Re: [PATCH v3 1/1] khugepaged: fix readahead lock inversion in collapse_file()

From: Lance Yang

Date: Fri Oct 16 2026 - 13:05:20 EST


+Cc: Pedro

On Fri, Oct 16, 2026 at 05:57:48PM +0800, Baolin Wang wrote:
>
>
>On 10/16/26 2:59 PM, Lance Yang wrote:
>> collapse_file() can end up calling page_cache_sync_readahead() with
>> source folios from earlier in the range still locked. If truncate already
>> holds mapping->invalidate_lock exclusively and is waiting for one of
>> those folios, readahead blocks on the same invalidate_lock and neither
>> side can make progress.
>>
>> Do readahead in a separate pass before we start holding source folios
>> locked for collapse. Keep page_cache_sync_readahead() and its existing
>> policy, and drop each folio's lock and reference after checking that it
>> is uptodate. If truncate or reclaim removes a folio between the two
>> passes, roll back instead of doing readahead again with source folios
>> locked.
>>
>> Shmem handles swapin and fallocated folios through shmem_get_folio()
>> without taking mapping->invalidate_lock, so it isn't affected by this
>> lock inversion.
>>
>> Reported-by: syzbot+16bf7cd0ebeb1de93aa5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=16bf7cd0ebeb1de93aa5
>> Fixes: 730633f0b7f9 ("mm: Protect operations adding pages to page cache with invalidate_lock")
>> Signed-off-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@xxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>
>Thanks for the fix.

Cheers!

>> Thanks to Nguyen Ngoc Thang for v2. David asked for volunteers, so I'm
>> happy to take this over.
>>
>> Some older stable trees lack the folio infrastructure used here, and the
>> code will differ for each stable tree, so each backport will need quite a
>> bit of rework and its own review. I'm not sure whether to Cc stable here.
>> Once we agree on the fix, I'll send a separate backport for each maintained
>> stable tree except 5.10, which isn't affected.
>>
>> v2 -> v3:
>> - Replace the scan-wide invalidate_lock and page_cache_ra_unbounded() with
>> a preparation pass using page_cache_sync_readahead().
>> - Roll back on a new page cache miss during collapse.
>> - https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260913163644.122133-1-ngocthang2710.1999@xxxxxxxxx/
>>
>> mm/khugepaged.c | 42 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
>> 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
>> index ef5cd6fda34f..b3f67617caf0 100644
>> --- a/mm/khugepaged.c
>> +++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
>> @@ -2262,6 +2262,34 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_file(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
>> new_folio->index = start;
>> new_folio->mapping = mapping;
>>
>> + if (!is_shmem) {
>> + /*
>> + * Populate the range before accumulating locked source folios:
>> + * readahead may block on invalidate_lock.
>> + */
>> + for (index = start; index < end;) {
>
>why drop xas_unlock_irq()?

Hmm ... we haven't taken the lock here yet, so there's just nothing to
unlock, no?

>> + folio = filemap_lock_folio(mapping, index);
>> + if (IS_ERR(folio)) {
>> + page_cache_sync_readahead(mapping, &file->f_ra,
>> + file, index, end - index);
>> + folio = filemap_lock_folio(mapping, index);
>> + if (IS_ERR(folio)) {
>> + result = SCAN_FAIL;
>> + goto rollback;
>> + }
>> + }
>> + if (!folio_test_uptodate(folio))
>> + result = SCAN_FAIL;
>
>Do we need to check PG_uptodate after locking the folio? If we
>successfully lock the folio, doesn't that mean the read I/O has
>completed? The following code also checks the writeback flag, so the
>uptodate check seems unnecessary to me.

IIRC, the folio gets unlocked even if the read fails. I just wanted to
catch read errors early. And yeah, we already check uptodate later,
so this one can go, thanks!

>> + index = folio_next_index(folio);
>> + folio_unlock(folio);
>> + folio_put(folio);
>> + if (result != SCAN_SUCCEED)
>> + goto rollback;
>> + }
>> + /* drain lru cache to help folio_isolate_lru() */
>> + lru_add_drain();
>> + }
>
>Could we factor this code out into a small helper?

Okay, let me play with it a bit :) Might pull it out if it reads cleaner.

Thanks, Lance

>> +
>> /*
>> * Ensure we have slots for all the pages in the range. This is
>> * almost certainly a no-op because most of the pages must be present
>> @@ -2320,17 +2348,9 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_file(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
>> }
>> } else { /* !is_shmem */
>> if (!folio || xa_is_value(folio)) {
>> - xas_unlock_irq(&xas);
>> - page_cache_sync_readahead(mapping, &file->f_ra,
>> - file, index,
>> - end - index);
>> - /* drain lru cache to help folio_isolate_lru() */
>> - lru_add_drain();
>> - folio = filemap_lock_folio(mapping, index);
>> - if (IS_ERR(folio)) {
>> - result = SCAN_FAIL;
>> - goto xa_unlocked;
>> - }
>> + /* The range changed after the preparation pass. */
>> + result = SCAN_PAGE_LOCK;
>> + goto xa_locked;
>> } else if (folio_test_dirty(folio)) {
>> /*
>> * This page is dirty because it hasn't
>
>