Re: [PATCH] mm/hugetlb: fix resv_huge_pages double decrement in memfd error path

[Hongfu Li]

On 8/27/26 10:47 AM, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:10:13 +0800 Hongfu Li <hongfu.li@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > From: Hongfu Li <lihongfu@xxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > alloc_hugetlb_folio_reserve() decrements h->resv_huge_pages when
> > dequeuing a folio, but unlike the use_global_reservation handling in
> > hugetlb_alloc_folio(), it does not set HPageRestoreReserve on the folio.
> >
> > Its sole caller memfd_alloc_folio() pre-allocates a reservation via
> > hugetlb_reserve_pages() before allocating. When hugetlb_add_to_page_cache()
> > fails, folio_put() drops the folio without HPageRestoreReserve set, so
> > free_huge_folio() does not restore the reservation. The subsequent
> > hugetlb_unreserve_pages() on the err_unresv path decrements the counter
> > a second time, leaving resv_huge_pages off by one for every failed
> > allocation.
> >
> > Set HPageRestoreReserve when consuming the reservation in
> > alloc_hugetlb_folio_reserve(). On the error path, free_huge_folio() then
> > restores the reservation before hugetlb_unreserve_pages() releases it.
> > The success path is unaffected, as hugetlb_add_to_page_cache() clears
> > the flag once the folio is added to the page cache.
> >
> > ...
> >
> > --- a/mm/hugetlb.c
> > +++ b/mm/hugetlb.c
> > @@ -2178,8 +2178,10 @@ struct folio *alloc_hugetlb_folio_reserve(struct hstate *h, int preferred_nid,
> >   
> >   	folio = dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask(h, gfp_mask, preferred_nid,
> >   					       nmask);
> > -	if (folio)
> > +	if (folio) {
> > +		folio_set_hugetlb_restore_reserve(folio);
> >   		h->resv_huge_pages--;
> > +	}
> >   
> >   	spin_unlock_irq(&hugetlb_lock);
> >   	return folio;
> Thanks.  I pasted an AI-generated test case which might demonstrate
> this bug.  Requires fault-injection so I won't add cc:stable.

Thanks for sharing the test case.

I have run your provided test program and successfully triggered
the double‑decrement bug of resv_hugepages with fault‑injection.
Testing confirms that my patch fixes this bug.

> Also, Sashiko might have found an accounting issue in the nearby code
> (Sashiko doesn't like hugetlb.c):
>
> 	https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260825021013.25672-1-hongfu.li@xxxxxxxxx

I have taken a close look at the nearby accounting issue reported
by Sashiko in hugetlb.c. It appears to be a real issue, and I intend
to submit a separate patch for review to fix this.

> #define _GNU_SOURCE
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> #include <unistd.h>
> #include <fcntl.h>
> #include <sys/mman.h>
> #include <linux/memfd.h>
>
> /* Read resv_hugepages from sysfs */
> static long get_resv_hugepages(void) {
>      FILE *f = fopen("/sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/resv_hugepages", "r");
>      if (!f) return -1;
>      long val = -1;
>      fscanf(f, "%ld", &val);
>      fclose(f);
>      return val;
> }
>
> int main(void) {
>      long orig_resv = get_resv_hugepages();
>      printf("[1] Initial resv_hugepages: %ld\n", orig_resv);
>
>      /* Enable fail_function for hugetlb_add_to_page_cache via debugfs */
>      system("echo hugetlb_add_to_page_cache > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/inject");
>      system("echo 100 > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/probability");
>
>      /* Create memfd and attempt write to allocate hugetlb folio */
>      int fd = memfd_create("test_memfd", MFD_HUGETLB);
>      if (fd >= 0) {
>          /* Force allocation path which triggers memfd_alloc_folio() */
>          ftruncate(fd, 2 * 1024 * 1024);
>          write(fd, "a", 1);
>          close(fd);
>      }
>
>      /* Disable error injection */
>      system("echo > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/inject");
>
>      long post_resv = get_resv_hugepages();
>      printf("[2] Post-failure resv_hugepages: %ld\n", post_resv);
>
>      if (post_resv < orig_resv) {
>          printf("[!] BUG DEMONSTRATED: resv_hugepages double-decremented by %ld!\n",
>                 orig_resv - post_resv);
>      }
>
>      return 0;
> }

--
Best regards,
Hongfu