[PATCH v2 3/9] VFS caches: switch from runtime_const() machinery to slab-static.h

From: Al Viro

Date: Thu Jun 11 2026 - 13:15:45 EST


Four VFS caches are currently playing games with runtime_const() to
reduce the overhead of pointer traversals - dentry, file, backing_file
and filename. All of these kmem_cache instances can be allocated
statically now, getting rid of runtime_const() games.

Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/dcache.c | 8 +++----
fs/file_table.c | 40 ++++++++++++++-----------------
fs/namei.c | 16 ++++++-------
include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 6 +----
4 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/dcache.c b/fs/dcache.c
index 2c61aeea41f4..e2feea82682a 100644
--- a/fs/dcache.c
+++ b/fs/dcache.c
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
#include <linux/bit_spinlock.h>
#include <linux/rculist_bl.h>
#include <linux/list_lru.h>
+#include <linux/slab-static.h>
#include "internal.h"
#include "mount.h"

@@ -86,8 +87,8 @@ __cacheline_aligned_in_smp DEFINE_SEQLOCK(rename_lock);

EXPORT_SYMBOL(rename_lock);

-static struct kmem_cache *__dentry_cache __ro_after_init;
-#define dentry_cache runtime_const_ptr(__dentry_cache)
+static struct kmem_cache_opaque __dentry_cache;
+#define dentry_cache to_kmem_cache(&__dentry_cache)

const struct qstr empty_name = QSTR_INIT("", 0);
EXPORT_SYMBOL(empty_name);
@@ -3362,10 +3363,9 @@ static void __init dcache_init(void)
* but it is probably not worth it because of the cache nature
* of the dcache.
*/
- __dentry_cache = KMEM_CACHE_USERCOPY(dentry,
+ KMEM_CACHE_SETUP_USERCOPY(dentry_cache, dentry,
SLAB_RECLAIM_ACCOUNT|SLAB_PANIC|SLAB_ACCOUNT,
d_shortname.string);
- runtime_const_init(ptr, __dentry_cache);

/* Hash may have been set up in dcache_init_early */
if (!hashdist)
diff --git a/fs/file_table.c b/fs/file_table.c
index 16e52e7fc2ac..3844bc9f0e0a 100644
--- a/fs/file_table.c
+++ b/fs/file_table.c
@@ -27,11 +27,10 @@
#include <linux/task_work.h>
#include <linux/swap.h>
#include <linux/kmemleak.h>
+#include <linux/slab-static.h>

#include <linux/atomic.h>

-#include <asm/runtime-const.h>
-
#include "internal.h"

/* sysctl tunables... */
@@ -40,10 +39,10 @@ static struct files_stat_struct files_stat = {
};

/* SLAB cache for file structures */
-static struct kmem_cache *__filp_cache __ro_after_init;
-#define filp_cache runtime_const_ptr(__filp_cache)
-static struct kmem_cache *__bfilp_cache __ro_after_init;
-#define bfilp_cache runtime_const_ptr(__bfilp_cache)
+static struct kmem_cache_opaque file_cache;
+static struct kmem_cache_opaque backing_file_cache;
+#define filp_cache to_kmem_cache(&file_cache)
+#define bfilp_cache to_kmem_cache(&backing_file_cache)

static struct percpu_counter nr_files __cacheline_aligned_in_smp;

@@ -629,22 +628,19 @@ void fput_close(struct file *file)

void __init files_init(void)
{
- struct kmem_cache_args args = {
- .use_freeptr_offset = true,
- .freeptr_offset = offsetof(struct file, f_freeptr),
- };
-
- __filp_cache = kmem_cache_create("filp", sizeof(struct file), &args,
- SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC |
- SLAB_ACCOUNT | SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU);
- runtime_const_init(ptr, __filp_cache);
-
- args.freeptr_offset = offsetof(struct backing_file, bf_freeptr);
- __bfilp_cache = kmem_cache_create("bfilp", sizeof(struct backing_file),
- &args, SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC |
- SLAB_ACCOUNT | SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU);
- runtime_const_init(ptr, __bfilp_cache);
-
+ __KMEM_CACHE_SETUP(filp_cache, "filp", sizeof(struct file),
+ SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC |
+ SLAB_ACCOUNT | SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU,
+ .use_freeptr_offset = true,
+ .freeptr_offset = offsetof(struct file,
+ f_freeptr));
+
+ __KMEM_CACHE_SETUP(bfilp_cache, "bfilp", sizeof(struct backing_file),
+ SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC |
+ SLAB_ACCOUNT | SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU,
+ .use_freeptr_offset = true,
+ .freeptr_offset = offsetof(struct backing_file,
+ bf_freeptr));
percpu_counter_init(&nr_files, 0, GFP_KERNEL);
}

diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index c7fac83c9a85..7dd7edfa3a02 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -40,8 +40,7 @@
#include <linux/bitops.h>
#include <linux/init_task.h>
#include <linux/uaccess.h>
-
-#include <asm/runtime-const.h>
+#include <linux/slab-static.h>

#include "internal.h"
#include "mount.h"
@@ -126,15 +125,16 @@
*/

/* SLAB cache for struct filename instances */
-static struct kmem_cache *__names_cache __ro_after_init;
-#define names_cache runtime_const_ptr(__names_cache)
+static struct kmem_cache_opaque __names_cache;
+#define names_cache to_kmem_cache(&__names_cache)

void __init filename_init(void)
{
- __names_cache = kmem_cache_create_usercopy("names_cache", sizeof(struct filename), 0,
- SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN|SLAB_PANIC, offsetof(struct filename, iname),
- EMBEDDED_NAME_MAX, NULL);
- runtime_const_init(ptr, __names_cache);
+ kmem_cache_setup_usercopy(names_cache, "names_cache",
+ sizeof(struct filename), 0,
+ SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN|SLAB_PANIC,
+ offsetof(struct filename, iname),
+ EMBEDDED_NAME_MAX, NULL);
}

static inline struct filename *alloc_filename(void)
diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index 60c8c22fd3e4..4719269086c7 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -966,11 +966,7 @@

#define RUNTIME_CONST_VARIABLES \
RUNTIME_CONST(shift, d_hash_shift) \
- RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, dentry_hashtable) \
- RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __dentry_cache) \
- RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __names_cache) \
- RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __filp_cache) \
- RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __bfilp_cache)
+ RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, dentry_hashtable)

/* Alignment must be consistent with (kunit_suite *) in include/kunit/test.h */
#define KUNIT_TABLE() \
--
2.47.3