat accounting to the reclaim writeout path while preserving the existing node-level total. == Numbers == Tested on a 176-core, 256 GB host. The benchmark drives sustained swap-out/refault inside a tight memcg using vm-scalability/usemem: usemem -n 16 --prealloc --prefault --random $((256*1024*1024)) run inside a two-level memcg with memory.max=512M on the leaf (4 GB anon working set has to fit in 512 MB -> continuous shrink_inactive_list + workingset_refault). A 16 GB swap file is used. Measurement is a 30 s `perf lock record -a` window over otherwise-idle hardware. Workload rates are identical on both kernels (the bench drives the same memory pressure): baseline patched delta pgscan_direct / s 172,662 171,817 ~0% pgsteal_direct / s 67,162 66,306 ~0% workingset_refault_anon / s 40,696 39,830 ~0% perf lock contention (total wait per 30 s window): Lock Name Before After % change shrink_lruvec+0x770 722.84 ms 0 -100% (eliminated) (= lru_note_cost_unlock_irq) workingset_refault+0x167 385.26 ms 0 -100% (eliminated) (= lru_note_cost_refault) shrink_node+0x4ad 689.43 ms 26.95 ms -96% shrink_active_list 208.34 ms 15.97 ms -92% lru_add_drain_cpu+0x34 1.96 s 917.71 ms -53% Total LRU lock wait ~4.23 s ~1.66 s -61% The two specific contention sites the patch removes (shrink_lruvec+0x770 = lru_note_cost_unlock_irq; workingset_refault+0x167 = lru_note_cost_refault) are completely absent from the patched perf-lock-contention output. Secondary reductions in shrink_node, shrink_active_list, lru_add_drain_cpu and pgrefill/pgactivate look like knock-on effects from removing the cost-recording overhead and the parent_lruvec walk. The remaining ~1.66 s of LRU lock wait on the patched kernel is dominated by the per-CPU pagevec drain (lru_add_drain_cpu) and the main reclaim path in shrink_lruvec. The numbers above can be reproduced using the script in [1]. This patch (of 3): lruvec_page_state(), node_page_state(), and global_node_page_state() all clamp negative reads to zero on CONFIG_SMP so that a transient per-CPU delta skew presents as zero pages rather than as a garbage unsigned value. This is the right behaviour for non-monotonic page-count readers. It is however incorrect for callers that snapshot a monotonically- incremented event counter and compute a delta from two samples. Once the underlying signed long wraps past LONG_MAX, the clamped read drops to zero while the previously-recorded snapshot still holds the pre-wrap value; the unsigned subtraction then underflows into a ~2^31 spurious delta for 32-bit architecture and corrupts the caller's accumulator. Add non-clamping siblings that return the underlying state value cast to unsigned long: global_node_page_state_monotonic() node_page_state_monotonic() lruvec_page_state_monotonic() With both samples read via the _monotonic variant, unsigned modular subtraction stays correct across a signed-long wraparound as long as the true growth between two samples fits in unsigned long (< 2^32 on 32-bit, < 2^64 on 64-bit); the 32-bit bound is the practically-reachable one that motivates this helper. The variants are only safe for monotonically-incremented counters. Non-monotonic page-count readers must keep using the existing clamped helpers so transient negative reads still present as zero. This is a prerequisite for a later patch which replaces the producer-side anon_cost/file_cost accumulators with a read-side accumulator in prepare_scan_control() that samples monotonic per-LRU vmstat counters (PGROTATE_*, NR_VMSCAN_WRITE, WORKINGSET_RESTORE_*) via lruvec_page_state_monotonic() and folds their unsigned modular deltas into lruvec->cost[].count. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260727162550.2032-1-usama.arif@linux.dev Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260727162550.2032-2-usama.arif@linux.dev Link: https://gist.github.com/uarif1/a4eb33a86c5b2d7bbc55b42f0956e884 [1] Signed-off-by: Usama Arif Acked-by: Johannes Weiner Acked-by: Shakeel Butt Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) Cc: Axel Rasmussen Cc: Baoquan He Cc: Chris Li Cc: David Hildenbrand Cc: David Rientjes Cc: Kairui Song Cc: Liam R. Howlett Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes Cc: Michal Hocko Cc: Mike Rapoport Cc: Muchun Song Cc: Nhat Pham Cc: Roman Gushchin Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan Cc: Wei Xu Cc: Yuanchu Xie Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton --- include/linux/vmstat.h | 16 ++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+) (limited to 'include/linux/vmstat.h') diff --git a/include/linux/vmstat.h b/include/linux/vmstat.h index 3c9c266cf782..fb8c76289e02 100644 --- a/include/linux/vmstat.h +++ b/include/linux/vmstat.h @@ -194,6 +194,19 @@ unsigned long global_node_page_state_pages(enum node_stat_item item) return x; } +/* + * Non-clamping variant of global_node_page_state() intended for callers that + * snapshot a monotonically-incremented counter and subtract two samples. + * Returns the raw wrapping value so that unsigned modular subtraction stays + * correct across a signed-long overflow (a real hazard on 32-bit) that the + * clamp in global_node_page_state() would otherwise turn into a huge spurious + * delta. Do NOT use for non-monotonic page-count reads. + */ +static inline unsigned long global_node_page_state_monotonic(enum node_stat_item item) +{ + return (unsigned long)atomic_long_read(&vm_node_stat[item]); +} + static inline unsigned long global_node_page_state(enum node_stat_item item) { VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(vmstat_item_in_bytes(item)); @@ -259,11 +272,14 @@ extern unsigned long node_page_state(struct pglist_data *pgdat, enum node_stat_item item); extern unsigned long