Re: [PATCH bpf-next v3 4/4] selftests/bpf: Add a test for arena fault-in under memory.max

[Emil Tsalapatis]

On Sat Aug 8, 2026 at 10:05 AM EDT, Jiayuan Chen wrote:
> A child joins a memcg capped 64M above its post-load usage and faults an
> arena in until it runs out of that budget.
>
> With the fix the arena page comes from the sleepable allocator, so
> hitting memory.max goes through the memcg OOM path and the child is
> OOM-killed, which the test checks via memory.events "oom_kill".
>
> Without the fix the test may still pass, because a concurrent blocking
> allocation in the child (e.g. a COW fault on an inherited page) can hit
> memory.max and OOM-kill it first. The goal is only that the fixed kernel
> passes reliably.
>
>   # test_progs -v -t arena_memcg
>   serial_test_arena_memcg:PASS:child killed by signal
>   serial_test_arena_memcg:PASS:memcg oom_kill
>   #5       arena_memcg:OK
>
>   # dmesg (the OOM comes from the arena sleepable allocation)
>   test_progs invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT|__GFP_ZERO
>    arena_vm_fault+0x4bc/0xad0
>   Memory cgroup out of memory: Killed process 473 (test_progs)
>
> Signed-off-by: Jiayuan Chen <jiayuan.chen@xxxxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: Emil Tsalapatis <emil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> ---
>  .../selftests/bpf/prog_tests/arena_memcg.c    | 156 ++++++++++++++++++
>  .../testing/selftests/bpf/progs/arena_memcg.c |  24 +++
>  2 files changed, 180 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/bpf/prog_tests/arena_memcg.c
>  create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/arena_memcg.c
>
> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/prog_tests/arena_memcg.c b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/prog_tests/arena_memcg.c
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..af49d8b1b995
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/prog_tests/arena_memcg.c
> @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +
> +#include <test_progs.h>
> +#include <fcntl.h>
> +#include <signal.h>
> +#include <sys/mman.h>
> +#include <sys/wait.h>
> +#include <unistd.h>
> +#include <sys/user.h>
> +#ifndef PAGE_SIZE /* on some archs it comes in sys/user.h */
> +#include <unistd.h>
> +#define PAGE_SIZE getpagesize()
> +#endif
> +
> +#include "cgroup_helpers.h"
> +#include "arena_memcg.skel.h"
> +
> +#define CG_PATH		"/arena_memcg"
> +
> +/* Budget the arena gets on top of whatever is already charged after load. */
> +#define ARENA_BUDGET	(64 * 1024 * 1024)
> +
> +static void dump_memcg(int (*rd)(const char *, const char *, char *, size_t))
> +{
> +	char buf[512];
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * memory.current reads 0 once the child has left the cgroup, so it only
> +	 * carries information when dumped from the live child; memory.peak and
> +	 * memory.events survive the child and tell the story either way.
> +	 */
> +	if (!rd(CG_PATH, "memory.current", buf, sizeof(buf)))
> +		fprintf(stderr, "memory.current: %s", buf);
> +	if (!rd(CG_PATH, "memory.max", buf, sizeof(buf)))
> +		fprintf(stderr, "memory.max: %s", buf);
> +	if (!rd(CG_PATH, "memory.peak", buf, sizeof(buf)))
> +		fprintf(stderr, "memory.peak: %s", buf);
> +	if (!rd(CG_PATH, "memory.events", buf, sizeof(buf)))
> +		fprintf(stderr, "memory.events:\n%s", buf);
> +	fflush(NULL); /* _exit() in the child would not flush stdio otherwise */
> +}
> +
> +/* Read one key from a flat keyed cgroup file, e.g. "oom_kill" in memory.events. */
> +static long cg_read_key(const char *cg, const char *file, const char *key)
> +{
> +	char buf[512], *p;
> +
> +	if (read_cgroup_file(cg, file, buf, sizeof(buf)))
> +		return -1;
> +	p = strstr(buf, key);
> +	if (!p)
> +		return -1;
> +	return strtol(p + strlen(key), NULL, 10);
> +}
> +
> +void serial_test_arena_memcg(void)
> +{
> +	int cgroup_fd = -1, status;
> +	const long ps = PAGE_SIZE;
> +	char buf[64];
> +	pid_t pid;
> +
> +	if (setup_cgroup_environment())
> +		return;
> +
> +	cgroup_fd = create_and_get_cgroup(CG_PATH);
> +	if (!ASSERT_OK_FD(cgroup_fd, "create_and_get_cgroup"))
> +		goto out;
> +
> +	/* No memory controller -> nothing to test. */
> +	if (read_cgroup_file(CG_PATH, "memory.current", buf, sizeof(buf))) {
> +		test__skip();
> +		goto out;
> +	}
> +
> +	pid = fork();
> +	if (!ASSERT_GE(pid, 0, "fork"))
> +		goto out;
> +	if (pid == 0) {
> +		struct arena_memcg *cskel;
> +		__u32 i, npages;
> +		char *base;
> +		size_t sz;
> +		long cur;
> +
> +		/*
> +		 * Do everything from the child: the arena vma is VM_DONTCOPY so
> +		 * it would not survive fork(), only the child should be under the
> +		 * limit so that a memcg OOM cannot pick test_progs, and a map is
> +		 * charged to the memcg of the task that creates it - so join
> +		 * before load. The cgroup work dir belongs to the parent that set
> +		 * the environment up, so reach it with the _parent() helpers.
