Re: [PATCH] mm: khugepaged: don't pass swap entry value to trace_mm_khugepaged_scan_file()

From: David Hildenbrand (Arm)

Date: Tue Aug 11 2026 - 11:28:05 EST


On 8/11/26 15:36, Vernon Yang wrote:
> From: Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> When the swap entries found exceed max_ptes_swap, the loop is left via
> break with folio still holding the xarray value that encodes the swap
> entry, not valid folio pointer.
>
> That value is passed to trace_mm_khugepaged_scan_file(), which feeds it
> to folio_pfn(). On FLATMEM and SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP, the page_to_pfn() is
> plain pointer arithmetic, so the trace event merely prints bogus
> scan_pfn. On classic SPARSEMEM, the page_to_pfn() reads page->flags,
> dereferencing the tiny encoded integer and oopsing khugepaged whenever
> the trace event is enabled.
>
> So set folio to NULL before breaking out, the tracepoint maps NULL to
> scan_pfn of -1, just like exhausted scan naturally.
>
> Fixes: d41fd2016ed0 ("mm/khugepaged: add tracepoint to hpage_collapse_scan_file()")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> mm/khugepaged.c | 1 +
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
> diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
> index 617bca76db49..bc0d04c9162d 100644
> --- a/mm/khugepaged.c
> +++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
> @@ -2696,6 +2696,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_file(struct mm_struct *mm,
> if (xa_is_value(folio)) {
> swap += 1 << xas_get_order(&xas);
> if (swap > max_ptes_swap) {
> + folio = NULL;
> result = SCAN_EXCEED_SWAP_PTE;
> count_vm_event(THP_SCAN_EXCEED_SWAP_PTE);
> break;

Yes, we'll do a folio_pfn(), and used to do a page_to_pfn().

Using the folio after dropping the reference is rather nasty.

Instead of passing the folio, should we just pass the pfn directly?

--
Cheers,

David