[PATCH v11 3/8] highmem: introduce clear_user_highpages()
From: Ankur Arora
Date: Wed Jan 07 2026 - 02:28:01 EST
Define clear_user_highpages() which uses the range clearing primitive,
clear_user_pages(). We can safely use this when CONFIG_HIGHMEM is
disabled and if the architecture does not have clear_user_highpage.
The first is needed to ensure that contiguous page ranges stay
contiguous which precludes intermediate maps via HIGMEM.
The second, because if the architecture has clear_user_highpage(),
it likely needs flushing magic when clearing the page, magic that
we aren't privy to.
For both of those cases, just fallback to a loop around
clear_user_highpage().
Signed-off-by: Ankur Arora <ankur.a.arora@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/highmem.h | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 44 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/highmem.h b/include/linux/highmem.h
index 019ab7d8c841..af03db851a1d 100644
--- a/include/linux/highmem.h
+++ b/include/linux/highmem.h
@@ -251,7 +251,14 @@ static inline void clear_user_pages(void *addr, unsigned long vaddr,
#endif
}
-/* when CONFIG_HIGHMEM is not set these will be plain clear/copy_page */
+/**
+ * clear_user_highpage() - clear a page to be mapped to user space
+ * @page: start page
+ * @vaddr: start address of the user mapping
+ *
+ * With !CONFIG_HIGHMEM this (and the copy_user_highpage() below) will
+ * be plain clear_user_page() (and copy_user_page()).
+ */
static inline void clear_user_highpage(struct page *page, unsigned long vaddr)
{
void *addr = kmap_local_page(page);
@@ -260,6 +267,42 @@ static inline void clear_user_highpage(struct page *page, unsigned long vaddr)
}
#endif /* clear_user_highpage */
+/**
+ * clear_user_highpages() - clear a page range to be mapped to user space
+ * @page: start page
+ * @vaddr: start address of the user mapping
+ * @npages: number of pages
+ *
+ * Assumes that all the pages in the region (@page, +@npages) are valid
+ * so this does no exception handling.
+ */
+static inline void clear_user_highpages(struct page *page, unsigned long vaddr,
+ unsigned int npages)
+{
+
+#if defined(clear_user_highpage) || defined(CONFIG_HIGHMEM)
+ /*
+ * An architecture defined clear_user_highpage() implies special
+ * handling is needed.
+ *
+ * So we use that or, the generic variant if CONFIG_HIGHMEM is
+ * enabled.
+ */
+ do {
+ clear_user_highpage(page, vaddr);
+ vaddr += PAGE_SIZE;
+ page++;
+ } while (--npages);
+#else
+
+ /*
+ * Prefer clear_user_pages() to allow for architectural optimizations
+ * when operating on contiguous page ranges.
+ */
+ clear_user_pages(page_address(page), vaddr, page, npages);
+#endif
+}
+
#ifndef vma_alloc_zeroed_movable_folio
/**
* vma_alloc_zeroed_movable_folio - Allocate a zeroed page for a VMA.
--
2.31.1