Re: [PATCH v2 08/11] hugetlb: batch freeing of vmemmap pages

[Mike Kravetz]

On 09/06/23 15:38, Muchun Song wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2023/9/6 05:44, Mike Kravetz wrote:
> > Now that batching of hugetlb vmemmap optimization processing is possible,
> > batch the freeing of vmemmap pages.  When freeing vmemmap pages for a
> > hugetlb page, we add them to a list that is freed after the entire batch
> > has been processed.
> > 
> > This enhances the ability to return contiguous ranges of memory to the
> > low level allocators.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Mike Kravetz <mike.kravetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >   mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
> >   1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c b/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c
> > index 79de984919ef..a715712df831 100644
> > --- a/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c
> > +++ b/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c
> > @@ -306,18 +306,21 @@ static void vmemmap_restore_pte(pte_t *pte, unsigned long addr,
> >    * @end:	end address of the vmemmap virtual address range that we want to
> >    *		remap.
> >    * @reuse:	reuse address.
> > + * @vmemmap_pages: list to deposit vmemmap pages to be freed.  It is callers
> > + *		responsibility to free pages.
> >    *
> >    * Return: %0 on success, negative error code otherwise.
> >    */
> >   static int vmemmap_remap_free(unsigned long start, unsigned long end,
> > -			      unsigned long reuse)
> > +			      unsigned long reuse,
> > +			      struct list_head *vmemmap_pages)
> >   {
> >   	int ret;
> > -	LIST_HEAD(vmemmap_pages);
> > +	LIST_HEAD(freed_pages);
> 
> IIUC, we could reuse the parameter of @vmemmap_pages directly instead of
> a temporary variable, could it be dropped?
> 

I was concerned about the error case where we call vmemmap_remap_range a
second time.  In the first call to vmemmap_remap_range with vmemmap_remap_pte,
vmemmap pages to be freed are added to the end of the list (list_add_tail).
In the call to vmemmap_remap_range after error with vmemmap_restore_pte,
pages are taken off the head of the list (list_first_entry).  So, it seems
that it would be possible to use a different set of pages in the restore
operation.  This would be an issue if pages had different characteristics such
as being on different nodes.  Is that a real concern?

I suppose we could change vmemmap_remap_pte to add pages to the head of
the list?  I do not recall the reasoning behind adding to tail.
-- 
Mike Kravetz