Re: [PATCH v1] mm/pagewalk: fix usage of pmd_leaf()/pud_leaf() without present check

[Zi Yan]

On 15 Oct 2024, at 10:43, Jann Horn wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 4:40 PM David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On 15.10.24 16:32, Kirill A. Shutemov wrote:
>>> On Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 01:12:36PM +0200, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>> pmd_leaf()/pud_leaf() only implies a pmd_present()/pud_present() check on
>>>> some architectures.
>>>
>>> Should we clarify what behaviour we actually want from arch code?
>>
>> We probably should document somewhere that things like pmd_special(),
>> pmd_leaf() ... should only be used when we know that the PMD is present.
>>
>> I wonder if we should even add ways to detect mis-use
>>
>> Jann also raised that recently in a private message, that it is rather
>> unclear (well, and repeatedly leads to issues) when pmd_leaf() is valid
>> to be called.
>
> I think one place where that should probably be addressed is in
> Documentation/mm/arch_pgtable_helpers.rst - that is supposed to be an
> overview of these helper functions and what they mean, but the only
> thing it currently says about pmd_leaf() is "Tests a leaf mapped PMD",
> which doesn't really tell you much more than the function name. It
> would be nice if that table contained information about the conditions
> under which these helpers may be used.

I find the related documentation in include/linux/pgtable.h [1], but it is
not an easy find.


[1] https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.11.3/source/include/linux/pgtable.h#L1865

Best Regards,
Yan, Zi

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature