[PATCH 12/16] selftests/mm: add memory-pressure threads to the khugepaged race harness
From: Kiryl Shutsemau
Date: Sun Aug 02 2026 - 16:05:43 EST
From: "Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)" <kas@xxxxxxxxxx>
The race harness exercises collapse against faults, pins, fork, mremap and
MADV_DONTNEED, but nothing in it ever elevates a source folio's refcount
from the reclaim or compaction side: LRU isolation, migration of a source
folio out from under the collapse, or swap traffic churning the LRU while
a collapse is in progress.
Add -p, which starts two more racing threads:
- pageout: cycles MADV_PAGEOUT over a dedicated neighbor region
(4 PMD areas, clamped to [16M, 64M]), faulting everything back in and
verifying content each round -- swap traffic and LRU churn with an
exact correctness check, since a page's pattern must survive the round
trip through swap. Disabled with a note when the host has no swap:
without it there is no anon reclaim to drive.
- compactor: writes to /proc/sys/vm/compact_memory in a loop. Compaction
isolates and migrates folios, so it competes with a collapse for the
very pages it is trying to gather, with transient refcount elevations
and migration entries of its own.
Assisted-by: Claude-Code:claude-opus-5
Signed-off-by: Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta) <kas@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c | 109 ++++++++++++++++++-
tools/testing/selftests/mm/run_vmtests.sh | 2 +
2 files changed, 107 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c b/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c
index 2e36e242caa7..304c72b4ee3c 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@
* clear, zero-filled copy, install-time pte_none() verify and abort)
* race the faulters directly.
*
+ * -p adds memory pressure to any of the above: MADV_PAGEOUT cycling
+ * on a dedicated neighbor region (swap traffic and LRU churn; skipped
+ * with a note when the host has no swap) and a compact_memory trigger
+ * loop (compaction migrates source folios, racing collapse's freeze
+ * with refcount elevation and migration entries of its own).
+ *
* Correctness signals: every racing page must read as its pattern or
* zero (MADV_DONTNEED), never anything else — checked continuously by
* the faulters and the fork children and once at the end — plus
@@ -64,6 +70,8 @@ static unsigned long page_size;
static char *region; /* NR_AREAS * hpage_pmd_size */
static char *mremap_area; /* region + NR_SHARED_AREAS areas */
static char *mremap_scratch; /* well above the region */
+static char *pageout_area; /* -p: dedicated pressure region */
+static size_t pageout_size;
static int gup_fd = -1;
static volatile int stop;
static volatile int corrupted;
@@ -189,6 +197,70 @@ static void *mremapper_fn(void *arg)
return NULL;
}
+/*
+ * -p: swap traffic and LRU churn on a region of our own. The content
+ * check is exact — a page out and back through swap must preserve the
+ * pattern, and nothing else ever writes here.
+ */
+static void *pageout_fn(void *arg)
+{
+ unsigned int seed = (unsigned long)arg;
+ unsigned long nr = pageout_size / page_size;
+ unsigned long i;
+
+ for (i = 0; i < nr; i++)
+ *(unsigned int *)(pageout_area + i * page_size) = pattern(i);
+
+ while (!stop) {
+ madvise(pageout_area, pageout_size, MADV_PAGEOUT);
+ for (i = 0; i < nr && !stop; i++) {
+ unsigned int val = *(unsigned int *)(pageout_area +
+ i * page_size);
+
+ if (val != pattern(i)) {
+ corrupted = 1;
+ ksft_print_msg("Pageout corruption at page %lu: %#x != %#x\n",
+ i, val, pattern(i));
+ }
+ }
+ usleep(rand_r(&seed) % 2000);
+ }
+ return NULL;
+}
+
+/* -p: compaction migrates the collapse sources out from under us. */
+static void *compactor_fn(void *arg)
+{
+ unsigned int seed = (unsigned long)arg;
+ int fd = open("/proc/sys/vm/compact_memory", O_WRONLY);
+
+ if (fd < 0) {
+ ksft_print_msg("No compact_memory; compactor idle\n");
+ return NULL;
+ }
+ while (!stop) {
+ if (write(fd, "1", 1) < 0)
+ break;
+ usleep(10000 + rand_r(&seed) % 100000);
