[PATCH] mm/swap_state: remove unnecessary lru_add_drain() from readahead
From: Usama Arif
Date: Mon Jun 08 2026 - 10:41:42 EST
swap_cluster_readahead() and swap_vma_readahead() end the readahead
loop with an explicit lru_add_drain() call. That drain is a leftover
from 2.6.12 era code and serves no functional purpose for the callers:
- do_swap_page() ignores LRU residency for the readahead folios;
it only needs the target folio it called swapin_readahead() for,
and if the write-fault path needs the target folio on the LRU to count
references accurately, it runs its own lru_add_drain() at the
wp_can_reuse_anon_folio() and do_swap_page() sites.
- shmem_swapin_cluster() immediately locks the returned folio, waits
for writeback, then operates on it - LRU residency of either the target
or the readahead folios is irrelevant.
- try_to_unuse() likewise locks the folio and calls unuse_pte() without
depending on LRU presence.
Folios newly added to the swap cache by the readahead loop sit in
the per-CPU LRU folio_batch and will be drained naturally as the
batch fills (FOLIO_BATCH_SIZE),by the next reclaim/compaction
lru_add_drain_all() and so on. The unconditional drain only
synchronously flushes a partial batch and forces contention on
lruvec_lock.
On a 176-CPU production host running a memory-pressured workload, this
path was observed to call folio_batch_move_lru() from
swap_cluster_readahead() ~28K/min, a very large source of LRU lock
traffic.
This is a direct continuation of the cleanup started in commit
1aa43598c03b ("mm: remove unnecessary calls to lru_add_drain") which
removed the equivalent drain from free_pages_and_swap_cache() with
the same rationale. A detailed reasoning for this is present in [1].
Remove both drains.
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/dca2824e8e88e826c6b260a831d79089b5b9c79d.camel@xxxxxxxxxxx/T/#u
Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/swap_state.c | 2 --
1 file changed, 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/mm/swap_state.c b/mm/swap_state.c
index 9c3a5cf99778..6fd6e3415b71 100644
--- a/mm/swap_state.c
+++ b/mm/swap_state.c
@@ -836,7 +836,6 @@ struct folio *swap_cluster_readahead(swp_entry_t entry, gfp_t gfp_mask,
}
blk_finish_plug(&plug);
swap_read_unplug(splug);
- lru_add_drain(); /* Push any new pages onto the LRU now */
skip:
/* The page was likely read above, so no need for plugging here */
return swap_cache_read_folio(entry, gfp_mask, mpol, ilx, NULL, false);
@@ -951,7 +950,6 @@ static struct folio *swap_vma_readahead(swp_entry_t targ_entry, gfp_t gfp_mask,
pte_unmap(pte);
blk_finish_plug(&plug);
swap_read_unplug(splug);
- lru_add_drain();
skip:
/* The folio was likely read above, so no need for plugging here */
folio = swap_cache_read_folio(targ_entry, gfp_mask, mpol, targ_ilx,
--
2.52.0