node_page_state_pages(struct pglist_data *pgdat, enum node_stat_item item); +extern unsigned long node_page_state_monotonic(struct pglist_data *pgdat, + enum node_stat_item item); extern void fold_vm_numa_events(void); #else #define sum_zone_node_page_state(node, item) global_zone_page_state(item) #define node_page_state(node, item) global_node_page_state(item) #define node_page_state_pages(node, item) global_node_page_state_pages(item) +#define node_page_state_monotonic(node, item) global_node_page_state_monotonic(item) static inline void fold_vm_numa_events(void) { } -- cgit v1.2.3 From 7b9f4e5f81013bcb0d16bf54b349ee323ce0ac01 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Usama Arif Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:23:25 -0700 Subject: mm/vmscan: reduce lru_lock contention via vmstat-derived scan-balance cost The anon/file scan balance in get_scan_count() is driven by two scalars in struct lruvec, anon_cost and file_cost, accumulated by every reclaim producer under lruvec->lru_lock. The acquisition sites for cost work specifically are: - shrink_inactive_list() re-takes lru_lock at function exit purely to call lru_note_cost_unlock_irq() with (nr_pageout, nr_scanned - nr_reclaimed). One acquisition per inactive shrink. - shrink_active_list() does the same with (0, nr_rotated). One acquisition per active shrink. - workingset_refault() takes the lock via folio_lruvec_lock_irq() purely to record the refault cost. One acquisition per refault. - prepare_scan_control() takes lru_lock just to snapshot the two scalars into sc->{anon,file}_cost. - lru_note_cost_unlock_irq() itself walks parent_lruvec and re-acquires lru_lock on each ancestor to propagate the update, adding O(memcg-depth) acquisitions per producer call. This hurts because lru_lock is already a heavy contention point on memory-heavy workloads: every isolate_lru_folios(), move_folios_to_lru() and folio_add_lru() takes it. The cost work itself is trivial (two scalar bumps and one comparison), but it contends with and causes contention for actual LRU manipulation. The parent_lruvec() walk also multiplies cost-update overhead by memcg hierarchy depth. The balance formula for anon and file, respectively, is this: cost = nr_io * SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX + nr_rotated Instead of recording cost and running averaging logic directly when these events occur, snapshot running vmstat counters once per reclaim cycle and derive the balance from event deltas since the last run. Use PGROTATE_* from the preceding patch for the rotation input. WORKINGSET_RESTORE_* and NR_VMSCAN_WRITE provide the remaining event counters. Charge NR_VMSCAN_WRITE through lruvec stats so all inputs can be sampled per lruvec and aggregated through the memcg hierarchy. This is overall cheaper and has fewer lock acquisition sites. Moving accumulation and decay to the reclaim side also improves the cost model across reclaim gaps. With producer-side decay, events that happen while reclaim is idle still age each other before reclaim ever samples the costs. If a workload refaults a large anon set and then a smaller file set before reclaim runs again, the later file activity can age the earlier anon activity out of the cost model. The new scheme observes the whole between-reclaim delta and decays anon and file proportionally, so the scan-balance history better represents what happened since the last reclaim pass. A dedicated per-lruvec spinlock, cost_lock, serialises the delta extraction, the cost->count update and the halving loop against concurrent reclaimers in the same memcg+node. NR_VMSCAN_WRITE is accounted at writeout(), so reclaim_stat.nr_pageout is no longer needed and is removed. memcg-v1's memory.stat anon_cost/file_cost is now sourced from cost[].count instead of the removed lruvec anon_cost/file_cost fields. The reported values only refresh when prepare_scan_control() runs and are bounded at ~lrusize/4 by the halving loop; the scan-balance signal they express is unchanged. Under pure MGLRU the scan-balance signal itself is not consumed (both prepare_scan_control() and get_scan_count() are short-circuited on the MGLRU paths, and MGLRU's own type/tier selection comes from read_ctrl_pos() on lrugen->{avg_refaulted,avg_total,refaulted,evicted}, not from anon_cost/file_cost). NR_VMSCAN_WRITE naturally covers writeout from either reclaim implementation. The preceding patch also bumps PGROTATE_{ANON,FILE} from evict_folios(), so rotation-driven reclaim work is accounted consistently across both implementations. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260727162550.2032-4-usama.arif@linux.dev Signed-off-by: Usama Arif Acked-by: Shakeel Butt Acked-by: Johannes Weiner Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) Cc: Axel Rasmussen Cc: Baoquan He Cc: Chris Li Cc: David Hildenbrand Cc: David Rientjes Cc: Kairui Song Cc: Liam R. Howlett Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes Cc: Michal Hocko Cc: Mike Rapoport Cc: Muchun Song Cc: Nhat Pham Cc: Roman Gushchin Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan Cc: Wei Xu Cc: Yuanchu Xie Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton --- include/linux/vmstat.h | 1 - 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'include/linux/vmstat.h') diff --git a/include/linux/vmstat.h b/include/linux/vmstat.h index fb8c76289e02..5b31d8e7ae40 100644 --- a/include/linux/vmstat.h +++ b/include/linux/vmstat.h @@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ struct reclaim_stat { unsigned nr_congested; unsigned nr_writeback; unsigned nr_immediate; - unsigned nr_pageout; unsigned nr_activate[ANON_AND_FILE]; unsigned nr_ref_keep; unsigned nr_unmap_fail; -- cgit v1.2.3