+ }
+ close(fd);
+ return NULL;
+}
+
+static bool swap_available(void)
+{
+ char line[256];
+ int lines = 0;
+ FILE *fp = fopen("/proc/swaps", "r");
+
+ if (!fp)
+ return false;
+ while (fgets(line, sizeof(line), fp))
+ lines++;
+ fclose(fp);
+ return lines > 1;
+}
+
static unsigned long now_ms(void)
{
struct timeval tv;
@@ -200,8 +272,9 @@ static unsigned long now_ms(void)
static void usage(void)
{
fprintf(stderr,
- "Usage: khugepaged_race [-d seconds] [-m stepped|free|madvise] [-z] [-a areas]\n"
+ "Usage: khugepaged_race [-d seconds] [-m stepped|free|madvise] [-z] [-p] [-a areas]\n"
"\t-z: permissive max_ptes_none (hole-heavy windows)\n"
+ "\t-p: memory pressure (pageout + compaction) threads\n"
"\t-a: number of shared PMD-sized playground areas (default 3)\n");
exit(1);
}
@@ -210,12 +283,13 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
static const char * const thread_names[] = {
"faulter", "faulter2", "dontneed", "pinner", "forker",
- "mremapper",
+ "mremapper", "pageout", "compactor",
};
void *(*const thread_fns[])(void *) = {
faulter_fn, faulter_fn, dontneed_fn, pinner_fn, forker_fn,
- mremapper_fn,
+ mremapper_fn, pageout_fn, compactor_fn,
};
+ const unsigned long pageout_bit = 1UL << 6, compactor_bit = 1UL << 7;
const int nr_threads = ARRAY_SIZE(thread_names);
pthread_t threads[ARRAY_SIZE(thread_names)];
const char *mode = "stepped";
@@ -225,11 +299,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
unsigned long thread_mask = ~0UL;
int nr_areas_arg = 0;
bool permissive_none = false;
+ bool pressure = false;
unsigned long i;
int steps = 0;
int opt;
- while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "a:d:m:t:zh")) != -1) {
+ while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "a:d:m:t:zph")) != -1) {
switch (opt) {
case 'a':
nr_areas_arg = atoi(optarg);
@@ -247,6 +322,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
case 'z':
permissive_none = true;
break;
+ case 'p':
+ pressure = true;
+ break;
default:
usage();
}
@@ -271,6 +349,14 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
nr_shared_areas = nr_areas_arg > 0 ? nr_areas_arg : DEFAULT_SHARED_AREAS;
nr_areas = nr_shared_areas + 1;
+ if (!pressure) {
+ thread_mask &= ~(pageout_bit | compactor_bit);
+ } else if (!swap_available()) {
+ /* No swap, no anon reclaim: compaction-only pressure. */
+ ksft_print_msg("-p without swap: pageout thread disabled\n");
+ thread_mask &= ~pageout_bit;
+ }
+
ksft_set_plan(1);
thp_save_settings();
@@ -311,6 +397,21 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
mremap_area = region + nr_shared_areas * hpage_pmd_size;
mremap_scratch = (char *)BASE_ADDR + 2 * nr_areas * hpage_pmd_size;
+ if (thread_mask & pageout_bit) {
+ /*
+ * Big enough to cycle real reclaim, small enough not to
+ * dominate a TCG guest: 4 PMD areas, clamped to [16M, 64M].
+ */
+ pageout_size = 4 * hpage_pmd_size;
+ pageout_size = pageout_size < (16UL << 20) ? (16UL << 20) :
+ pageout_size > (64UL << 20) ? (64UL << 20) :
+ pageout_size;
+ pageout_area = mmap(NULL, pageout_size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
+ MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_PRIVATE, -1, 0);
+ if (pageout_area == MAP_FAILED)
+ ksft_exit_fail_perror("mmap() pageout area");
+ }
+
/* Populate so the first pass has something to collapse. */
for (i = 0; i < nr_shared_areas * hpage_pmd_size / page_size; i++)
*(unsigned int *)(region + i * page_size) = pattern(i);
diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/mm/run_vmtests.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/mm/run_vmtests.sh
index 83a04b1e2520..f826cf940c3d 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/mm/run_vmtests.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/mm/run_vmtests.sh
@@ -415,6 +415,8 @@ CATEGORY="thp" run_test ./khugepaged_race -d 5 -m madvise
CATEGORY="thp" run_test ./khugepaged_race -d 5 -m stepped -z
+CATEGORY="thp" run_test ./khugepaged_race -d 5 -m stepped -p
+
CATEGORY="thp" run_test ./khugepaged
CATEGORY="thp" run_test ./khugepaged -s 2
--
2.54.0