[PATCH v2] mm/page_alloc: use batch page clearing in kernel_init_pages()

From: Hrushikesh Salunke

Date: Tue Apr 21 2026 - 00:25:34 EST


When init_on_alloc is enabled, kernel_init_pages() clears every page
one at a time via clear_highpage_kasan_tagged(), which incurs per-page
kmap_local_page()/kunmap_local() overhead and prevents the architecture
clearing primitive from operating on contiguous ranges.

Introduce clear_highpages_kasan_tagged() in highmem.h, a batch
clearing helper that calls clear_pages() for the full contiguous range
on !HIGHMEM systems, bypassing the per-page kmap overhead and allowing
a single invocation of the arch clearing primitive across the entire
allocation. The HIGHMEM path falls back to per-page clearing since
those pages require kmap.

Use it in kernel_init_pages() to replace the per-page loop.

Allocating 8192 x 2MB HugeTLB pages (16GB) with init_on_alloc=1:

Before: 0.445s
After: 0.166s (-62.7%, 2.68x faster)

Kernel time (sys) reduction per workload with init_on_alloc=1:

Workload Before After Change
Graph500 64C128T 30m 41.8s 15m 14.8s -50.3%
Graph500 16C32T 15m 56.7s 9m 43.7s -39.0%
Pagerank 32T 1m 58.5s 1m 12.8s -38.5%
Pagerank 128T 2m 36.3s 1m 40.4s -35.7%

Signed-off-by: Hrushikesh Salunke <hsalunke@xxxxxxx>
---
base commit: f1541b40cd422d7e22273be9b7e9edfc9ea4f0d7

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260408092441.435133-1-hsalunke@xxxxxxx/

Changes since v1:
- Dropped cond_resched() and PROCESS_PAGES_NON_PREEMPT_BATCH as
kernel_init_pages() runs inside the page allocator and can be
called from atomic context, making cond_resched() unsafe. The
original code never had a cond_resched() here, and the
performance gain comes from batching, not rescheduling.

- Moved the !HIGHMEM/HIGHMEM branching into a new
clear_highpages_kasan_tagged() helper in highmem.h, per David's
suggestion.

include/linux/highmem.h | 12 ++++++++++++
mm/page_alloc.c | 5 +----
2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/highmem.h b/include/linux/highmem.h
index af03db851a1d..ad0f42d06ce6 100644
--- a/include/linux/highmem.h
+++ b/include/linux/highmem.h
@@ -345,6 +345,18 @@ static inline void clear_highpage_kasan_tagged(struct page *page)
kunmap_local(kaddr);
}

+static inline void clear_highpages_kasan_tagged(struct page *page, int numpages)
+{
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_HIGHMEM)) {
+ clear_pages(kasan_reset_tag(page_address(page)), numpages);
+ } else {
+ int i;
+
+ for (i = 0; i < numpages; i++)
+ clear_highpage_kasan_tagged(page + i);
+ }
+}
+
#ifndef __HAVE_ARCH_TAG_CLEAR_HIGHPAGES

/* Return false to let people know we did not initialize the pages */
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index b1c5430cad4e..1aaf7f839ff4 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -1220,12 +1220,9 @@ static inline bool should_skip_kasan_poison(struct page *page)

static void kernel_init_pages(struct page *page, int numpages)
{
- int i;
-
/* s390's use of memset() could override KASAN redzones. */
kasan_disable_current();
- for (i = 0; i < numpages; i++)
- clear_highpage_kasan_tagged(page + i);
+ clear_highpages_kasan_tagged(page, numpages);
kasan_enable_current();
}

--
2.43.0