Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] madvise:madvise_free_pte_range(): don't use mapcount() against large folio for sharing check

[Daniel Gomez]

Hi Yin,
On Tue, Aug 08, 2023 at 10:09:17AM +0800, Yin Fengwei wrote:
> Commit 98b211d6415f ("madvise: convert madvise_free_pte_range() to use a
> folio") replaced the page_mapcount() with folio_mapcount() to check
> whether the folio is shared by other mapping.
>
> It's not correct for large folios. folio_mapcount() returns the total
> mapcount of large folio which is not suitable to detect whether the folio
> is shared.
>
> Use folio_estimated_sharers() which returns a estimated number of shares.
> That means it's not 100% correct. It should be OK for madvise case here.

I'm trying to understand why it should be ok for madvise this change, so
I hope it's okay to ask you few questions.

folio_mapcount() calculates the total maps for all the subpages of a
folio. However, the folio_estimated_sharers does it only for the first
subpage making it not true for large folios. Then, wouldn't this change
drop support for large folios?

Seems like folio_entire_mapcount() is not accurate either because of it
does not inclue PTE-mapped sub-pages which I think we need here. Hence,
the folio_mapcount(). Could this be something missing in the test side?

I tried to replicate the setup with CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE but
seems like I'm not able to do it:

./cow
# [INFO] detected THP size: 2048 KiB
# [INFO] detected hugetlb size: 2048 KiB
# [INFO] detected hugetlb size: 1048576 KiB
# [INFO] huge zeropage is enabled
TAP version 13
1..166
# [INFO] Anonymous memory tests in private mappings
# [RUN] Basic COW after fork() ... with base page
not ok 1 MADV_NOHUGEPAGE failed
# [RUN] Basic COW after fork() ... with swapped out base page
not ok 2 MADV_NOHUGEPAGE failed
# [RUN] Basic COW after fork() ... with THP
not ok 3 MADV_HUGEPAGE failed
# [RUN] Basic COW after fork() ... with swapped-out THP
not ok 4 MADV_HUGEPAGE failed
# [RUN] Basic COW after fork() ... with PTE-mapped THP
not ok 5 MADV_HUGEPAGE failed
# [RUN] Basic COW after fork() ... with swapped-out, PTE-mapped THP
not ok 6 MADV_HUGEPAGE failed
...


Daniel
>
> User-visible effects is that the THP is skipped when user call madvise.
> But the correct behavior is THP should be split and processed then.
>
> NOTE: this change is a temporary fix to reduce the user-visible effects
> before the long term fix from David is ready.
>
> Fixes: 98b211d6415f ("madvise: convert madvise_free_pte_range() to use a folio")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Yin Fengwei <fengwei.yin@xxxxxxxxx>
> Reviewed-by: Yu Zhao <yuzhao@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Reviewed-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@xxxxxxx>
> ---
>  mm/madvise.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c
> index 49af35e2d99a..4dded5d27e7e 100644
> --- a/mm/madvise.c
> +++ b/mm/madvise.c
> @@ -683,7 +683,7 @@ static int madvise_free_pte_range(pmd_t *pmd, unsigned long addr,
>  		if (folio_test_large(folio)) {
>  			int err;
>
> -			if (folio_mapcount(folio) != 1)
> +			if (folio_estimated_sharers(folio) != 1)
>  				break;
>  			if (!folio_trylock(folio))
>  				break;
> --
> 2.39.2
>