Re: [PATCH] mm/memory-failure: fix folio refcount leak and min_order_for_split() locking

[Zi Yan]

On 6 Aug 2026, at 7:14, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:

> hwpoison code can end up calling min_order_for_split() without holding
> the folio lock. There isn't really something that would prevent
> concurrent folio split. Consequently folio->mapping can get set to
> NULL after checking for "!folio->mapping", and if the compiler
> reloads folio->mapping, mapping_min_folio_order() would try to
> dereference NULL.
>
> While very unlikely to happen in practice, let's just enforce that
> min_order_for_split() is called with the folio lock held. We can
> significantly cleanup the calling hwpoison code, and just get rid
> of try_to_split_thp_page() to hold the folio lock for a bit longer.
>
> Just work on folios now, which further cleans up the code. We just
> have to be careful about doing the page_folio() after splitting, which
> we have to do already either way. Do not change the way we split for
> now, this needs more thought and should be done separately.
>
> Cleaning this up we fix another issue: in soft_offline_in_use_page(), we
> would currently have leaked a folio reference.
>
> In folio_split(), document and assert that we need the folio lock.
> Drop the questionable VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(!page_count(p), p) check entirely.
>
> The folio->mapping problem was identified by Sashiko, and Li Youhong
> reported it by sending a proposal fix.
>
> This likely does not really warrant CCing stable, but I expect little
> conflicts when doing the backport, so let's just CC stable because of
> the refcount leak.
>
> Reported-by: Li Youhong <liyouhong@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260804035828.2684059-1-dayou5941@xxxxxxx
> Fixes: 689b8986776c ("mm/memory-failure: improve large block size folio handling")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> v4 of the last fixing attempts:
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260806031958.677935-1-dayou5941@xxxxxxx
> ---
>  mm/huge_memory.c    |  4 ++++
>  mm/memory-failure.c | 56 ++++++++++++++++++-----------------------------------
>  2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 37 deletions(-)
>

Changes look good to me. Removing NOTE part from soft offline looks good
to me too. Thanks for cleaning it up.

Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>

Best Regards,
Yan, Zi