Re: [PATCH v9 mm-new 03/11] mm: thp: add support for BPF based THP order selection

From: Alexei Starovoitov

Date: Wed Oct 08 2025 - 00:39:22 EST


On Tue, Oct 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 12:10 PM Alexei Starovoitov
> <alexei.starovoitov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 7, 2025 at 8:51 PM Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 11:25 AM Alexei Starovoitov
> > > <alexei.starovoitov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Oct 7, 2025 at 1:47 AM Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > > has shown that multiple attachments often introduce conflicts. This is
> > > > > precisely why system administrators prefer to manage BPF programs with
> > > > > a single manager—to avoid undefined behaviors from competing programs.
> > > >
> > > > I don't believe this a single bit.
> > >
> > > You should spend some time seeing how users are actually applying BPF
> > > in practice. Some information for you :
> > >
> > > https://github.com/bpfman/bpfman
> > > https://github.com/DataDog/ebpf-manager
> > > https://github.com/ccfos/huatuo
> >
> > By seeing the above you learned the wrong lesson.
> > These orchestrators and many others were created because
> > we made mistakes in the kernel by not scoping the progs enough.
> > XDP is a prime example. It allows one program per netdev.
> > This was a massive mistake which we're still trying to fix.
>
> Since we don't use XDP in production, I can't comment on it. However,
> for our multi-attachable cgroup BPF programs, a key issue arises: if a
> program has permission to attach to one cgroup, it can attach to any
> cgroup. While scoping enables attachment to individual cgroups, it
> does not enforce isolation. This means we must still check for
> conflicts between programs, which begs the question: what is the
> functional purpose of this scoping mechanism?

cgroup mprog was added to remove the need for an orchestrator.

> My position is that the only valid scope for bpf-thp is at the level
> of specific THP modes like madvise and always. This patch correctly
> implements that precise design.

I'm done with this thread.

Nacked-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@xxxxxxxxxx>