[PATCH v7 8/9] mm: use memcpy_nontemporal() in zone-device template copies
From: Li Zhe
Date: Mon Jul 20 2026 - 08:33:02 EST
The template fast path currently uses memcpy() for the actual struct
page copy. Switch zone_device_page_init_from_template() to
memcpy_nontemporal().
ZONE_DEVICE memmap initialization is largely write-once: each struct
page is populated once, and most destination cachelines are not expected
to be reused immediately afterwards. On x86, a regular cached memcpy()
can therefore incur write-allocate traffic by pulling destination
cachelines into the cache before writeback, and can populate the cache
with data that has little near-term reuse. Using memcpy_nontemporal()
lets this path request nontemporal stores for that copy pattern, which
can reduce cache pollution and avoid part of the associated
write-allocate overhead, while architectures without a specialized
backend still fall back to memcpy().
No separate drain is added here. memcpy_nontemporal() is used only as
the copy primitive while memmap_init_zone_device() is still initializing
the struct page array. The ordinary stores that follow in this path,
such as compound-page setup, are part of the same CPU's initialization
sequence; they are not used as a publication store that tells another CPU
or device to consume data written by the non-temporal copy.
Therefore this call site does not need a helper-level drain for
correctness. Callers that use memcpy_nontemporal() as part of a
producer-consumer or device-visible handoff must add the required
ordering themselves.
At this point, sanitized builds still use the slow path so KASAN/KMSAN
retain their instrumented stores. The following cleanup removes that
local opt-out together with the remaining non-template fallback.
Tested in a VM with a 100 GB fsdax namespace device configured with
map=dev and a 100 GB devdax namespace (align=2097152) on Intel Ice Lake
server.
Test procedure:
Rebind the nd_pmem and dax_pmem driver 30 times and collect the memmap
initialization time from the pr_debug() output of
memmap_init_zone_device().
Base(v7.2-rc1):
First binding for nd_pmem driver: 1456 ms
Average of subsequent rebinds: 244.28 ms
First binding for dax_pmem driver: 1462 ms
Average of subsequent rebinds: 273.31 ms
With this series:
First binding for nd_pmem driver: 1272 ms
Average of subsequent rebinds: 96.79 ms
First binding for dax_pmem driver: 1354 ms
Average of subsequent rebinds: 119.04 ms
This reduces the average memmap initialization time measured during rebind
by about 60.4% for nd_pmem and 56.4% for dax_pmem.
Signed-off-by: Li Zhe <lizhe.67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/mm_init.c | 14 ++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/mm/mm_init.c b/mm/mm_init.c
index 2668acef4fe6..2a723a518f41 100644
--- a/mm/mm_init.c
+++ b/mm/mm_init.c
@@ -1067,11 +1067,21 @@ static void __ref zone_device_page_init_slow(struct page *page,
static inline bool zone_device_page_init_optimization_enabled(void)
{
+ /*
+ * Keep sanitized builds on the slow path so their stores stay
+ * instrumented.
+ */
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KASAN) || IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KMSAN))
+ return false;
+
/*
* The template fast path copies a preinitialized struct page image.
* Skip it when the page_ref_set tracepoint is enabled.
*/
- return !page_ref_tracepoint_active(page_ref_set);
+ if (page_ref_tracepoint_active(page_ref_set))
+ return false;
+
+ return true;
}
static inline void zone_device_tail_page_init(struct page *page,
@@ -1110,7 +1120,7 @@ static void zone_device_page_init_from_template(struct page *page,
* to the destination page.
*/
zone_device_page_update_template(template, pfn);
- memcpy(page, template, sizeof(*page));
+ memcpy_nontemporal(page, template, sizeof(*page));
}
/*
--
2.20.1