Re: [PATCH 1/4] mm/mm_init: use deferred_init_memmap_chunk() in deferred_grow_zone()

From: Wei Yang
Date: Tue Aug 19 2025 - 19:52:22 EST


On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 01:54:46PM +0300, Mike Rapoport wrote:
>On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 09:52:23AM +0000, Wei Yang wrote:
>> Hi, Mike
>>
>> After going through the code again, I have some trivial thoughts to discuss
>> with you. If not right, please let me know.
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 09:46:12AM +0300, Mike Rapoport wrote:
>> [...]
>> > bool __init deferred_grow_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned int order)
>> > {
>> >- unsigned long nr_pages_needed = ALIGN(1 << order, PAGES_PER_SECTION);
>> >+ unsigned long nr_pages_needed = SECTION_ALIGN_UP(1 << order);
>> > pg_data_t *pgdat = zone->zone_pgdat;
>> > unsigned long first_deferred_pfn = pgdat->first_deferred_pfn;
>> > unsigned long spfn, epfn, flags;
>> > unsigned long nr_pages = 0;
>> >- u64 i = 0;
>> >
>> > /* Only the last zone may have deferred pages */
>> > if (zone_end_pfn(zone) != pgdat_end_pfn(pgdat))
>> >@@ -2262,37 +2272,26 @@ bool __init deferred_grow_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned int order)
>> > return true;
>> > }
>>
>> In the file above this line, there is a compare between first_deferred_pfn and
>> its original value after grab pgdat_resize_lock.
>
>Do you mean this one:
>
> if (first_deferred_pfn != pgdat->first_deferred_pfn) {
> pgdat_resize_unlock(pgdat, &flags);
> return true;
> }
>

Yes.

I am thinking something like this:

if (first_deferred_pfn != pgdat->first_deferred_pfn ||
first_deferred_pfn == ULONG_MAX)

This means

* someone else has grow zone before we grab the lock
* or the whole zone has already been initialized

>> I am thinking to compare first_deferred_pfn with ULONG_MAX, as it compared in
>> deferred_init_memmap(). This indicate this zone has already been initialized
>> totally.
>
>It may be another CPU ran deferred_grow_zone() and won the race for resize
>lock. Then pgdat->first_deferred_pfn will be larger than
>first_deferred_pfn, but still not entire zone would be initialized.
>
>> Current code guard this by spfn < zone_end_pfn(zone). Maybe a check ahead
>> would be more clear?
>
>Not sure I follow you here. The check that we don't pass zone_end_pfn is
>inside the loop for every section we initialize.
>

In case the zone has been initialized totally, first_deferred_pfn = ULONG_MAX.

Then we come to the loop with initial state:

spfn = ULONG_MAX
epfn = 0 (which is wrap around)

And loop condition check (spfn < zone_end_pfn(zone)) is false, so the loop is
skipped. This is how we handle a fully initialized zone now.

Would this be a little un-common?

>> >
>> >- /* If the zone is empty somebody else may have cleared out the zone */
>> >- if (!deferred_init_mem_pfn_range_in_zone(&i, zone, &spfn, &epfn,
>> >- first_deferred_pfn)) {
>> >- pgdat->first_deferred_pfn = ULONG_MAX;
>> >- pgdat_resize_unlock(pgdat, &flags);
>> >- /* Retry only once. */
>> >- return first_deferred_pfn != ULONG_MAX;
>> >+ /*
>> >+ * Initialize at least nr_pages_needed in section chunks.
>> >+ * If a section has less free memory than nr_pages_needed, the next
>> >+ * section will be also initalized.

Nit, one typo here. s/initalized/initialized/

>> >+ * Note, that it still does not guarantee that allocation of order can
>> >+ * be satisfied if the sections are fragmented because of memblock
>> >+ * allocations.
>> >+ */
>> >+ for (spfn = first_deferred_pfn, epfn = SECTION_ALIGN_UP(spfn + 1);

--
Wei Yang
Help you, Help me