Re: [PATCH v3] mm: mglru: fix stale batch updates after memcg reparenting

From: Johannes Weiner

Date: Thu Jun 25 2026 - 14:42:03 EST


On Thu, Jun 25, 2026 at 11:15:54PM +0800, Qi Zheng wrote:
> From: Qi Zheng <zhengqi.arch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> The mglru page table walker batches per-generation size deltas in
> walk->nr_pages while walking page tables without holding the lruvec lock.
> The reset_batch_size() later folds those deltas into walk->lruvec under
> the lruvec lock.
>
> The page table walker can run concurrently with the memcg reparenting path
> as follows:
>
> CPU0 CPU1
> ==== ====
>
> walk_mm
> --> walk_page_range
> --> update_batch_size
> --> walk->nr_pages += delta
>
> mem_cgroup_css_offline
> --> memcg_reparent_objcgs
> --> lock lruvec
> lru_gen_reparent_memcg
> --> reparent child folios to parent
> unlock lruvec
>
> lock lruvec
> reset_batch_size
> --> child lrugen->nr_pages += delta
>
> This will trigger the following warning in lru_gen_exit_memcg():
>
> VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(memchr_inv(lruvec->lrugen.nr_pages, 0,
> sizeof(lruvec->lrugen.nr_pages)));
>
> And the user-visible impact of underestimated nr_pages in MGLRU was
> premature OOMs because MGLRU does not try to reclaim memory when nr_pages
> reaches zero, but there are still more pages.
>
> To fix it, make reset_batch_size() check CSS_DYING under RCU before
> flushing the pending batch. A non-dying memcg keeps the original lruvec
> stable against RCU-delayed offlining; a dying memcg redirects the deltas
> to the first non-dying ancestor.
>
> Reported-by: Peiyang He <peiyang_he@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/5A9E929D82717101+12fcf643-efb8-4b9a-a53a-1e28cc894f0b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Fixes: f304652609ea ("mm: vmscan: prepare for reparenting MGLRU folios")
> Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Qi Zheng <zhengqi.arch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changes in v3:
> - re-implement lock_batch_lruvec() by checking CSS_DYING under the RCU lock
> (suggested by Harry)
> - update the commit message (suggested by Harry)
> - temporarily drop the previous Reviewed-by tags
> (since the sync method has changed)
> - rebase onto the next-20260624
>
> Changes in v2:
> - update the commit message (pointed by Barry)
> - collect Reviewed-by
>
> mm/vmscan.c | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
> 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> index 35c3bb15ae96..1ec8c23c72b9 100644
> --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> @@ -3262,10 +3262,44 @@ static void update_batch_size(struct lru_gen_mm_walk *walk, struct folio *folio,
> walk->nr_pages[new_gen][type][zone] += delta;
> }
>
> +#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
> +static struct lruvec *lock_batch_lruvec(struct lruvec *lruvec)
> +{
> + struct pglist_data *pgdat = lruvec_pgdat(lruvec);
> + struct mem_cgroup *memcg = lruvec_memcg(lruvec);
> +
> + rcu_read_lock();

Where is this unlocked?

> + /*
> + * The memcg can be NULL when the memory controller is disabled.
> + * Otherwise, the caller keeps the memcg owning @lruvec alive.
> + */
> + if (!memcg || !css_is_dying(&memcg->css))
> + goto lock;
> +
> + do {
> + memcg = parent_mem_cgroup(memcg);
> + } while (memcg && css_is_dying(&memcg->css));
> + lruvec = mem_cgroup_lruvec(memcg, pgdat);

while (unlikely(memcg && css_is_dying(&memcg->css))) {
memcg = parent_mem_cgroup(memcg);
lruvec = mem_cgroup_lruvec(memcg, pgdat);
}