[PATCH v3 01/14] mm: xswap support for zswap
From: Baoquan He
Date: Wed Sep 16 2026 - 06:20:24 EST
From: Chris Li <chrisl@xxxxxxxxxx>
Introduce extendable swap device support - xswap.
An xswap device has no backing storage and no swap data section, so
it wastes no disk space. Creation is via a sysfs interface added in a
later patch.
Zswap writeback is gated on whether a real (non-xswap) swap device is
active. nr_real_swapfiles counts such devices and is maintained at
swapon/swapoff only, so the gate reflects "a device exists to write
back to" rather than "a device currently has free slots". This keeps
writeback working even when the real swap device is full, and avoids
a double decrement when a full device is swapped off.
Co-developed-by: Baoquan He <hebaoquan@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Baoquan He <hebaoquan@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Chris Li <chrisl@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/swap.h | 2 ++
mm/page_io.c | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
mm/swap_state.c | 4 ++++
mm/swapfile.c | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----
mm/zswap.c | 7 ++++++-
5 files changed, 55 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/swap.h b/include/linux/swap.h
index 43155e122b5c..b4331ca4759a 100644
--- a/include/linux/swap.h
+++ b/include/linux/swap.h
@@ -201,6 +201,7 @@ enum {
SWP_STABLE_WRITES = (1 << 11), /* no overwrite PG_writeback pages */
SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO = (1 << 12), /* synchronous IO is efficient */
SWP_HIBERNATION = (1 << 13), /* pinned for hibernation */
+ SWP_XSWAP = (1 << 14), /* extendable swap device */
/* add others here before... */
};
@@ -375,6 +376,7 @@ void free_folio_and_swap_cache(struct folio *folio);
void free_pages_and_swap_cache(struct encoded_page **, int);
/* linux/mm/swapfile.c */
extern atomic_long_t nr_swap_pages;
+extern atomic_t nr_real_swapfiles;
extern long total_swap_pages;
extern atomic_t nr_rotate_swap;
diff --git a/mm/page_io.c b/mm/page_io.c
index 1da4ff484f09..d685c2e2429a 100644
--- a/mm/page_io.c
+++ b/mm/page_io.c
@@ -248,6 +248,15 @@ int swap_writeout(struct swap_io_ctx *ctx, struct folio *folio)
}
rcu_read_unlock();
+ /*
+ * xswap has no backing store: keep the folio. ctx->sis is not set
+ * yet, so look the device up from the entry.
+ */
+ if (unlikely(__swap_entry_to_info(folio->swap)->flags & SWP_XSWAP)) {
+ folio_mark_dirty(folio);
+ return AOP_WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE;
+ }
+
__swap_writeout(ctx, folio);
return 0;
out_unlock:
@@ -482,6 +491,16 @@ void swap_read_folio(struct swap_io_ctx *ctx, struct folio *folio)
if (zswap_load(folio) != -ENOENT)
goto finish;
+ if (unlikely(sis->flags & SWP_XSWAP)) {
+ /*
+ * An xswap entry only ever lives in zswap, so zswap_load()
+ * must have found it. Unlock and let the caller retry.
+ */
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(1);
+ folio_unlock(folio);
+ goto finish;
+ }
+
/* We have to read from slower devices. Increase zswap protection. */
zswap_folio_swapin(folio);
swap_add_folio(ctx, folio, READ);
diff --git a/mm/swap_state.c b/mm/swap_state.c
index 625c185a1ca4..8bba3e533b28 100644
--- a/mm/swap_state.c
+++ b/mm/swap_state.c
@@ -837,6 +837,10 @@ struct folio *swap_cluster_readahead(swp_entry_t entry, gfp_t gfp_mask,
struct blk_plug plug;
swp_entry_t ra_entry;
+ /* xswap entries live only in zswap; readahead does not help. */
+ if (si->flags & SWP_XSWAP)
+ goto skip;
+
mask = swapin_nr_pages(offset) - 1;
if (!mask)
goto skip;
diff --git a/mm/swapfile.c b/mm/swapfile.c
index 280dd906eb18..13ae681acf07 100644
--- a/mm/swapfile.c
+++ b/mm/swapfile.c
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ static void move_cluster(struct swap_info_struct *si,
static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(swap_lock);
static unsigned int nr_swapfiles;
atomic_long_t nr_swap_pages;
+atomic_t nr_real_swapfiles;
/*
* Some modules use swappable objects and may try to swap them out under
* memory pressure (via the shrinker). Before doing so, they may wish to
@@ -733,7 +734,8 @@ static void free_cluster(struct swap_info_struct *si, struct swap_cluster_info *
/*
* If the swap is discardable, prepare discard the cluster
* instead of free it immediately. The cluster will be freed
- * after discard.
