Re: [PATCH] mm: clarify usage of GFP_ATOMIC in !preemptible contexts

From: Thomas Gleixner
Date: Tue Sep 29 2020 - 15:55:49 EST


On Tue, Sep 29 2020 at 14:30, Michal Hocko wrote:
> diff --git a/include/linux/gfp.h b/include/linux/gfp.h
> index 67a0774e080b..2e8370cf60c7 100644
> --- a/include/linux/gfp.h
> +++ b/include/linux/gfp.h
> @@ -238,7 +238,9 @@ struct vm_area_struct;
> * %__GFP_FOO flags as necessary.
> *
> * %GFP_ATOMIC users can not sleep and need the allocation to succeed. A lower
> - * watermark is applied to allow access to "atomic reserves"
> + * watermark is applied to allow access to "atomic reserves".
> + * The current implementation doesn't support NMI and few other strict
> + * non-preemptive contexts (e.g. raw_spin_lock). The same applies to %GFP_NOWAIT.
> *
> * %GFP_KERNEL is typical for kernel-internal allocations. The caller requires
> * %ZONE_NORMAL or a lower zone for direct access but can direct reclaim.

Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>