> +		 * Errors are reported to the parent through the exit code, since
> +		 * ASSERT_* in a forked child does not reach it.
> +		 */
> +		snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%d", getpid());
> +		if (write_cgroup_file_parent(CG_PATH, "cgroup.procs", buf))
> +			_exit(2);
> +
> +		cskel = arena_memcg__open_and_load();
> +		if (!cskel)
> +			_exit(3);
> +
> +		base = bpf_map__initial_value(cskel->maps.arena, &sz);
> +		if (!base)
> +			_exit(4);
> +		npages = bpf_map__max_entries(cskel->maps.arena);
> +
> +		/*
> +		 * Cap only now, after load: everything but the fault-in is
> +		 * charged, so the arena gets a fixed budget regardless of what
> +		 * the load itself cost, and the load can never hit the limit.
> +		 */
> +		if (read_cgroup_file_parent(CG_PATH, "memory.current", buf, sizeof(buf)))
> +			_exit(5);
> +		cur = strtol(buf, NULL, 10);
> +		snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%ld", cur + ARENA_BUDGET);
> +		if (write_cgroup_file_parent(CG_PATH, "memory.max", buf))
> +			_exit(6);
> +
> +		for (i = 0; i < npages; i++)
> +			base[(size_t)i * ps] = 1;
> +		/* Faulted everything without dying: no pressure built, dump why. */
> +		dump_memcg(read_cgroup_file_parent);
> +		_exit(0);
> +	}
> +
> +	if (!ASSERT_EQ(waitpid(pid, &status, 0), pid, "waitpid"))
> +		goto out;
> +
> +	/* A non-zero exit means the child failed to set up; the code says where. */
> +	if (WIFEXITED(status) && WEXITSTATUS(status)) {
> +		ASSERT_OK(WEXITSTATUS(status), "child setup");
> +		goto out;
> +	}
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * Faulting a valid arena address until memory.max is hit must not look
> +	 * like an invalid access. Without the fix the fault path allocated with
> +	 * the non-blocking allocator, turned its -ENOMEM into VM_FAULT_SIGSEGV,
> +	 * and the child died with SIGSEGV on a valid address; now it is handled
> +	 * by the memcg OOM path instead. A SIGKILL alone would not prove the
> +	 * memcg OOM killer did it (a global OOM or an unrelated crash could also
> +	 * kill the child), so check memory.events.oom_kill, which records the
> +	 * memcg OOM and survives the child.
> +	 */
> +	if (!ASSERT_TRUE(WIFSIGNALED(status), "child killed by signal"))
> +		goto out;
> +	if (!ASSERT_GE(cg_read_key(CG_PATH, "memory.events", "oom_kill"), 1,
> +		       "memcg oom_kill"))
> +		dump_memcg(read_cgroup_file);
> +out:
> +	if (cgroup_fd >= 0)
> +		close(cgroup_fd);
> +	cleanup_cgroup_environment();
> +}
> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/arena_memcg.c b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/arena_memcg.c
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..adecd9e8463e
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/arena_memcg.c
> @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +
> +#include <vmlinux.h>
> +#include <bpf/bpf_helpers.h>
> +#include "bpf_arena_common.h"
> +
> +struct {
> +	__uint(type, BPF_MAP_TYPE_ARENA);
> +	__uint(map_flags, BPF_F_MMAPABLE);
> +	__uint(max_entries, 100000); /* number of pages */
> +#ifdef __TARGET_ARCH_arm64
> +	__ulong(map_extra, 0x1ull << 32); /* start of mmap() region */
> +#else
> +	__ulong(map_extra, 0x1ull << 44); /* start of mmap() region */
> +#endif
> +} arena SEC(".maps");
> +
> +SEC("syscall")
> +int noop(void *ctx)
> +{
> +	return 0;
> +}
> +
> +char _license[] SEC("license") = "GPL";