Re: [PATCH 2/5] slab: move kfence_alloc() out of internal bulk alloc

From: Harry Yoo
Date: Mon Nov 10 2025 - 03:08:09 EST


On Wed, Nov 05, 2025 at 10:05:30AM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> SLUB's internal bulk allocation __kmem_cache_alloc_bulk() can currently
> allocate some objects from KFENCE, i.e. when refilling a sheaf. It works
> but it's conceptually the wrong layer, as KFENCE allocations should only
> happen when objects are actually handed out from slab to its users.
>
> Currently for sheaf-enabled caches, slab_alloc_node() can return KFENCE
> object via kfence_alloc(), but also via alloc_from_pcs() when a sheaf
> was refilled with KFENCE objects. Continuing like this would also
> complicate the upcoming sheaf refill changes.
>
> Thus remove KFENCE allocation from __kmem_cache_alloc_bulk() and move it
> to the places that return slab objects to users. slab_alloc_node() is
> already covered (see above). Add kfence_alloc() to
> kmem_cache_alloc_from_sheaf() to handle KFENCE allocations from
> prefilled sheafs, with a comment that the caller should not expect the
> sheaf size to decrease after every allocation because of this
> possibility.
>
> For kmem_cache_alloc_bulk() implement a different strategy to handle
> KFENCE upfront and rely on internal batched operations afterwards.
> Assume there will be at most once KFENCE allocation per bulk allocation
> and then assign its index in the array of objects randomly.
>
> Cc: Alexander Potapenko <glider@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Marco Elver <elver@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>
> ---

Looks good to me,
Reviewed-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@xxxxxxxxxx>

--
Cheers,
Harry / Hyeonggon