Re: [PATCH v2 08/23] mm: introduce BPF kfuncs to deal with memcg pointers

From: Alexei Starovoitov

Date: Tue Oct 28 2025 - 13:13:15 EST


On Tue, Oct 28, 2025 at 9:11 AM Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> bot+bpf-ci@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> > ```
> > commit ec8e2e1769704b4f69261f36e6aaf035d47c5f0f
> > Author: Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@xxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > mm: introduce BPF kfuncs to deal with memcg pointers
> >
> > This commit introduces two new BPF kfuncs for converting css pointers
> > to memcg pointers with proper reference counting: bpf_get_mem_cgroup()
> > and bpf_put_mem_cgroup().
> >
> >> diff --git a/mm/Makefile b/mm/Makefile
> >> index 051e88c69..2d8f9beb3 100644
> >> --- a/mm/Makefile
> >> +++ b/mm/Makefile
> >> @@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_MEMCG) += swap_cgroup.o
> >> endif
> >> ifdef CONFIG_BPF_SYSCALL
> >> obj-y += bpf_oom.o
> >> +obj-$(CONFIG_MEMCG) += bpf_memcontrol.o
> >> endif
> >> obj-$(CONFIG_CGROUP_HUGETLB) += hugetlb_cgroup.o
> >> obj-$(CONFIG_GUP_TEST) += gup_test.o
> >> diff --git a/mm/bpf_memcontrol.c b/mm/bpf_memcontrol.c
> >> new file mode 100644
> >> index 000000000..1e4609774
> >> --- /dev/null
> >> +++ b/mm/bpf_memcontrol.c
> >> @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
> >> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
> >> +/*
> >> + * Memory Controller-related BPF kfuncs and auxiliary code
> >> + *
> >> + * Author: Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@xxxxxxxxx>
> >> + */
> >> +
> >> +#include <linux/memcontrol.h>
> >> +#include <linux/bpf.h>
> >> +
> >> +__bpf_kfunc_start_defs();
> >> +
> >> +/**
> >> + * bpf_get_mem_cgroup - Get a reference to a memory cgroup
> >> + * @css: pointer to the css structure
> >> + *
> >> + * Returns a pointer to a mem_cgroup structure after bumping
> >> + * the corresponding css's reference counter.
> >> + *
> >> + * It's fine to pass a css which belongs to any cgroup controller,
> >> + * e.g. unified hierarchy's main css.
> >> + *
> >> + * Implements KF_ACQUIRE semantics.
> >> + */
> >> +__bpf_kfunc struct mem_cgroup *
> >> +bpf_get_mem_cgroup(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
> >> +{
> >> + struct mem_cgroup *memcg = NULL;
> >> + bool rcu_unlock = false;
> >> +
> >> + if (!root_mem_cgroup)
> >> + return NULL;
> >> +
> >> + if (root_mem_cgroup->css.ss != css->ss) {
> > ^^^^^^^
> >
> > Can this dereference a NULL css pointer? The function checks css for
> > NULL at line 42 with "if (css && css_tryget(css))", which suggests css
> > can be NULL. If a BPF program calls this function with a NULL css,
> > wouldn't it crash here before reaching that check?
>
> Here css passed as an argument to bpf_get_mem_cgroup() can't be NULL,
> because the BPF verifier guarantees that it's a valid css pointer.
>
> However the result of rcu_dereference_raw(cgroup->subsys[ssid]) can be
> NULL, this is why the "if (css && css_tryget(css))" check is required
> down below.

Yeah. Not sure how feasible it is to teach AI about KF_RCU semantics.