Re: [PATCH v7 6/7] mm/vmalloc: map contiguous pages in batches for vmap() if possible

From: Dev Jain

Date: Mon Jul 20 2026 - 03:52:48 EST


[------]

>> +
>> + nr_contig = num_pages_contiguous(&pages[idx], max_steps);
>> + if (nr_contig < 2)
>> + return 0;
>> +
>> + order = ilog2(nr_contig);
>> + pfn = page_to_pfn(pages[idx]);
>> +
>> + /* Limit order by pfn alignment */
>> + if (pfn > 0)
>> + order = min_t(int, order, __ffs(pfn));
>
> Wouldn't it make sense to determine that before you call num_pages_contiguous?
> Because then, you can just scan to that maximum instead of the given nr_pages.

Right!


>
>> +
>> + if (vm_shift(prot, PAGE_SIZE << order) == PAGE_SHIFT)
>> + return 0;
>> +
>> + return order;
>> +}
>> +
>> +static int vmap_pages_range_batched(unsigned long addr, unsigned long end,
>> + pgprot_t prot, struct page **pages)
>> +{
>> + unsigned int count = (end - addr) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
>
> "nr_pages" ? Also, can be const.
>
>> + unsigned int prev_shift = 0, idx = 0;
>> + unsigned long map_addr = addr, batch_end = addr;
>> + int err;
>> +
>> + err = kmsan_vmap_pages_range_noflush(addr, end, prot, pages,
>> + PAGE_SHIFT, GFP_KERNEL);
>
> Is the indentation on the second parameter line off?
>
>> + if (err)
>> + goto out;
>> +
>> + for (unsigned int i = 0; i < count; ) {
>> + unsigned int shift = PAGE_SHIFT +
>> + get_vmap_batch_order(pages, prot, count - i, i);
>
> Having two indices, i and idx, is just confusing.
>
> The whole function is a bit overly complicated. Does it really buy us much to
> batch over vmap_pages_range_noflush_walk() calling with the same shift?

It will buy us more in the sense that, vmap() speed is sensitive to the number
of pagetable walks. I think that is reflected by the ioremap(1MB) 1.35x speedup
mentioned in the cover letter.

In terms of callers, not sure. I would expect a caller to get the highest
power of 2 from the total needed nr_pages, then get the next highest power
of 2 from the remaining, and so on.

For the arm64 TRBE usecase, the relevant code is the rb_alloc_aux_page() caller in
kernel/events/ring_buffer.c. We may get multiple same order requests if can't
get the first requested higher order.

Since on the cover letter I see Wen and team have tested on boards, I lean
towards saying it is reasonable to assume a usecase where such order
fallback can happen.

But yeah the code for this currently is not so nice I agree.

>
>> +
>> + if (!i)
>> + prev_shift = shift;
>> +
>> + if (shift != prev_shift) {
>> + err = vmap_pages_range_noflush_walk(map_addr, batch_end,
>> + prot, pages + idx, prev_shift);
>> + if (err)
>> + goto out;
>> + prev_shift = shift;
>> + map_addr = batch_end;
>> + idx = i;
>> + }
>> +
>> + /*
>> + * Once small pages are encountered, the remaining pages
>> + * are likely small as well.
>
> "small pages" is odd. Maybe
>
> "Once we fail to batch pages, we expect to fail batching for all remaining
> pages, so just give up."
>
>> + */
>> + if (shift == PAGE_SHIFT)
>> + break;
>> +
>> + batch_end += 1UL << shift;
>> + i += 1U << (shift - PAGE_SHIFT);
>> + }
>> +
>> + /* Remaining */
>> + if (map_addr < end)
>> + err = vmap_pages_range_noflush_walk(map_addr, end,
>> + prot, pages + idx, prev_shift);
>> +
>> +out:
>> + flush_cache_vmap(addr, end);
>> + return err;
>> +}
>> +
>> /**
>> * vmap - map an array of pages into virtually contiguous space
>> * @pages: array of page pointers
>> @@ -3600,8 +3678,8 @@ void *vmap(struct page **pages, unsigned int count,
>> return NULL;
>>
>> addr = (unsigned long)area->addr;
>> - if (vmap_pages_range(addr, addr + size, pgprot_nx(prot),
>> - pages, PAGE_SHIFT) < 0) {
>> + if (vmap_pages_range_batched(addr, addr + size, pgprot_nx(prot),
>> + pages) < 0) {
>
> Nit: single line would make that nicer to read.
>