[PATCH v3 16/18] selftests/mm: race collapse of windows with holes

From: Kiryl Shutsemau

Date: Wed Aug 12 2026 - 09:30:00 EST


From: "Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)" <kas@xxxxxxxxxx>

The harness pins max_ptes_none to 0, so khugepaged only collapses a window
once every PTE in it is present. Collapsing a window that has holes never
happens, and that is a different path: a hole is not copied from anywhere
but zero-filled into the new folio, and the slot is re-checked under the
page table lock at install time in case a racing fault filled it first.

Run both ends of the occupancy scale, one after the other, for every
driver mode -- mTHP collapse supports only those two, 0 and
HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1, and coerces anything between them to 0. Each result
says which end it ran:

ok 1 stepped/strict: 5s, 231 steps, no corruption
ok 2 stepped/holes: 5s, 194 steps, no corruption

-z narrows a run to the hole-heavy end, the way -m narrows it to one mode.

Assisted-by: Claude-Code:claude-opus-5
Tested-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta) <kas@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c | 61 ++++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 42 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c b/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c
index d9e421ede6de..ba4f5c36bf88 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/mm/khugepaged_race.c
@@ -11,9 +11,12 @@
* free khugepaged left to run (scan_sleep_millisecs=0), for soak;
* madvise MADV_COLLAPSE in a loop.
*
- * All anon THP orders are enabled (inherit) and max_ptes_none is 0, so a
- * window has to be fully populated before khugepaged will collapse it, and
- * the racing MADV_DONTNEED decides which orders it can still use.
+ * All anon THP orders are enabled (inherit). Occupancy runs at both ends
+ * of what mTHP collapse supports: max_ptes_none 0, where a window must be
+ * fully populated, and HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1, where a window full of holes
+ * collapses too. The holes are not copied from anywhere -- they are
+ * zero-filled, and re-checked under the page table lock at install time in
+ * case a racing fault got there first.
*
* Correctness signals: every racing page must read as its pattern or
* zero (MADV_DONTNEED), never anything else. The faulters and the fork
@@ -227,9 +230,11 @@ static unsigned long now_ms(void)
static void usage(void)
{
fprintf(stderr,
- "Usage: khugepaged_race [-d seconds] [-m stepped|free|madvise] [-a areas]\n"
+ "Usage: khugepaged_race [-d seconds] [-m stepped|free|madvise] [-z] [-a areas]\n"
"\tWithout -m, every mode runs in turn.\n"
"\t-d: seconds per mode (default 5)\n"
+ "\tBoth occupancy limits run unless -z asks for holes only.\n"
+ "\t-z: only max_ptes_none = HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1 (hole-heavy)\n"
"\t-a: number of shared PMD-sized playground areas (default 3)\n");
exit(1);
}
@@ -247,6 +252,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
const int nr_threads = ARRAY_SIZE(thread_names);
pthread_t threads[ARRAY_SIZE(thread_names)];
static const char * const all_modes[] = { "stepped", "free", "madvise" };
+ static const int all_nones[] = { 0, 1 }; /* strict, holes */
+ const int *nones = all_nones;
+ int nr_nones = ARRAY_SIZE(all_nones);
const char *one_mode[1];
const char * const *modes = all_modes;
int nr_modes = ARRAY_SIZE(all_modes);
@@ -256,11 +264,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
int duration_s = 5;
unsigned long thread_mask = ~0UL;
int nr_areas_arg = 0;
+ bool holes_only = false;
unsigned long i;
int steps = 0;
int opt;

- while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "a:d:m:t:h")) != -1) {
+ while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "a:d:m:t:zh")) != -1) {
switch (opt) {
case 'a':
nr_areas_arg = atoi(optarg);
@@ -275,10 +284,18 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
/* debug: bitmask of racing threads to start */
thread_mask = strtoul(optarg, NULL, 0);
break;
+ case 'z':
+ holes_only = true;
+ break;
default:
usage();
}
}
+ if (holes_only) {
+ nones = all_nones + 1;
+ nr_nones = 1;
+ }
+
if (mode_arg) {
if (strcmp(mode_arg, "stepped") && strcmp(mode_arg, "free") &&
strcmp(mode_arg, "madvise"))
@@ -318,7 +335,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
-1, 0) != (void *)mremap_scratch)
ksft_exit_fail_perror("mmap() mremap scratch");

- ksft_set_plan(nr_modes);
+ ksft_set_plan(nr_modes * nr_nones);

thp_save_settings();
thp_read_settings(&settings);
@@ -330,8 +347,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
*/
thp_push_settings(&settings);

- for (int m = 0; m < nr_modes; m++) {
- const char *mode = modes[m];
+ for (int mn = 0; mn < nr_modes * nr_nones; mn++) {
+ const char *mode = modes[mn / nr_nones];
+ bool holes = nones[mn % nr_nones];

thp_read_settings(&settings);
settings.thp_enabled = THP_MADVISE;
@@ -341,14 +359,16 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
settings.khugepaged.scan_sleep_millisecs =
strcmp(mode, "free") ? 1000 : 0;
settings.khugepaged.alloc_sleep_millisecs = 10;
+
/*
- * Strict occupancy: mTHP collapse only supports 0 or
- * HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1 and coerces anything else to 0 anyway, and 0
- * also keeps khugepaged from burning the whole step in doomed
- * PMD-sized allocations on 512M-PMD configs: under racing
- * MADV_DONTNEED a fully populated PMD area is rare.
+ * mTHP collapse only supports the two ends of the occupancy
+ * scale: 0 or HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1 (anything else coerces to 0).
+ * Strict needs a fully populated window, which is rare under
+ * racing MADV_DONTNEED; hole-heavy windows collapse instead,
+ * so the two ends race different paths.
*/
- settings.khugepaged.max_ptes_none = 0;
+ settings.khugepaged.max_ptes_none = holes ?
+ (hpage_pmd_size / page_size) - 1 : 0;
settings.khugepaged.pages_to_scan =
nr_areas * (hpage_pmd_size / page_size) * 8;
for (i = 0; i < NR_ORDERS; i++) {
@@ -414,8 +434,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
check_page(i);

ksft_test_result(!corrupted,
- "%s: %ds, %d steps, no corruption\n",
- mode, duration_s, steps);
+ "%s/%s: %ds, %d steps, no corruption\n",
+ mode, holes ? "holes" : "strict",
+ duration_s, steps);

/*
* Hand the address space and the settings back before the
@@ -429,9 +450,11 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)

if (corrupted) {
/* Memory is suspect; the rest would prove nothing. */
- while (++m < nr_modes)
- ksft_test_result_skip("%s: skipped after corruption\n",
- modes[m]);
+ while (++mn < nr_modes * nr_nones)
+ ksft_test_result_skip("%s/%s: skipped after corruption\n",
+ modes[mn / nr_nones],
+ nones[mn % nr_nones] ?
+ "holes" : "strict");
break;
}
}
--
2.54.0