Re: [PATCH v1 10/15] mm/page-flags: reuse PG_slab as PG_anon_exclusive for PageAnon() pages
From: David Hildenbrand
Date: Fri Mar 11 2022 - 14:37:00 EST
On 11.03.22 20:22, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2022 at 10:46 AM David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> - PG_has_hwpoisoned = PG_mappedtodisk,
>> + PG_has_hwpoisoned = PG_waiters,
>
> That makes me too nervous for words. PG_waiters is very subtle.
Yes, but PG_has_hwpoisoned is located on the second subpage of a
compound page, not on the head page.
>
> Not only is it magical in bit location ways (and the special
> clear_bit_unlock_is_negative_byte() macro that *literally* exists only
> for unlocking a page), it just ends up having fairly subtle semantics
> with intentionally racy clearing etc.
>
> Mixing that up with any hwpoison bits - that aren't used by any normal
> mortals and thus get very little coverage - just sounds horribly
> horribly wrong.
I used PG_error before, but felt like using a bit that is never ever
valid to be set/cleared/checked on a subpage would be even a better fit:
Note the:
PAGEFLAG(Waiters, waiters, PF_ONLY_HEAD) __CLEARPAGEFLAG(Waiters, waiters, PF_ONLY_HEAD)
whereby PF_ONLY_HEAD translates to:
"for compound page, callers only ever operate on the head page."
I can just switch to PG_error, but for the second subpage, PG_waiters
should be just fine (unless I am missing something important).
--
Thanks,
David / dhildenb