[LSF/MM TOPIC] Using XArray to manage the VMA

From: Laurent Dufour
Date: Wed Mar 13 2019 - 11:12:56 EST


If this is not too late and if there is still place available, I would like to attend the MM track and propose a topic about using the XArray to replace the VMA's RB tree and list.

Using the XArray in place of the VMA's tree and list seems to be a first step to the long way of removing/replacing the mmap_sem.
However, there are still corner cases to address like the VMA splitting and merging which may raise some issue. Using the XArray's specifying locking would not be enough to handle the memory management, and additional fine grain locking like a per VMA one could be studied, leading to further discussion about the merging of the VMA.

In addition, here are some topics I'm interested in:
- Test cases to choose for demonstrating mm features or fixing mm bugs proposed by Balbir Singh
- mm documentation proposed by Mike Rapoport

Laurent.