Re: [PATCH 0/15] mm: introduce ANON_VMA_LAZY for deferred anon_vma creation
From: Lorenzo Stoakes
Date: Fri May 29 2026 - 02:52:19 EST
On Fri, May 29, 2026 at 07:31:12AM +0800, Barry Song wrote:
> Hi Tao,
>
> Lorenzo had a discussion about rmap in Zagreb here:
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/aec533b2-37a7-4f44-a279-c4aa604206ac@lucifer.local/
>
> He also shared the PoC code here:
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ljs/linux.git/log/?h=project/cow-context
>
> and the slides were shared as well. In case you can't find
> them on linux-mm (I actually couldn't find them myself), I am
> attaching them again here -
> "scalable-cow-lsf-longer-version.pdf"
>
> After coming back from Zagreb, I kept trying to find one or
> two full days to read Lorenzo's code and slides carefully and
> write a blog about them. Unfortunately, I have been completely
> busy with other work. Sigh... we always seem to have too many
> non-upstream tasks.
>
> If possible, I'd really appreciate it if you could take a
> deep dive into it and write a detailed blog post. I'd be
> very eager to read it and better understand the overall design.
> Otherwise, I'll try to find some time next week or later to
> go through it myself.
Not sure if you're asking Tao or me about a blog post here? :)
> Hi Lorenzo,
>
> I truly believe Tao is acting with good intentions, although
> the way this is being done is quite messy.
>
> Memory costs are increasing significantly these days, and as I
> understand the patchset, he is trying to save memory.
I think there's broad awareness (from myself in particular...!) of this.
>
> However, I don't think this is being done at the right time
> or in the right way. This may also be due to cultural
> differences, language barriers, information gaps, and a lack
> of familiarity with the mm community.
> As a non-native speaker, I can see how difficult this can
> sometimes be.
>
> I would really ask you to give Tao more chances to build
> trust step by step.
>
> Best Regards
> Barry
I understand and empathise with language difficulties - I have zero
objection to using LLMs to assist with that.
But none of my objections relate to this.
We have received a huge, invasive, unmergeable series with code that reads
exactly as you'd expect from LLM-generated code, that Claude assigns a high
probability of being AI generated, from somebody with:
- 0 previous mm contributions
- 0 interactions in rmap
- 2 patches in 2026 (neither mm)
- prior to that only devicetree contributions from 8 years ago
What would you have me do under those circumstances?
Unfortunately this means I have very little trust in Tao, and given limited
maintainership resource, as I said, I suggest he attempts no further code
contributions to rmap.
And as I said elsewhere, he can rebuild trust through constructive
discussion. Also perhaps building up credibility in mm through smaller
series showing understanding?
Thanks, Lorenzo