Re: [PATCH v4 5/7] mm/khugepaged: Refactor the PTE state checks into a helper

From: Zi Yan

Date: Wed Aug 12 2026 - 22:15:02 EST


On Wed Aug 12, 2026 at 5:51 AM EDT, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
>> Huh, that looks odd.
>>
>> That should just be a VM_WARN_ON_FOLIO(true, ..) or sth like that.
>>
>> But in collapse_scan_pmd() that warning never existed? So this raises eyebrows.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> I'll play with it to see if we can do better and will reply here later.
>
>
> Okay, I think below is what we should do.
>
> There is one behavioral change: we now longer trace the last folio, which is the right
> thing to do IMHO.
>
> And I think there is one fix we should pull out and evaluate first: A zeropage with a
> uffd-wp marker is not checked properly, IIUC.
>
>
> diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
> index 5a06e3942e889..8a223659fce2d 100644
> --- a/mm/khugepaged.c
> +++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
> @@ -119,6 +119,18 @@ struct collapse_control {
> DECLARE_BITMAP(mthp_present_ptes, MAX_PTRS_PER_PTE);
> };
>
> +struct collapse_anon_pte_check_ctx {
> + struct collapse_control *cc;
> + struct vm_area_struct *vma;
> + unsigned int order;
> + int none_or_zero_ptes;
> + int nonpresent_ptes;
> + int shared_ptes;
> + unsigned int max_ptes_none;
> + int max_ptes_swap;
> + unsigned int max_ptes_shared;
> +};
> +
> /**
> * struct khugepaged_scan - cursor for scanning
> * @mm_head: the head of the mm list to scan
> @@ -696,74 +708,104 @@ static void count_collapse_event(unsigned int order, enum vm_event_item vm_event
> count_mthp_stat(order, mthp_event);
> }
>
> +static enum scan_result collapse_anon_pte_check(pte_t pteval,
> + unsigned long addr, struct collapse_anon_pte_check_ctx *ctx,
> + struct folio **foliop)
> +{
> + *foliop = NULL;
> +
> + /*
> + * Don't collapse if any of the small PTEs are armed with uffd
> + * write protection. Marking the new huge pmd as write protected
> + * could bring userfault messages that fall outside of the
> + * registered range.
> + */
> + if ((pte_present(pteval) && pte_uffd(pteval)) ||
> + (!pte_present(pteval) && pte_swp_uffd_any(pteval)))
> + return SCAN_PTE_UFFD;
> +
> + if (pte_none_or_zero(pteval)) {
> + if (++ctx->none_or_zero_ptes > ctx->max_ptes_none) {
> + count_collapse_event(ctx->order, THP_SCAN_EXCEED_NONE_PTE,
> + MTHP_STAT_COLLAPSE_EXCEED_NONE);
> + return SCAN_EXCEED_NONE_PTE;
> + }
> + return SCAN_SUCCEED;
> + }
> + if (!pte_present(pteval)) {
> + if (ctx->max_ptes_swap < 0)
> + return SCAN_PTE_NON_PRESENT;
> + if (++ctx->nonpresent_ptes > ctx->max_ptes_swap) {

So max_ptes_swap is actually max_ptes_nonpresent. But due to
khugepaged's max_ptes_swap config name, we just keep the variable and
related function names that way?


> + count_collapse_event(ctx->order, THP_SCAN_EXCEED_SWAP_PTE,
> + MTHP_STAT_COLLAPSE_EXCEED_SWAP);
> + return SCAN_EXCEED_SWAP_PTE;
> + }
> + return SCAN_SUCCEED;
> + }
> +
> + *foliop = vm_normal_folio(ctx->vma, addr, pteval);
> + if (unlikely(!*foliop) || unlikely(folio_is_zone_device(*foliop)))
> + return SCAN_PAGE_NULL;
> +
> + /*
> + * If the vma has the VM_DROPPABLE flag, the collapse will
> + * preserve the lazyfree property without needing to skip.
> + */
> + if (ctx->cc->is_khugepaged && !(ctx->vma->vm_flags & VM_DROPPABLE) &&
> + folio_test_lazyfree(*foliop) && !pte_dirty(pteval))
> + return SCAN_PAGE_LAZYFREE;
> +
> + if (!folio_test_anon(*foliop))
> + return SCAN_PAGE_ANON;
> +
> + if (folio_maybe_mapped_shared(*foliop)) {
> + /*
> + * TODO: Support shared pages without leading to further
> + * mTHP collapses. Currently bringing in new pages via
> + * shared may cause a future higher order collapse on a
> + * rescan of the same range.
> + */
> + if (++ctx->shared_ptes > ctx->max_ptes_shared) {
> + count_collapse_event(ctx->order, THP_SCAN_EXCEED_SHARED_PTE,
> + MTHP_STAT_COLLAPSE_EXCEED_SHARED);
> + return SCAN_EXCEED_SHARED_PTE;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + return SCAN_SUCCEED;
> +}
> +
> static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_isolate(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
> unsigned long start_addr, pte_t *pte, struct collapse_control *cc,
> unsigned int order, struct list_head *compound_pagelist)
> {

<snip>

> + result = collapse_anon_pte_check(pteval, addr, &ctx, &folio);
> + if (result != SCAN_SUCCEED) {
> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(result == SCAN_PAGE_ANON);
> goto out;
> }
> + if (!folio)
> + continue;

SCAN_SUCCEED + folio != NULL means to proceed with the pte, while
SCAN_SUCCEED + folio == NULL means to skip the pte.

collapse_anon_pte_check() probably needs to document this? Yes, it is
straightforward at the call sites, since without a folio the following
code cannot be executed. Or you think that is self-documented.



--
Best Regards,
Yan, Zi