[PATCH v2] netfs: Fix missing alloc tagging of direct mempool allocations

From: Hao Ge

Date: Wed Sep 23 2026 - 02:37:22 EST


Commit 1d78d56c43ef ("netfs: Fix folio_queue ENOMEM in writeback by
adding a mempool") added a mempool for the folio_queues and made the
request, subrequest and folio_queue allocations distinguish between
writeback and everything else. Writeback is part of memory reclaim
and must not fail due to ENOMEM, so it allocates under GFP_NOFS
through mempool_alloc(), which may dip into the pool's reserve and,
if that runs empty, wait for elements to be returned. The
GFP_KERNEL paths, which can return -ENOMEM to their callers, invoke
the pool's ->alloc() callback directly instead.

The direct call, however, skips the alloc_hooks() wrapper that the
mempool_alloc() macro provides. The pool callbacks, mempool_alloc_slab()
and mempool_kmalloc(), call kmem_cache_alloc_noprof() and kmalloc_noprof()
and rely on current->alloc_tag having been set by the caller. With
CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG=y this leads to

current->alloc_tag not set
WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:161 at __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook
alloc_tag was not set
WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:166 at __alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook

at allocation and free time respectively, as reported when reading
files on a CIFS mount. The allocations are also missing from
/proc/allocinfo.

Wrap the direct ->alloc() invocations in alloc_hooks() with a new
mempool_alloc_noreserve() helper in include/linux/mempool.h, next to
the other alloc_hooks()-wrapped macros such as mempool_alloc(). The
GFP_KERNEL paths keep their failable allocation semantics, they just
get tagged now.

Fixes: 1d78d56c43ef ("netfs: Fix folio_queue ENOMEM in writeback by adding a mempool")
Reported-by: Erhard Furtner <erhard_f@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/0b004319-9ef7-437c-a4dd-174d6a9a83db@xxxxxxxxxxx/
Tested-by: Erhard Furtner <erhard_f@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Suggested-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Hao Ge <hao.ge@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Move the alloc_hooks() wrapper from fs/netfs/internal.h into
include/linux/mempool.h as mempool_alloc_noreserve(), per Suren's
suggestion, so it is not netfs-specific.

v1 Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260922023541.51532-1-hao.ge@xxxxxxxxx/
---
fs/netfs/objects.c | 4 ++--
fs/netfs/rolling_buffer.c | 2 +-
include/linux/mempool.h | 7 +++++++
3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/netfs/objects.c b/fs/netfs/objects.c
index 7f6a3e912602..ad549daa9c79 100644
--- a/fs/netfs/objects.c
+++ b/fs/netfs/objects.c
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ struct netfs_io_request *netfs_alloc_request(struct address_space *mapping,

rreq = mempool_alloc(mempool, gfp);
} else {
- rreq = mempool->alloc(gfp, mempool->pool_data);
+ rreq = mempool_alloc_noreserve(mempool, gfp);
if (!rreq)
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
}
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ struct netfs_io_subrequest *netfs_alloc_subrequest(struct netfs_io_request *rreq
struct kmem_cache *cache = mempool->pool_data;

if (rreq->gfp == GFP_KERNEL)
- subreq = mempool->alloc(rreq->gfp, mempool->pool_data);
+ subreq = mempool_alloc_noreserve(mempool, rreq->gfp);
else
subreq = mempool_alloc(mempool, rreq->gfp);
if (!subreq)
diff --git a/fs/netfs/rolling_buffer.c b/fs/netfs/rolling_buffer.c
index 424e77a9a109..d30d5ef6d86e 100644
--- a/fs/netfs/rolling_buffer.c
+++ b/fs/netfs/rolling_buffer.c
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ struct folio_queue *netfs_folioq_alloc(unsigned int rreq_id, gfp_t gfp,
struct folio_queue *fq;

if (gfp == GFP_KERNEL)
- fq = netfs_folioq_pool.alloc(gfp, netfs_folioq_pool.pool_data);
+ fq = mempool_alloc_noreserve(&netfs_folioq_pool, gfp);
else
fq = mempool_alloc(&netfs_folioq_pool, gfp);
if (fq) {
diff --git a/include/linux/mempool.h b/include/linux/mempool.h
index a0fa6d43e0dc..6da502aef2f7 100644
--- a/include/linux/mempool.h
+++ b/include/linux/mempool.h
@@ -70,6 +70,13 @@ int mempool_alloc_bulk_noprof(struct mempool *pool, void **elem,
#define mempool_alloc_bulk(...) \
alloc_hooks(mempool_alloc_bulk_noprof(__VA_ARGS__))

+/*
+ * Allocate a new element without dipping into the pool's reserves or
+ * waiting. Returns NULL on failure.
+ */
+#define mempool_alloc_noreserve(_pool, _gfp) \
+ alloc_hooks((_pool)->alloc(_gfp, (_pool)->pool_data))
+
void *mempool_alloc_preallocated(struct mempool *pool) __malloc;
void mempool_free(void *element, struct mempool *pool);
unsigned int mempool_free_bulk(struct mempool *pool, void **elem,
--
2.25.1