Re: [PATCH 1/1] rcu: drain kfree_rcu sheaves from the userspace barrier hook

[Harry Yoo]

Hi Matthias, thanks for reply.

Would you please wraparound the text when writing a reply?
Each line becomes way too long on text based editors :-)

Anyway, moving on to the topic...

On Thu, Sep 10, 2026 at 09:46:40PM +0800, Matthias Goergens wrote:
> Thanks. I ran into this while testing bcachefs performance changes.
> The bcachefs ktest end checks write `do_rcu_barrier` before reading
> `/proc/allocinfo`, with the expectation that allocations still
> reported afterwards are leaks. Small objects released with
> `kfree_rcu()` remained visible after repeated writes to the hook and
> 20 seconds of waiting, so otherwise clean tests failed their leak
> check.

Thanks. Some background like this would be nice to be covered in the
cover letter or commit message :-)

> Strictly, that ktest is assuming a stronger contract than the hook
> currently documents: `do_rcu_barrier` promises an ordinary
> `rcu_barrier()`, not a complete drain of objects still held in
> `kfree_rcu()` batching. I nevertheless think the stronger behaviour
> is useful for this test-only quiescence hook, because it lets
> allocation-leak checks reliably separate deferred frees from genuine
> leaks.

Ack.
 
> I followed those allocations across repeated filesystem lifecycles.
> Their number eventually fell when an RCU sheaf filled, so I have no
> evidence that this path grows without bound or causes OOM.

Ah, the reason I mentioned unbounded amount of objects was because
the commit 16128b1f8c823438dc that introduced the knob explains
what can go wrong (e.g OOMs during the test) without the
rcutree.do_rcu_barrier.

> The problem I observed is limited to test isolation: the hook can
> leave deferred frees behind and make them look like leaks. With the
> proposed change, the same unmodified bcachefs workload passed the
> leak check.

It'd be more convincing if this part is included in the changelog ;-)

> I also found that this exact follow-on was discussed when
> `kvfree_rcu_barrier()` was added in 2024: Paul proposed calling it
> from `rcu_barrier_throttled()` for clean userspace benchmark
> baselines, and Uladzislau agreed that adding it and documenting both
> operations was safest:
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240820155935.1167988-1-urezki@xxxxxxxxx/

Didn't notice that, and makes sense given the purpose of the knob.

> I will omit the `Fixes:` tag in v2 and present this as a strengthening
> of the test interface.

Makes sense to me.

-- 
Cheers,
Harry / Hyeonggon