[PATCH v5 2/6] mm/zswap: Support batch writeback in shrink_memcg()

From: Hao Jia

Date: Mon Jun 29 2026 - 07:32:57 EST


From: Hao Jia <jiahao1@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Currently, shrink_memcg() writes back at most one entry per-node during
its traversal. This makes shrink_worker() inefficient, as it must
repeatedly re-enter shrink_memcg() to make any substantial progress.

To address this, extend shrink_memcg() and rewrite its LRU iteration logic
to support batch writeback. Introduce the nr_to_scan parameter to bound how
many pages are scanned per call. This enables batch writeback in the
shrink_worker() path, while maintaining a low scan budget in the
zswap_store() path.

Additionally, to prepare for future proactive writeback, update the return
value semantics of shrink_memcg(): a positive value now represents the
actual number of compressed bytes written back, 0 indicates that candidates
existed but no writeback succeeded, and a negative value represents an
error code.

Suggested-by: Yosry Ahmed <yosry@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Hao Jia <jiahao1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/zswap.c | 89 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
1 file changed, 69 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/zswap.c b/mm/zswap.c
index 0f8f04f22888..e2c2a3f1e061 100644
--- a/mm/zswap.c
+++ b/mm/zswap.c
@@ -160,6 +160,11 @@ struct zswap_pool {
char tfm_name[CRYPTO_MAX_ALG_NAME];
};

+struct zswap_shrink_walk_arg {
+ unsigned long bytes_written;
+ bool encountered_page_in_swapcache;
+};
+
/* Global LRU lists shared by all zswap pools. */
static struct list_lru zswap_list_lru;

@@ -1089,8 +1094,9 @@ static enum lru_status shrink_memcg_cb(struct list_head *item, struct list_lru_o
void *arg)
{
struct zswap_entry *entry = container_of(item, struct zswap_entry, lru);
- bool *encountered_page_in_swapcache = (bool *)arg;
+ struct zswap_shrink_walk_arg *walk_arg = arg;
swp_entry_t swpentry;
+ unsigned int length;
enum lru_status ret = LRU_REMOVED_RETRY;
int writeback_result;

@@ -1133,10 +1139,11 @@ static enum lru_status shrink_memcg_cb(struct list_head *item, struct list_lru_o

/*
* Once the lru lock is dropped, the entry might get freed. The
- * swpentry is copied to the stack, and entry isn't deref'd again
- * until the entry is verified to still be alive in the tree.
+ * needed fields are copied to the stack, and entry isn't deref'd
+ * again until it is verified to still be alive in the tree.
*/
swpentry = entry->swpentry;
+ length = entry->length;

/*
* It's safe to drop the lock here because we return either
@@ -1155,12 +1162,13 @@ static enum lru_status shrink_memcg_cb(struct list_head *item, struct list_lru_o
* into the warmer region. We should terminate shrinking (if we're in the dynamic
* shrinker context).
*/
- if (writeback_result == -EEXIST && encountered_page_in_swapcache) {
+ if (writeback_result == -EEXIST) {
ret = LRU_STOP;
- *encountered_page_in_swapcache = true;
+ walk_arg->encountered_page_in_swapcache = true;
}
} else {
zswap_written_back_pages++;
+ walk_arg->bytes_written += length;
}

return ret;
@@ -1169,8 +1177,11 @@ static enum lru_status shrink_memcg_cb(struct list_head *item, struct list_lru_o
static unsigned long zswap_shrinker_scan(struct shrinker *shrinker,
struct shrink_control *sc)
{
+ struct zswap_shrink_walk_arg walk_arg = {
+ .bytes_written = 0,
+ .encountered_page_in_swapcache = false,
+ };
unsigned long shrink_ret;
- bool encountered_page_in_swapcache = false;

if (!zswap_shrinker_enabled ||
!mem_cgroup_zswap_writeback_enabled(sc->memcg)) {
@@ -1179,9 +1190,9 @@ static unsigned long zswap_shrinker_scan(struct shrinker *shrinker,
}

shrink_ret = list_lru_shrink_walk(&zswap_list_lru, sc, &shrink_memcg_cb,
- &encountered_page_in_swapcache);
+ &walk_arg);

