Re: mm/page_alloc: add a bulk page allocator

[Mel Gorman]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 04:18:09PM +0100, Colin Ian King wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Static analysis on linux-next with Coverity has found a potential
> uninitialized variable issue in function __alloc_pages_bulk with the
> following commit:
> 
> commit b0e0a469733fa571ddd8fe147247c9561b51b2da
> Author: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date:   Mon Mar 29 11:12:24 2021 +1100
> 
>     mm/page_alloc: add a bulk page allocator
> 
> The analysis is as follows:
> 
> > <SNIP>
>
> 5050        if (nr_pages - nr_populated == 1)
> 5051                goto failed;
> 5052
> 5053        /* May set ALLOC_NOFRAGMENT, fragmentation will return 1
> page. */
> 5054        gfp &= gfp_allowed_mask;
> 5055        alloc_gfp = gfp;
> 
>     Uninitialized scalar variable (UNINIT)
>     15. uninit_use_in_call: Using uninitialized value alloc_flags when
> calling prepare_alloc_pages.
> 
> 5056        if (!prepare_alloc_pages(gfp, 0, preferred_nid, nodemask,
> &ac, &alloc_gfp, &alloc_flags))

Ok, so Coverity thinks that alloc_flags is potentially uninitialised and
without digging into every part of the report, Coverity is right.

> <SNIP>
>
> So alloc_flags in gfp_to_alloc_flags_cma is being updated with the |=
> operator and we managed to get to this path with uninitialized
> alloc_flags.  Should alloc_flags be initialized to zero in
> __alloc_page_bulk()?
> 

You are correct about the |= updating an initial value, but I think the
initialized value should be ALLOC_WMARK_LOW. A value of 0 would be the same
as ALLOC_WMARK_MIN and that would allow the bulk allocator to potentially
consume too many pages without waking kswapd.  I'll put together a patch
shortly. Thanks Colin!

-- 
Mel Gorman
SUSE Labs