Re: [PATCH 3/3] ksm: replace function unmerge_ksm_pages with break_ksm

From: David Hildenbrand

Date: Wed Oct 29 2025 - 10:46:42 EST


On 28.10.25 14:19, Pedro Demarchi Gomes wrote:
Function unmerge_ksm_pages() is unnecessary since now break_ksm() walks
an address range. So replace it with break_ksm().

Suggested-by: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Pedro Demarchi Gomes <pedrodemargomes@xxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/ksm.c | 39 ++++++++++++++++-----------------------
1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/ksm.c b/mm/ksm.c
index 1d1ef0554c7c..18c9e3bda285 100644
--- a/mm/ksm.c
+++ b/mm/ksm.c
@@ -669,6 +669,18 @@ static const struct mm_walk_ops break_ksm_lock_vma_ops = {
};
/*
+ * Though it's very tempting to unmerge rmap_items from stable tree rather
+ * than check every pte of a given vma, the locking doesn't quite work for
+ * that - an rmap_item is assigned to the stable tree after inserting ksm
+ * page and upping mmap_lock. Nor does it fit with the way we skip dup'ing
+ * rmap_items from parent to child at fork time (so as not to waste time
+ * if exit comes before the next scan reaches it).
+ *
+ * Similarly, although we'd like to remove rmap_items (so updating counts
+ * and freeing memory) when unmerging an area, it's easier to leave that
+ * to the next pass of ksmd - consider, for example, how ksmd might be
+ * in cmp_and_merge_page on one of the rmap_items we would be removing.
+ *
* We use break_ksm to break COW on a ksm page by triggering unsharing,
* such that the ksm page will get replaced by an exclusive anonymous page.
*
@@ -1077,25 +1089,6 @@ static void remove_trailing_rmap_items(struct ksm_rmap_item **rmap_list)
}
}
-/*
- * Though it's very tempting to unmerge rmap_items from stable tree rather
- * than check every pte of a given vma, the locking doesn't quite work for
- * that - an rmap_item is assigned to the stable tree after inserting ksm
- * page and upping mmap_lock. Nor does it fit with the way we skip dup'ing
- * rmap_items from parent to child at fork time (so as not to waste time
- * if exit comes before the next scan reaches it).
- *
- * Similarly, although we'd like to remove rmap_items (so updating counts
- * and freeing memory) when unmerging an area, it's easier to leave that
- * to the next pass of ksmd - consider, for example, how ksmd might be
- * in cmp_and_merge_page on one of the rmap_items we would be removing.
- */
-static int unmerge_ksm_pages(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
- unsigned long start, unsigned long end, bool lock_vma)
-{
- return break_ksm(vma, start, end, lock_vma);
-}
-
static inline
struct ksm_stable_node *folio_stable_node(const struct folio *folio)
{
@@ -1233,7 +1226,7 @@ static int unmerge_and_remove_all_rmap_items(void)
for_each_vma(vmi, vma) {
if (!(vma->vm_flags & VM_MERGEABLE) || !vma->anon_vma)
continue;
- err = unmerge_ksm_pages(vma,
+ err = break_ksm(vma,
vma->vm_start, vma->vm_end, false);

Move that all into a single line.


With that

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks for tackling this!

--
Cheers

David / dhildenb