- if (encountered_page_in_swapcache)
+ if (walk_arg.encountered_page_in_swapcache)
return SHRINK_STOP;

return shrink_ret ? shrink_ret : SHRINK_STOP;
@@ -1275,9 +1286,31 @@ static struct shrinker *zswap_alloc_shrinker(void)
return shrinker;
}

-static int shrink_memcg(struct mem_cgroup *memcg)
+#define NR_ZSWAP_WB_BATCH 64UL
+
+/*
+ * Scan up to @nr_to_scan pages across the per-node zswap LRUs of @memcg
+ * and write back the reclaimable ones.
+ *
+ * Since the second-chance algorithm rotates referenced entries to the
+ * LRU tail, the per-node scan is capped at the current LRU length so
+ * each entry is scanned at most once per call. It is up to the caller
+ * to handle retries, deciding whether to scan another memcg to complete
+ * the full iteration, or to rescan the current memcg to drain its zswap
+ * entries.
+ *
+ * Return: The number of compressed bytes written back (>= 0), or -ENOENT
+ * if @memcg has writeback disabled, is a zombie cgroup, or has empty
+ * zswap LRUs.
+ */
+static long shrink_memcg(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, unsigned long nr_to_scan)
{
- int nid, shrunk = 0, scanned = 0;
+ struct zswap_shrink_walk_arg walk_arg = {
+ .bytes_written = 0,
+ .encountered_page_in_swapcache = false,
+ };
+ unsigned long nr_remaining = nr_to_scan;
+ int nid;

if (!mem_cgroup_zswap_writeback_enabled(memcg))
return -ENOENT;
@@ -1290,24 +1323,40 @@ static int shrink_memcg(struct mem_cgroup *memcg)
return -ENOENT;

for_each_node_state(nid, N_NORMAL_MEMORY) {
- unsigned long nr_to_walk = 1;
+ unsigned long nr_to_walk;

- shrunk += list_lru_walk_one(&zswap_list_lru, nid, memcg,
- &shrink_memcg_cb, NULL, &nr_to_walk);
- scanned += 1 - nr_to_walk;
+ /*
+ * Cap the scan at per-node LRU length so each entry is scanned
+ * at most once per call.
+ */
+ nr_to_walk = min(nr_remaining,
+ list_lru_count_one(&zswap_list_lru, nid, memcg));
+ if (!nr_to_walk)
+ continue;
+
+ nr_remaining -= nr_to_walk;
+ list_lru_walk_one(&zswap_list_lru, nid, memcg, &shrink_memcg_cb,
+ &walk_arg, &nr_to_walk);
+ /* Return the unused share of the budget to the pool. */
+ nr_remaining += nr_to_walk;
+
+ if (!nr_remaining)
+ break;
}

- if (!scanned)
+ /* Nothing was scanned: every LRU under @memcg was empty. */
+ if (nr_remaining == nr_to_scan)
return -ENOENT;

- return shrunk ? 0 : -EAGAIN;
+ return walk_arg.bytes_written;
}

static void shrink_worker(struct work_struct *w)
{
struct mem_cgroup *memcg;
- int ret, failures = 0, attempts = 0;
+ int failures = 0, attempts = 0;
unsigned long thr;
+ long ret;

/* Reclaim down to the accept threshold */
thr = zswap_accept_thr_pages();
@@ -1373,7 +1422,7 @@ static void shrink_worker(struct work_struct *w)
goto resched;
}

- ret = shrink_memcg(memcg);
+ ret = shrink_memcg(memcg, NR_ZSWAP_WB_BATCH);
/* drop the extra reference */
mem_cgroup_put(memcg);

@@ -1394,7 +1443,7 @@ static void shrink_worker(struct work_struct *w)
}
++attempts;

- if (ret && ++failures == MAX_RECLAIM_RETRIES)
+ if (ret <= 0 && ++failures == MAX_RECLAIM_RETRIES)
break;
resched:
cond_resched();
@@ -1504,7 +1553,7 @@ bool zswap_store(struct folio *folio)
objcg = get_obj_cgroup_from_folio(folio);
if (objcg && !obj_cgroup_may_zswap(objcg)) {
memcg = get_mem_cgroup_from_objcg(objcg);
- if (shrink_memcg(memcg)) {
+ if (shrink_memcg(memcg, num_node_state(N_NORMAL_MEMORY)) <= 0) {
mem_cgroup_put(memcg);
goto put_objcg;
}
--
2.34.1