[PATCH v3 13/13] mm/slab, kfence, memcg: completely remove obj_ext for kfence objects
From: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
Date: Mon Jul 27 2026 - 09:02:04 EST
We have already disabled memory allocation profiling for objects
allocated for KFENCE to avoid complexity. KFENCE allocations are rare
and there can be only CONFIG_KFENCE_NUM_OBJECTS (default to 255)
outstanding ones at any time, so they are among noise in the profiling
stats.
For the same reasons, we can stop memcg_kmem accounting of kfence
objects as their memory usage will be negligible wrt any practical
memcg limits.
This allows us simplifying the code and getting rid of
is_kfence_address() checks in various places, including slab_obj_ext()'s
usage of obj_to_index(). Instead we rely on the fact that slab_obj_exts()
will now always return 0 for a kfence object's fake slab, which makes
those places unreachable.
All we need to do to keep this assumption valid is not to allocate
obj_exts for kfence objects, so the checks need to guard
alloc_slab_obj_exts() where necessary.
Suggested-by: Harry Yoo <harry@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/kfence/core.c | 15 ---------------
mm/kfence/kfence.h | 3 ---
mm/memcontrol.c | 12 +++++++-----
mm/slab.h | 6 +++++-
mm/slub.c | 31 ++++++++++++++++---------------
5 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)
diff --git a/mm/kfence/core.c b/mm/kfence/core.c
index 897ecf2594fb..90925c646c4c 100644
--- a/mm/kfence/core.c
+++ b/mm/kfence/core.c
@@ -636,14 +636,6 @@ static unsigned long kfence_init_pool(void)
page = pfn_to_page(start_pfn + i);
__SetPageSlab(page);
-#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
- struct slab *slab = page_slab(page);
- slab->obj_exts = (unsigned long)&kfence_metadata_init[i / 2 - 1].obj_exts |
- MEMCG_DATA_OBJEXTS;
-#ifdef CONFIG_64BIT
- slab->obj_exts_needs_objcg = 1;
-#endif
-#endif
}
/*
@@ -707,10 +699,6 @@ static unsigned long kfence_init_pool(void)
continue;
page = pfn_to_page(start_pfn + i);
-#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
- struct slab *slab = page_slab(page);
- slab->obj_exts = 0;
-#endif
__ClearPageSlab(page);
}
@@ -1251,9 +1239,6 @@ void __kfence_free(void *addr)
{
struct kfence_metadata *meta = addr_to_metadata((unsigned long)addr);
-#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
- KFENCE_WARN_ON(slab_obj_ext_objcg(&meta->obj_exts));
-#endif
/*
* If the objects of the cache are SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU, defer freeing
* the object, as the object page may be recycled for other-typed
diff --git a/mm/kfence/kfence.h b/mm/kfence/kfence.h
index 1f618f9b0d12..e6b4bf349ff7 100644
--- a/mm/kfence/kfence.h
+++ b/mm/kfence/kfence.h
@@ -102,9 +102,6 @@ struct kfence_metadata {
struct kfence_track free_track __guarded_by(&lock);
/* For updating alloc_covered on frees. */
u32 alloc_stack_hash __guarded_by(&lock);
-#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
- struct slabobj_ext obj_exts;
-#endif
};
#define KFENCE_METADATA_SIZE PAGE_ALIGN(sizeof(struct kfence_metadata) * \
diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index aace85fb99f9..6b51ddf6dfe0 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -3583,13 +3583,15 @@ bool __memcg_slab_post_alloc_hook(struct kmem_cache *s, struct list_lru *lru,
slab = virt_to_slab(p[i]);
- if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DEBUG_VM) && WARN_ON_ONCE(!slab_needs_objcg(slab)))
- continue;
+ if (!slab_obj_exts(slab)) {
+ if (is_kfence_address(p[i]))
+ continue;
+ if (alloc_slab_obj_exts(slab, s, flags, slab_alloc_flags))
+ continue;
+ }
- if (!slab_obj_exts(slab) &&
- alloc_slab_obj_exts(slab, s, flags, slab_alloc_flags)) {
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DEBUG_VM) && WARN_ON_ONCE(!slab_needs_objcg(slab)))
continue;
- }
/*
* if we fail and size is 1, memcg_alloc_abort_single() will
diff --git a/mm/slab.h b/mm/slab.h
index 44f9b2569e80..04600f57b401 100644
--- a/mm/slab.h
+++ b/mm/slab.h
@@ -730,7 +730,11 @@ slab_obj_ext(struct kmem_cache *s, struct slab *slab, unsigned long obj_exts,
VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(obj_exts != slab_obj_exts(slab));
- index = obj_to_index(s, slab, obj);
+ /*
+ * KFENCE objects have NULL obj_exts and thus can't reach this
+ * and we don't need obj_to_index()
+ */
+ index = __obj_to_index(s, slab_address(slab), obj);
if (!obj_exts_in_object(slab))
stride = slab_obj_ext_size(slab);
diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
index 893a11abcc20..94b744e5ac79 100644
--- a/mm/slub.c
+++ b/mm/slub.c
@@ -2064,9 +2064,6 @@ static inline void mark_obj_codetag_empty(const void *obj)
struct slab *obj_slab;
unsigned long slab_exts;
- if (is_kfence_address(obj))
- return;
-
obj_slab = virt_to_slab(obj);
slab_exts = slab_obj_exts(obj_slab);
if (slab_exts) {
@@ -2329,11 +2326,15 @@ static inline unsigned long
prepare_slab_obj_exts_hook(struct kmem_cache *s, struct slab *slab,
gfp_t flags, unsigned int alloc_flags, void *p)
{
- if (!slab_obj_exts(slab) &&
- alloc_slab_obj_exts(slab, s, flags, alloc_flags)) {
- pr_warn_once("%s, %s: Failed to create slab extension vector!\n",
- __func__, s->name);
- return 0;
+ if (!slab_obj_exts(slab)) {
+ if (is_kfence_address(p))
+ return 0;
+
+ if (alloc_slab_obj_exts(slab, s, flags, alloc_flags)) {
+ pr_warn_once("%s, %s: Failed to create slab extension vector!\n",
+ __func__, s->name);
+ return 0;
+ }
}
return slab_obj_exts(slab);
@@ -2358,9 +2359,6 @@ __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook(struct kmem_cache *s, void *object, gfp_t flags,
if (alloc_flags & SLAB_ALLOC_NO_RECURSE)
return;
- if (is_kfence_address(object))
- return;
-
slab = virt_to_slab(object);
obj_exts = prepare_slab_obj_exts_hook(s, slab, flags, alloc_flags, object);
/*
@@ -2380,7 +2378,13 @@ __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook(struct kmem_cache *s, void *object, gfp_t flags,
put_slab_obj_exts(obj_exts);
} else {
- alloc_tag_set_inaccurate(current->alloc_tag);
+ /*
+ * KFENCE allocations are rare and the amount of outstanding
+ * ones is limited to a small number so it's not worth setting
+ * tags as inaccurate because of them.
+ */
+ if (!is_kfence_address(object))
+ alloc_tag_set_inaccurate(current->alloc_tag);
}
}
@@ -2411,9 +2415,6 @@ __alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook(struct kmem_cache *s, struct slab *slab, void **p
for (int i = 0; i < objects; i++) {
struct slabobj_ext *ext;
- if (is_kfence_address(p[i]))
- continue;
-
ext = slab_obj_ext(s, slab, obj_exts, p[i]);
alloc_tag_sub(slab_obj_ext_codetag_ref(slab, ext), s->size);
}
--
2.55.0