[PATCH RFC 14/14] mm/page-flags: remove PG_private

From: Zi Yan

Date: Fri Jul 31 2026 - 22:20:55 EST


folio->private != NULL indicates a folio carries private data, replacing
PG_private. All PG_private users are converted. Remove PG_private and
reserve the space as __PG_folio for future use.

Also update files in Documentation. hugetlbfs_reserv.rst is outdated and
left unchanged. It should be rewritten.

Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5
Signed-off-by: Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Baoquan He <baoquan.he@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Mike Rapoport <rppt@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Pasha Tatashin <pasha.tatashin@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Pratyush Yadav <pratyush@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
To: "Matthew Wilcox (Oracle)" <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
To: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Young <ruirui.yang@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Shuah Khan <skhan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Liam R. Howlett" <liam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: kexec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-fsdevel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-trace-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---
Documentation/admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst | 2 +-
Documentation/filesystems/vfs.rst | 6 +++---
include/linux/page-flags.h | 19 ++-----------------
include/trace/events/mmflags.h | 2 +-
kernel/vmcore_info.c | 1 -
5 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst
index 7663c610fe901..5f1df6d080508 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst
@@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ NR_FREE_PAGES
On linux-2.6.21 or later, the number of free pages is in
vm_stat[NR_FREE_PAGES]. Used to get the number of free pages.

-PG_lru|PG_private|PG_swapcache|PG_swapbacked|PG_hwpoison|PG_head_mask
+PG_lru|PG_swapcache|PG_swapbacked|PG_hwpoison|PG_head_mask
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Page attributes. These flags are used to filter various unnecessary for
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.rst
index e7677423a20f7..5cc07f82fe371 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.rst
@@ -649,8 +649,8 @@ Writeback.

The first can be used independently to the others. The VM can try to
release clean pages in order to reuse them. To do this it can call
-->release_folio on clean folios with the private
-flag set. Clean pages without PagePrivate and with no external references
+->release_folio on clean folios with folio->private set. Clean pages
+without folio->private set and with no external references
will be released without notice being given to the address_space.

To achieve this functionality, pages need to be placed on an LRU with
@@ -674,7 +674,7 @@ filemap_fdatawait_range, to wait for all writeback to complete.

An address_space handler may attach extra information to a page,
typically using the 'private' field in the 'struct page'. If such
-information is attached, the PG_Private flag should be set. This will
+information is attached, non-NULL 'private' field will
cause various VM routines to make extra calls into the address_space
handler to deal with that data.

diff --git a/include/linux/page-flags.h b/include/linux/page-flags.h
index 0e3628ea080c4..eb2961ed61018 100644
--- a/include/linux/page-flags.h
+++ b/include/linux/page-flags.h
@@ -44,10 +44,6 @@
* Consequently, PG_reserved for a page mapped into user space can indicate
* the zero page, the vDSO, MMIO pages or device memory.
*
- * The PG_private bitflag is set on pagecache pages if they contain filesystem
- * specific data (which is normally at page->private). It can be used by
- * private allocations for its own usage.
- *
* During initiation of disk I/O, PG_locked is set. This bit is set before I/O
* and cleared when writeback _starts_ or when read _completes_. PG_writeback
* is set before writeback starts and cleared when it finishes.
@@ -105,7 +101,7 @@ enum pageflags {
PG_owner_2, /* Owner use. If pagecache, fs may use */
PG_arch_1,
PG_reserved,
- PG_private, /* If pagecache, has fs-private data */
+ __PG_folio, /* Do not use: reserved for folio identification */
PG_private_2, /* If pagecache, has fs aux data */
PG_reclaim, /* To be reclaimed asap */
PG_swapbacked, /* Page is backed by RAM/swap */
@@ -576,7 +572,7 @@ FOLIO_FLAG(swapbacked, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
/*
* Private page markings that may be used by the filesystem that owns the page
* for its own purposes.
- * - PG_private and PG_private_2 cause release_folio() and co to be invoked
+ * - folio->private and PG_private_2 cause release_folio() and co to be invoked
*/

static __always_inline bool folio_test_private(const struct folio *folio)
@@ -584,17 +580,6 @@ static __always_inline bool folio_test_private(const struct folio *folio)
return folio->private;
}

-static __always_inline int PagePrivate(const struct page *page)
-{
- return !!page_private(page);
-}
-
-/* no-ops during transition */
-static __always_inline void folio_set_private(struct folio *folio) { }
-static __always_inline void folio_clear_private(struct folio *folio) { }
-static __always_inline void SetPagePrivate(struct page *page) { }
-static __always_inline void ClearPagePrivate(struct page *page) { }
-
FOLIO_FLAG(private_2, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)

/* owner_2 can be set on tail pages for anon memory */
diff --git a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
index 935893e5ea53b..caf090cd6f85e 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ TRACE_DEFINE_ENUM(___GFP_LAST_BIT);
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(owner_2), \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(arch_1), \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(reserved), \
- DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(private), \
+ { 1UL << __PG_folio, "folio" }, \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(private_2), \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(writeback), \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(head), \
diff --git a/kernel/vmcore_info.c b/kernel/vmcore_info.c
index 8614430ca212a..5a417f8a922ab 100644
--- a/kernel/vmcore_info.c
+++ b/kernel/vmcore_info.c
@@ -216,7 +216,6 @@ static int __init crash_save_vmcoreinfo_init(void)
VMCOREINFO_LENGTH(free_area.free_list, MIGRATE_TYPES);
VMCOREINFO_NUMBER(NR_FREE_PAGES);
VMCOREINFO_NUMBER(PG_lru);
- VMCOREINFO_NUMBER(PG_private);
VMCOREINFO_NUMBER(PG_swapcache);
VMCOREINFO_NUMBER(PG_swapbacked);
#define PAGE_SLAB_MAPCOUNT_VALUE (PGTY_slab << 24)

--
2.53.0