+ * after discard. xswap has no bdev and never sets
+ * SWP_PAGE_DISCARD, so it always takes the free path below.
*/
if ((si->flags & (SWP_WRITEOK | SWP_PAGE_DISCARD)) ==
(SWP_WRITEOK | SWP_PAGE_DISCARD)) {
@@ -1216,6 +1218,9 @@ static void del_from_avail_list(struct swap_info_struct *si, bool swapoff)
*/
lockdep_assert_held(&si->lock);
si->flags &= ~SWP_WRITEOK;
+ /* Count active devices, not merely those on the avail list. */
+ if (!(si->flags & SWP_XSWAP))
+ atomic_sub(1, &nr_real_swapfiles);
atomic_long_or(SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT, &si->inuse_pages);
} else {
/*
@@ -1273,6 +1278,8 @@ static void add_to_avail_list(struct swap_info_struct *si, bool swapon)
}
plist_add(&si->avail_list, &swap_avail_head);
+ if (swapon && !(si->flags & SWP_XSWAP))
+ atomic_add(1, &nr_real_swapfiles);
skip:
spin_unlock(&swap_avail_lock);
@@ -3266,7 +3273,8 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE1(swapoff, const char __user *, specialfile)
destroy_swap_extents(p, p->swap_file);
- if (!(p->flags & SWP_SOLIDSTATE))
+ if (!(p->flags & SWP_XSWAP) &&
+ !(p->flags & SWP_SOLIDSTATE))
atomic_dec(&nr_rotate_swap);
mutex_lock(&swapon_mutex);
@@ -3376,6 +3384,19 @@ static void swap_stop(struct seq_file *swap, void *v)
mutex_unlock(&swapon_mutex);
}
+static const char *swap_type_str(struct swap_info_struct *si)
+{
+ struct file *file = si->swap_file;
+
+ if (si->flags & SWP_XSWAP)
+ return "xswap\t";
+
+ if (S_ISBLK(file_inode(file)->i_mode))
+ return "partition";
+
+ return "file\t";
+}
+
static int swap_show(struct seq_file *swap, void *v)
{
struct swap_info_struct *si = v;
@@ -3395,8 +3416,7 @@ static int swap_show(struct seq_file *swap, void *v)
len = seq_file_path(swap, file, " \t\n\\");
seq_printf(swap, "%*s%s\t%lu\t%s%lu\t%s%d\n",
len < 40 ? 40 - len : 1, " ",
- S_ISBLK(file_inode(file)->i_mode) ?
- "partition" : "file\t",
+ swap_type_str(si),
bytes, bytes < 10000000 ? "\t" : "",
inuse, inuse < 10000000 ? "\t" : "",
si->prio);
diff --git a/mm/zswap.c b/mm/zswap.c
index 507f2d19fd2a..96fb993d18cb 100644
--- a/mm/zswap.c
+++ b/mm/zswap.c
@@ -1018,6 +1018,11 @@ static int zswap_writeback_entry(struct zswap_entry *entry,
if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(si))
return -ENOENT;
+ if (si->flags & SWP_XSWAP) {
+ put_swap_device(si);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+
mpol = get_task_policy(current);
folio = swap_cache_alloc_folio(swpentry, GFP_KERNEL, BIT(0), NULL, mpol,
NO_INTERLEAVE_INDEX);
@@ -1567,7 +1572,7 @@ bool zswap_store(struct folio *folio)
zswap_pool_put(pool);
put_objcg:
obj_cgroup_put(objcg);
- if (!ret && zswap_pool_reached_full)
+ if (!ret && zswap_pool_reached_full && atomic_read(&nr_real_swapfiles))
queue_work(shrink_wq, &zswap_shrink_work);
check_old:
/*
--
2.54.0