[PATCH V3] mm/slab: introduce kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache() for cache destruction
From: Harry Yoo
Date: Sun Dec 07 2025 - 10:42:49 EST
Currently, kvfree_rcu_barrier() flushes RCU sheaves across all slab
caches when a cache is destroyed. This is unnecessary; only the RCU
sheaves belonging to the cache being destroyed need to be flushed.
As suggested by Vlastimil Babka, introduce a weaker form of
kvfree_rcu_barrier() that operates on a specific slab cache.
Factor out flush_rcu_sheaves_on_cache() from flush_all_rcu_sheaves() and
call it from flush_all_rcu_sheaves() and kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache().
Call kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache() instead of kvfree_rcu_barrier() on
cache destruction.
The performance benefit is evaluated on a 12 core 24 threads AMD Ryzen
5900X machine (1 socket), by loading slub_kunit module.
Before:
Total calls: 19
Average latency (us): 18127
Total time (us): 344414
After:
Total calls: 19
Average latency (us): 10066
Total time (us): 191264
Two performance regression have been reported:
- stress module loader test's runtime increases by 50-60% (Daniel)
- internal graphics test's runtime on Tegra23 increases by 35% (Jon)
They are fixed by this change.
Suggested-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>
Fixes: ec66e0d59952 ("slab: add sheaf support for batching kfree_rcu() operations")
Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/1bda09da-93be-4737-aef0-d47f8c5c9301@xxxxxxx
Reported-and-tested-by: Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/0406562e-2066-4cf8-9902-b2b0616dd742@xxxxxxxxxx
Reported-and-tested-by: Jon Hunter <jonathanh@xxxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/e988eff6-1287-425e-a06c-805af5bbf262@xxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
v2 -> v3:
- Addressed Suren's comment [1], thanks!
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/CAJuCfpE+g65Dm8-r=psDJQf_O1rfBG62DOzx4mE1mb+ottUKmQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
include/linux/slab.h | 7 ++++++
mm/slab.h | 1 +
mm/slab_common.c | 52 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
mm/slub.c | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------
4 files changed, 75 insertions(+), 40 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/slab.h b/include/linux/slab.h
index cf443f064a66..2482992248dc 100644
--- a/include/linux/slab.h
+++ b/include/linux/slab.h
@@ -1150,10 +1150,17 @@ static inline void kvfree_rcu_barrier(void)
rcu_barrier();
}
+static inline void kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache(struct kmem_cache *s)
+{
+ rcu_barrier();
+}
+
static inline void kfree_rcu_scheduler_running(void) { }
#else
void kvfree_rcu_barrier(void);
+void kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache(struct kmem_cache *s);
+
void kfree_rcu_scheduler_running(void);
#endif
diff --git a/mm/slab.h b/mm/slab.h
index f730e012553c..e767aa7e91b0 100644
--- a/mm/slab.h
+++ b/mm/slab.h
@@ -422,6 +422,7 @@ static inline bool is_kmalloc_normal(struct kmem_cache *s)
bool __kfree_rcu_sheaf(struct kmem_cache *s, void *obj);
void flush_all_rcu_sheaves(void);
+void flush_rcu_sheaves_on_cache(struct kmem_cache *s);
#define SLAB_CORE_FLAGS (SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_CACHE_DMA | \
SLAB_CACHE_DMA32 | SLAB_PANIC | \
diff --git a/mm/slab_common.c b/mm/slab_common.c
index 84dfff4f7b1f..dd8a49d6f9cc 100644
--- a/mm/slab_common.c
+++ b/mm/slab_common.c
@@ -492,7 +492,7 @@ void kmem_cache_destroy(struct kmem_cache *s)
return;
/* in-flight kfree_rcu()'s may include objects from our cache */
- kvfree_rcu_barrier();
+ kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache(s);
if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SLUB_RCU_DEBUG) &&
(s->flags & SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU)) {
@@ -2038,25 +2038,13 @@ void kvfree_call_rcu(struct rcu_head *head, void *ptr)
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(kvfree_call_rcu);
-/**
- * kvfree_rcu_barrier - Wait until all in-flight kvfree_rcu() complete.
- *
- * Note that a single argument of kvfree_rcu() call has a slow path that
- * triggers synchronize_rcu() following by freeing a pointer. It is done
- * before the return from the function. Therefore for any single-argument
- * call that will result in a kfree() to a cache that is to be destroyed
- * during module exit, it is developer's responsibility to ensure that all
- * such calls have returned before the call to kmem_cache_destroy().
