Re: [GIT PULL] x86/urgent for 7.4-rc4

[Linus Torvalds]

On Sun, 13 Sept 2026 at 15:54, Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The MADV_FREE one is notable for silently losing user data and having
> been around for a couple of years.

That explanation rewards horribly badly.

MADV_FREE itself is fine. It's *supposed* to drop dirty bits and lose
user data. That is the whole -m and only - point of MADV_FREE in the
first place.

The bug seems to be elsewhere in non-MADV_FREE code that then just is
confused about things. But both your pull request and that commit
message seem to try to blame MADV_FREE. What's up?

                Linus