Re: [RFC 2/2] mm: thp: add THP_SPLIT_PMD_PTE_ALLOC_FAILED counter

From: David Hildenbrand (Arm)

Date: Wed Feb 11 2026 - 08:27:38 EST


On 2/11/26 13:49, Usama Arif wrote:
Add a vmstat counter to track PTE allocation failures during PMD split.
This enables monitoring of split failures due to memory pressure after
the lazy PTE page table allocation change.

The counter is incremented in three places:
- __split_huge_pmd(): Main entry point for splitting a PMD
- try_to_unmap_one(): When reclaim needs to split a PMD-mapped THP
- try_to_migrate_one(): When migration needs to split a PMD-mapped THP

Visible via /proc/vmstat as thp_split_pmd_pte_alloc_failed.

Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/vm_event_item.h | 1 +
mm/huge_memory.c | 1 +
mm/rmap.c | 3 +++
mm/vmstat.c | 1 +
4 files changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/vm_event_item.h b/include/linux/vm_event_item.h
index 22a139f82d75f..827c9a8c251de 100644
--- a/include/linux/vm_event_item.h
+++ b/include/linux/vm_event_item.h
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ enum vm_event_item { PGPGIN, PGPGOUT, PSWPIN, PSWPOUT,
THP_DEFERRED_SPLIT_PAGE,
THP_UNDERUSED_SPLIT_PAGE,
THP_SPLIT_PMD,
+ THP_SPLIT_PMD_PTE_ALLOC_FAILED,

Probably sufficient to call this THP_SPLIT_PMD_FAILED and count any (future) failures (if any) as well.

It's a shame that we called a remapping a "split" and keep causing confusion.

--
Cheers,

David