[PATCH 2/2] mm/hugetlb: cap demotion at currently available free pages

From: Longlong Xia

Date: Sat Aug 22 2026 - 23:44:47 EST


From: Longlong Xia <xialonglong@xxxxxxxxxx>

Demotion must not remove free huge pages that back existing
reservations. The sysfs path checks whether any page is available, but
passes the entire request to demote_pool_huge_page(). For example, with
two free pages and one reservation, a request for two pages removes both
and leaves the reservation without a backing page.

Cap the sysfs request by both global availability and the selected
node's free pages. Recheck global availability in
demote_pool_huge_page() before each node batch because that function
drops hugetlb_lock while restoring vmemmap and reservations can change
before the next batch.

Fixes: c0f398c3b2cf ("mm/hugetlb_vmemmap: batch HVO work when demoting")
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5.6-sol
Signed-off-by: Longlong Xia <xialonglong@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/hugetlb.c | 22 +++++++++++++++++++++-
mm/hugetlb_sysfs.c | 10 +++++-----
2 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/hugetlb.c b/mm/hugetlb.c
index 640df58be4e5..ae26d400ad31 100644
--- a/mm/hugetlb.c
+++ b/mm/hugetlb.c
@@ -3998,6 +3998,26 @@ long demote_pool_huge_page(struct hstate *src, nodemask_t *nodes_allowed,
LIST_HEAD(list);
LIST_HEAD(surplus_list);
struct folio *folio, *next;
+ unsigned long nr_available, nr_target;
+
+ /*
+ * Re-check available each node batch: the previous
+ * batch released hugetlb_lock for vmemmap restore/split,
+ * and a new reservation could have been added in that
+ * window, shrinking the budget. available is global
+ * (resv is not per-node), so 0 means no node can
+ * contribute -- stop the whole scan.
+ */
+ nr_available = available_huge_pages(src);
+ if (!nr_available)
+ break;
+
+ /*
+ * Cap this batch at the current budget; expressed as a
+ * cumulative stop point because nr_demoted is running.
+ */
+ nr_target = nr_demoted + min_t(unsigned long,
+ nr_to_demote - nr_demoted, nr_available);

list_for_each_entry_safe(folio, next, &src->hugepage_freelists[node], lru) {
bool adjust_surplus;
@@ -4012,7 +4032,7 @@ long demote_pool_huge_page(struct hstate *src, nodemask_t *nodes_allowed,
if (!adjust_surplus)
nr_persistent++;

- if (++nr_demoted == nr_to_demote)
+ if (++nr_demoted == nr_target)
break;
}

diff --git a/mm/hugetlb_sysfs.c b/mm/hugetlb_sysfs.c
index 79ece91406bf..326a54b4d991 100644
--- a/mm/hugetlb_sysfs.c
+++ b/mm/hugetlb_sysfs.c
@@ -211,15 +211,15 @@ static ssize_t demote_store(struct kobject *kobj,
* Check for available pages to demote each time thorough the
* loop as demote_pool_huge_page will drop hugetlb_lock.
*/
+ nr_available = h->free_huge_pages - h->resv_huge_pages;
if (nid != NUMA_NO_NODE)
- nr_available = h->free_huge_pages_node[nid];
- else
- nr_available = h->free_huge_pages;
- nr_available -= h->resv_huge_pages;
+ nr_available = min(nr_available,
+ h->free_huge_pages_node[nid]);
if (!nr_available)
break;

- rc = demote_pool_huge_page(h, n_mask, nr_demote);
+ rc = demote_pool_huge_page(h, n_mask,
+ min(nr_demote, nr_available));
if (rc < 0) {
err = rc;
break;
--
2.43.0