[PATCH v4 0/4] make unused huge shrinker memcg aware
From: Qi Zheng
Date: Mon Aug 17 2026 - 05:03:56 EST
From: Qi Zheng <zhengqi.arch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Changes in v4:
- add [PATCH v4 2/4] to make obj_cgroup_memcg() handle NULL objcg
- store obj_cgroup instead of mem_cgroup in shmem_inode_info to avoid
pinning a dying memcg through a long-lived CSS reference
(pointed by sashiko)
- fix is_shmem_unused_huge_match() to always check the NUMA node for
shrinker reclaim, not only for non-root memcg reclaim
(pointed by sashiko)
- collect Reviewed-by
- rebase onto the next-20260814
Note: [PATCH v4 1/4] should ideally be folded into commit 0ef8faff490be
("fs: push nr_cached_objects memcg gating into individual filesystems") in
linux-next.
Changes in v3:
- add a fix patch to fix missed removal of super_fs_objects_eligible()
- move the original shrinklist addition logic after all checks are completed,
and split it into a separate patch. (suggested by Baolin)
- simplify the shmem_unused_huge_requeue() (suggested by Baolin)
- keep the move_back label in shmem_unused_huge_shrink() (suggested by Baolin)
- rebase onto the next-20260731
Changes in v2:
- temporarily add the dependent patch from Usama to the series for review
convenience
- remove shrinklist_scan and shrinklist_isolated from struct shmem_inode_info,
and re-implement the logic by resuing the same info->shrinklist
(suggested by Baolin)
- add more comments (suggested by Andrew)
- fix missing initialization of info->shrinklist_memcg (pointed by sashiko)
- rebase onto the next-20260717
Hi all,
The shmem unused huge shrinker maintains a per-superblock list of inodes
whose tail huge folio extends beyond i_size. Because this list is not
memcg aware, reclaim triggered by memcg A can scan inodes across the
entire superblock and split huge folios charged to unrelated memcg B,
causing unexpected impact on it.
In the worst case, memcg A has no reclaimable shmem at all, making the
reclaim entirely useless and incurring unnecessary latency. We observed
this in production, where page lock contention during split caused
multi-hundred-millisecond stalls:
tid 11340 comm scanner locked a page for 182264 us! kstack:
unlock_page+1
split_huge_page_to_list+3135
shmem_unused_huge_shrink+767
super_cache_scan+329
do_shrink_slab+291
shrink_slab+533
shrink_node+400
do_try_to_free_pages+206
try_to_free_mem_cgroup_pages+262
try_charge_memcg+591
mem_cgroup_charge+136
__handle_mm_fault+2431
handle_mm_fault+194
do_user_addr_fault+462
__do_page_fault+176
do_page_fault+48
page_fault+62
Usama's recent patch [1] prevents the shmem unused shrinker from being
invoked during memcg-level reclaim altogether, but this is overly
conservative: we can do better by reclaiming only the shmem charged to
the reclaiming memcg.
This series converts the shrinker list to a memcg-aware list_lru, so
that non-root memcg reclaim walks only candidates charged to the
reclaiming memcg. Global reclaim, root memcg reclaim and shmem quota
reclaim retain their existing global semantics.
To avoid pinning a dying memcg through a long-lived CSS reference, each
inode stores an obj_cgroup reference instead of a mem_cgroup reference.
The list_lru add/delete paths resolve the current memcg from the objcg
under RCU, staying consistent with list_lru's own memcg migration on
offline.
Thanks,
Qi
[1]. https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260715103516.2410175-1-usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx/
Qi Zheng (4):
fs: fix missed removal of super_fs_objects_eligible()
mm: memcontrol: make obj_cgroup_memcg() handle NULL objcg
mm: shmem: move unused huge shrinklist queuing past the truncation
check
mm: shmem: make unused huge shrinker memcg aware
fs/super.c | 18 +-
include/linux/memcontrol.h | 11 +-
include/linux/shmem_fs.h | 12 +-
mm/page_owner.c | 2 +-
mm/shmem.c | 382 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
mm/zswap.c | 17 +-
6 files changed, 315 insertions(+), 127 deletions(-)
--
2.54.0