[PATCH 33/39] mm: eliminate VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS usage when hugetlb explicitly tested

From: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)

Date: Tue Sep 08 2026 - 16:26:02 EST


It is now an invariant that VMA_IO_BIT is not set except by kernel-owned
mappings, so each existing VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS test need only test for
VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT, VMA_PFNMAP_BIT and VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT.

This is precisely a test for a kernel-owned or fixed mapping.

Update a number of callsites which already explicitly handle hugetlb
mappings.

vma_supports_mlock() and ksm_compatible() also explicitly bail on droppable
mappings - detecting kernel-owned, fixed or droppable mappings is handled
by vma_is_persistent(), so in these cases use this predicate.

should_skip_vma() tests for locked, kernel-owned or fixed memory (having
already excluded hugetlb mappings) so simply test for those there.

No functional change intended.

Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/internal.h | 4 +---
mm/ksm.c | 4 +---
mm/vmscan.c | 3 ++-
3 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/internal.h b/mm/internal.h
index 104bbca1eb57..6c004037913b 100644
--- a/mm/internal.h
+++ b/mm/internal.h
@@ -1112,9 +1112,7 @@ static inline struct file *maybe_unlock_mmap_for_io(struct vm_fault *vmf,

static inline bool vma_supports_mlock(const struct vm_area_struct *vma)
{
- if (vma_test_any_mask(vma, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS))
- return false;
- if (vma_test_single_mask(vma, VMA_DROPPABLE))
+ if (!vma_is_persistent(vma))
return false;
if (vma_is_dax(vma) || vma_is_hugetlb(vma))
return false;
diff --git a/mm/ksm.c b/mm/ksm.c
index 624f37975e12..f80372bfd4b2 100644
--- a/mm/ksm.c
+++ b/mm/ksm.c
@@ -747,9 +747,7 @@ static bool ksm_compatible(const struct file *file, vma_flags_t vma_flags)
if (vma_flags_test_any(&vma_flags, VMA_SHARED_BIT, VMA_MAYSHARE_BIT,
VMA_HUGETLB_BIT))
return false;
- if (vma_flags_test_single_mask(&vma_flags, VMA_DROPPABLE))
- return false;
- if (vma_flags_test_any_mask(&vma_flags, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS))
+ if (!vma_flags_is_persistent(&vma_flags))
return false;
if (file_is_dax(file))
return false;
diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 9cbfb90b0ad1..803754caf4fa 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -3419,7 +3419,8 @@ static int should_skip_vma(unsigned long start, unsigned long end, struct mm_wal
if (!vma_has_recency(vma))
return true;

- if (vma->vm_flags & (VM_LOCKED | VM_SPECIAL))
+ if (vma_test(vma, VMA_LOCKED_BIT) || vma_is_kernel_owned(vma) ||
+ vma_is_fixed_mapping(vma))
return true;

if (vma == get_gate_vma(vma->vm_mm))

--
2.55.0