Re: [PATCH 1/2] mm/slub: Fix cmp_loc_by_count() to return 0 when counts are equal

[Joshua Hahn]

On Mon, 25 Aug 2025 09:34:18 +0800 Kuan-Wei Chiu <visitorckw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The comparison function cmp_loc_by_count() used for sorting stack trace
> locations in debugfs currently returns -1 if a->count > b->count and 1
> otherwise. This breaks the antisymmetry property required by sort(),
> because when two counts are equal, both cmp(a, b) and cmp(b, a) return
> 1.
> 
> This can lead to undefined or incorrect ordering results. Fix it by
> explicitly returning 0 when the counts are equal, ensuring that the
> comparison function follows the expected mathematical properties.
> 
> Fixes: 553c0369b3e1 ("mm/slub: sort debugfs output by frequency of stack traces")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Kuan-Wei Chiu <visitorckw@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  mm/slub.c | 3 ++-
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
> index 30003763d224..c91b3744adbc 100644
> --- a/mm/slub.c
> +++ b/mm/slub.c
> @@ -7718,8 +7718,9 @@ static int cmp_loc_by_count(const void *a, const void *b, const void *data)
>  
>  	if (loc1->count > loc2->count)
>  		return -1;
> -	else
> +	if (loc1->count < loc2->count)
>  		return 1;
> +	return 0;
>  }

Hello Kuan-Wei,

This is a great catch! I was thinking that in addition to separating out the
== case, we can also simplify the behavior by just opting to use the
cmp_int macro, which is defined in the <linux/sort.h> header, which is
already included in mm/slub.c. For the description, we have:

 * Return: 1 if the left argument is greater than the right one; 0 if the
 * arguments are equal; -1 if the left argument is less than the right one.

So in this case, we can replace the entire code block above with:

return cmp_int(loc2->count, loc1->count);

or

return -1 * cmp_int(loc1->count, loc2->count);

if you prefer to keep the position of loc1 and loc2. I guess we do lose
some interpretability of what -1 and 1 would refer to here, but I think
a comment should be able to take care of that.

Please let me know what you think. I hope you have a great day!
Joshua