- */
-void kvfree_rcu_barrier(void)
+static inline void __kvfree_rcu_barrier(void)
{
struct kfree_rcu_cpu_work *krwp;
struct kfree_rcu_cpu *krcp;
bool queued;
int i, cpu;
- flush_all_rcu_sheaves();
-
/*
* Firstly we detach objects and queue them over an RCU-batch
* for all CPUs. Finally queued works are flushed for each CPU.
@@ -2118,8 +2106,43 @@ void kvfree_rcu_barrier(void)
}
}
}
+
+/**
+ * kvfree_rcu_barrier - Wait until all in-flight kvfree_rcu() complete.
+ *
+ * Note that a single argument of kvfree_rcu() call has a slow path that
+ * triggers synchronize_rcu() following by freeing a pointer. It is done
+ * before the return from the function. Therefore for any single-argument
+ * call that will result in a kfree() to a cache that is to be destroyed
+ * during module exit, it is developer's responsibility to ensure that all
+ * such calls have returned before the call to kmem_cache_destroy().
+ */
+void kvfree_rcu_barrier(void)
+{
+ flush_all_rcu_sheaves();
+ __kvfree_rcu_barrier();
+}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(kvfree_rcu_barrier);
+/**
+ * kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache - Wait for in-flight kvfree_rcu() calls on a
+ * specific slab cache.
+ * @s: slab cache to wait for
+ *
+ * See the description of kvfree_rcu_barrier() for details.
+ */
+void kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache(struct kmem_cache *s)
+{
+ if (s->cpu_sheaves)
+ flush_rcu_sheaves_on_cache(s);
+ /*
+ * TODO: Introduce a version of __kvfree_rcu_barrier() that works
+ * on a specific slab cache.
+ */
+ __kvfree_rcu_barrier();
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache);
+
static unsigned long
kfree_rcu_shrink_count(struct shrinker *shrink, struct shrink_control *sc)
{
@@ -2215,4 +2238,3 @@ void __init kvfree_rcu_init(void)
}
#endif /* CONFIG_KVFREE_RCU_BATCHED */
-
diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
index 785e25a14999..7cec2220712b 100644
--- a/mm/slub.c
+++ b/mm/slub.c
@@ -4118,42 +4118,47 @@ static void flush_rcu_sheaf(struct work_struct *w)
/* needed for kvfree_rcu_barrier() */
-void flush_all_rcu_sheaves(void)
+void flush_rcu_sheaves_on_cache(struct kmem_cache *s)
{
struct slub_flush_work *sfw;
- struct kmem_cache *s;
unsigned int cpu;
- cpus_read_lock();
- mutex_lock(&slab_mutex);
+ mutex_lock(&flush_lock);
- list_for_each_entry(s, &slab_caches, list) {
- if (!s->cpu_sheaves)
- continue;
+ for_each_online_cpu(cpu) {
+ sfw = &per_cpu(slub_flush, cpu);
- mutex_lock(&flush_lock);
+ /*
+ * we don't check if rcu_free sheaf exists - racing
+ * __kfree_rcu_sheaf() might have just removed it.
+ * by executing flush_rcu_sheaf() on the cpu we make
+ * sure the __kfree_rcu_sheaf() finished its call_rcu()
+ */
- for_each_online_cpu(cpu) {
- sfw = &per_cpu(slub_flush, cpu);
+ INIT_WORK(&sfw->work, flush_rcu_sheaf);
+ sfw->s = s;
+ queue_work_on(cpu, flushwq, &sfw->work);
+ }
- /*
- * we don't check if rcu_free sheaf exists - racing
- * __kfree_rcu_sheaf() might have just removed it.
- * by executing flush_rcu_sheaf() on the cpu we make
- * sure the __kfree_rcu_sheaf() finished its call_rcu()
- */
+ for_each_online_cpu(cpu) {
+ sfw = &per_cpu(slub_flush, cpu);
+ flush_work(&sfw->work);
+ }
- INIT_WORK(&sfw->work, flush_rcu_sheaf);
- sfw->s = s;
- queue_work_on(cpu, flushwq, &sfw->work);
- }
+ mutex_unlock(&flush_lock);
+}
- for_each_online_cpu(cpu) {
- sfw = &per_cpu(slub_flush, cpu);
- flush_work(&sfw->work);
- }
+void flush_all_rcu_sheaves(void)
+{
+ struct kmem_cache *s;
+
+ cpus_read_lock();
+ mutex_lock(&slab_mutex);
- mutex_unlock(&flush_lock);
+ list_for_each_entry(s, &slab_caches, list) {
+ if (!s->cpu_sheaves)
+ continue;
+ flush_rcu_sheaves_on_cache(s);
}
mutex_unlock(&slab_mutex);
--
2.43.0