Re: [PATCH v3 0/5] mm: Enable CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES by default for NUMA

[Michal Hocko]

On Sat 28-03-20 11:31:17, Hoan Tran wrote:
> In NUMA layout which nodes have memory ranges that span across other nodes,
> the mm driver can detect the memory node id incorrectly.
> 
> For example, with layout below
> Node 0 address: 0000 xxxx 0000 xxxx
> Node 1 address: xxxx 1111 xxxx 1111
> 
> Note:
>  - Memory from low to high
>  - 0/1: Node id
>  - x: Invalid memory of a node
> 
> When mm probes the memory map, without CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES
> config, mm only checks the memory validity but not the node id.
> Because of that, Node 1 also detects the memory from node 0 as below
> when it scans from the start address to the end address of node 1.
> 
> Node 0 address: 0000 xxxx xxxx xxxx
> Node 1 address: xxxx 1111 1111 1111
> 
> This layout could occur on any architecture. Most of them enables
> this config by default with CONFIG_NUMA. This patch, by default, enables
> CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES or uses early_pfn_in_nid() for NUMA.

I am not opposed to this at all. It reduces the config space and that is
a good thing on its own. The history has shown that meory layout might
be really wild wrt NUMA. The config is only used for early_pfn_in_nid
which is clearly an overkill.

Your description doesn't really explain why this is safe though. The
history of this config is somehow messy, though. Mike has tried
to remove it a94b3ab7eab4 ("[PATCH] mm: remove arch independent
NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES") just to be reintroduced by 7516795739bd
("[PATCH] Reintroduce NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES for powerpc") without any
reasoning what so ever. This doesn't make it really easy see whether
reasons for reintroduction are still there. Maybe there are some subtle
dependencies. I do not see any TBH but that might be burried deep in an
arch specific code.

> v3:
>  * Revise the patch description
> 
> V2:
>  * Revise the patch description
> 
> Hoan Tran (5):
>   mm: Enable CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES by default for NUMA
>   powerpc: Kconfig: Remove CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES
>   x86: Kconfig: Remove CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES
>   sparc: Kconfig: Remove CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES
>   s390: Kconfig: Remove CONFIG_NODES_SPAN_OTHER_NODES
> 
>  arch/powerpc/Kconfig | 9 ---------
>  arch/s390/Kconfig    | 8 --------
>  arch/sparc/Kconfig   | 9 ---------
>  arch/x86/Kconfig     | 9 ---------
>  mm/page_alloc.c      | 2 +-
>  5 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 36 deletions(-)
> 
> -- 
> 1.8.3.1
> 

-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs