Re: [PATCH v3 1/2] mm: store zero pages to be swapped out in a bitmap

From: Usama Arif
Date: Tue Jun 11 2024 - 07:54:32 EST


@@ -515,8 +600,11 @@ void swap_read_folio(struct folio *folio, bool synchronous,
psi_memstall_enter(&pflags);
}
delayacct_swapin_start();
-
- if (zswap_load(folio)) {
+ if (swap_zeromap_folio_test(folio)) {
+ folio_zero_fill(folio);
+ folio_mark_uptodate(folio);
+ folio_unlock(folio);
We don't currently support swapping in large folios, but it is a work
in progress, and this will break once we have it.
swap_zeromap_folio_test() will return false even if parts of the folio
are in fact zero-filled. Then, we will go read those from disk swap,
essentially corrupting data.
So yes, with this patch I tested swap out of large zero folio, but when
swapping in it was page by page. My assumption was that swap_read_folio
(when support is added) would only pass a large folio that was earlier
swapped out as a large folio. So if a zero filled large folio was
swapped out, the zeromap will be set for all the pages in that folio,
and at large folio swap in (when it is supported), it will see that all
the bits in the zeromap for that folio are set, and will just
folio_zero_fill.

If even a single page in large folio has non-zero data then zeromap will
not store it and it will go to either zswap or disk, and at read time as
all the bits in zeromap are not set, it will still goto either zswap or
disk, so I think this works?

Is my assumption wrong that only large folios can be swapped in only if
they were swapped out as large? I think this code works in that case.
I think the assumption is incorrect. I think we would just check if
contiguous PTEs have contiguous swap entries and swapin the folio as a
large folio in this case. It is likely that the swap entries are
contiguous because it was swapped out as a large folio, but I don't
think it's guaranteed.

Yes, makes sense. Thanks for explaining this.


For example, here is a patch that implements large swapin support for
the synchronous swapin case, and I think it just checks that the PTEs
have contiguous swap entries:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20240304081348.197341-6-21cnbao@xxxxxxxxx/

This makes a lot of sense because otherwise you'd have to keep track
of how the folios were composed at the time of swapout, to be able to
swap the same folios back in.

I think the solution to large folio swap-in for this optimization and zswap is not in swap_read_folio in this patch-series or any call further down the stack, as its too late by the time you reach here, but in Barrys' patch. This needs to happen much earlier when deciding the size of the folio at folio creation in alloc_swap_folio, after Barry checks

    if (is_zswap_enabled())
        goto fallback;

once the order is decided, we would need to check the indexes in the zeromap array starting from swap_offset(entry) and ending at swap_offset(entry) + 2^order are set. If no bits are set, or all bits are set, then we allocate large folio. Otherwise, we goto fallback.

I think its better to handle this in Barrys patch. I feel this series is close to its final state, i.e. the only diff I have for the next revision is below to remove start/end_writeback for zer_filled case. I will comment on Barrys patch once the I send out the next revision of this.


diff --git a/mm/page_io.c b/mm/page_io.c
index 2cac1e11fb85..08a3772ddcf7 100644
--- a/mm/page_io.c
+++ b/mm/page_io.c
@@ -274,9 +274,7 @@ int swap_writepage(struct page *page, struct writeback_control *wbc)

        if (is_folio_zero_filled(folio)) {
                swap_zeromap_folio_set(folio);
-               folio_start_writeback(folio);
                folio_unlock(folio);
-               folio_end_writeback(folio);
                return 0;
        }
        swap_zeromap_folio_clear(folio);