Re: [RFC PATCH 2/2] mm,page_alloc: Make alloc_contig_range handle free hugetlb pages

[Mike Kravetz]

On 2/10/21 12:23 AM, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> On 08.02.21 11:38, Oscar Salvador wrote:
>> --- a/mm/compaction.c
>> +++ b/mm/compaction.c
>> @@ -952,6 +952,17 @@ isolate_migratepages_block(struct compact_control *cc, unsigned long low_pfn,
>>                       low_pfn += compound_nr(page) - 1;
>>                       goto isolate_success_no_list;
>>                   }
>> +            } else {
> 
> } else if (alloc_and_dissolve_huge_page(page))) {
> 
> ...
> 
>> +                /*
>> +                 * Free hugetlb page. Allocate a new one and
>> +                 * dissolve this is if succeed.
>> +                 */
>> +                if (alloc_and_dissolve_huge_page(page)) {
>> +                    unsigned long order = buddy_order_unsafe(page);
>> +
>> +                    low_pfn += (1UL << order) - 1;
>> +                    continue;
>> +                }
> 
> 
> 
> Note that there is a very ugly corner case we will have to handle gracefully (I think also in patch #1):
> 
> Assume you allocated a gigantic page (and assume that we are not using CMA for gigantic pages for simplicity). Assume you want to allocate another one. alloc_pool_huge_page()->...->alloc_contig_pages() will stumble over the first allocated page. It will try to alloc_and_dissolve_huge_page() the existing gigantic page. To do that, it will alloc_pool_huge_page()->...->alloc_contig_pages() ... and so on. Bad.
> 

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread.
While looking at V3 of these patches, I was exploring all the calling
sequences looking for races and other issues.  It 'may' be that the
issue about infinitely allocating and freeing gigantic pages may not be
an issue.  Of course, I could be mistaken.  Here is my reasoning:

alloc_and_dissolve_huge_page (now isolate_or_dissolve_huge_page) will be
called from __alloc_contig_migrate_range() within alloc_contig_range().
Before calling __alloc_contig_migrate_range, we call start_isolate_page_range
to isolate all page blocks in the range.  Because all the page blocks in
the range are isolated, another invocation of alloc_contig_range will
not operate on any part of that range.  See the comments for
start_isolate_page_range or commit 2c7452a075d4.  So, when
start_isolate_page_range goes to allocate another gigantic page it will
never notice/operate on the existing gigantic page.

Again, this is confusing and I might be missing something.

In any case, I agree that gigantic pages are tricky and we should leave
them out of the discussion for now.  We can rethink this later if
necessary.
-- 
Mike Kravetz