[PATCH net-next v6 6/8] mm/slab: Add tests for the existing kmem_buckets behaviour

From: Kees Cook

Date: Tue Oct 06 2026 - 05:23:53 EST


kmem_buckets has had no test coverage since it was added. Add tests,
including stuff unique to the bucket design:

- A bucket allocation comes from a cache of the set's own, and that
cache carries SLAB_NO_MERGE.

- Each size is served by a cache of the set, of the size kmalloc()
rounds it up to, including 96 and 192, which are not powers of two and
which kmalloc shares with a larger class on some configurations. Sizes
above KMALLOC_MAX_CACHE_SIZE go to the page allocator instead, bucket
set or not.

- Each cache is aligned like the kmalloc cache it mirrors.

- With CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS=n, kmem_buckets_create() still returns a
non-NULL (zero size alloc pointer), so that callers only have to check
for failure, and allocations through it come from the general caches.

- Destroying a set takes its caches down rather than only freeing the
set, which is what a module creating one on each load depends on.
A set freed without its caches would leave the names taken, and the
next load would warn about every one of them. This test skips when
KFENCE serves its allocation, since a KFENCE object is in none of the
cache's slabs for the teardown to find.

The tests skip rather than compile out, which is useful for testing
the CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS=n behaviors.

Built and tests passing (with expected skips) on ARCH=x86_64 defconfig
with GCC 16.2.0, with CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS as y and n.

Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
lib/tests/slub_kunit.c | 228 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 228 insertions(+)

diff --git a/lib/tests/slub_kunit.c b/lib/tests/slub_kunit.c
index e3b63f0338d5..a2a15a49c5d7 100644
--- a/lib/tests/slub_kunit.c
+++ b/lib/tests/slub_kunit.c
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
#include <kunit/test.h>
#include <kunit/test-bug.h>
+#include <kunit/resource.h>
#include <linux/mm.h>
#include <linux/slab.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
@@ -9,6 +10,7 @@
#include <linux/delay.h>
#include <linux/perf_event.h>
#include <linux/kprobes.h>
+#include <linux/kfence.h>
#include "../mm/slab.h"

static struct kunit_resource resource;
@@ -474,6 +476,227 @@ static int test_init(struct kunit *test)
return 0;
}

+/* Destroy buckets on test exit so a failed KUNIT_ASSERT_*() doesn't leak. */
+KUNIT_DEFINE_ACTION_WRAPPER(destroy_buckets, kmem_buckets_destroy, kmem_buckets *);
+
+#define KUNIT_ASSERT_BUCKETS_CREATED(test, b) \
+ do { \
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, b); \
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_EQ(test, 0, \
+ kunit_add_action_or_reset(test, \
+ destroy_buckets, b)); \
+ } while (0)
+
+/*
+ * The cache an allocation came from, or NULL if it came from no cache at
+ * all, e.g. a size too big for any of them is served by the page allocator.
+ */
+static struct kmem_cache *cache_of(void *p)
+{
+ struct slab *slab = virt_to_slab(p);
+
+ return slab ? slab->slab_cache : NULL;
+}
+
+/*
+ * A bucket set exists to keep its allocations out of the caches everything
+ * else uses, so check the two things that make that true: they come from a
+ * cache of the set's own, and that cache is never merged into another.
+ */
+static void test_kmem_buckets_isolation(struct kunit *test)
+{
+ struct kmem_cache *bucket_cache, *general_cache;
+ kmem_buckets *b;
+ void *p, *q;
+
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS))
+ kunit_skip(test, "needs CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS");
+
+ b = kmem_buckets_create("isolated_buckets", 0, INT_MAX);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_BUCKETS_CREATED(test, b);
+
+ /*
+ * Free each allocation before asserting on the next one: the cache
+ * outlives its objects, so nothing below needs them, and an assertion
+ * that leaves one behind would make the deferred teardown report a
+ * cache that is still in use.
+ */
+ p = kmem_buckets_alloc(b, 128, GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+ bucket_cache = cache_of(p);
+ kfree(p);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, bucket_cache);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_TRUE_MSG(test, strstarts(bucket_cache->name, "isolated_buckets-"),
+ "expected a bucket cache, got %s", bucket_cache->name);
+
+ /*
+ * Cache merging is on by default, and a bucket cache merged into a
+ * same-sized general one would quietly undo the whole separation.
+ */
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_TRUE(test, bucket_cache->flags & SLAB_NO_MERGE);
+
+ q = kmalloc(128, GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, q);
+ general_cache = cache_of(q);
+ kfree(q);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, general_cache);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_PTR_NE(test, bucket_cache, general_cache);
+}
+
+/*
+ * Each size is served by a cache of the set, of the size kmalloc() rounds it
+ * up to, including the size classes that are not powers of two, which kmalloc
+ * shares with a larger class on some configurations. Sizes past the largest
+ * cache are served by the page allocator, bucket set or not.
+ */
+static void test_kmem_buckets_sizes(struct kunit *test)
+{
+ static const size_t sizes[] = { 8, 96, 192, 1024, 4096 };
+ struct kmem_cache *c;
+ kmem_buckets *b;
+ void *p;
+ int i;
+
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS))
+ kunit_skip(test, "needs CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS");
+
+ b = kmem_buckets_create("sized_buckets", 0, INT_MAX);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_BUCKETS_CREATED(test, b);
+
+ for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(sizes); i++) {
+ p = kmem_buckets_alloc(b, sizes[i], GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+ c = cache_of(p);
+ kfree(p);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, c);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_TRUE_MSG(test, strstarts(c->name, "sized_buckets-"),
+ "size %zu: expected a bucket cache, got %s",
+ sizes[i], c->name);
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ_MSG(test, c->object_size,
+ kmalloc_size_roundup(sizes[i]),
+ "size %zu: served by %s", sizes[i], c->name);
+ }
+
+ /* Too big for any cache: a folio from the page allocator, not a slab. */
+ p = kmem_buckets_alloc(b, KMALLOC_MAX_CACHE_SIZE + 1, GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+ c = cache_of(p);
+ kfree(p);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_NULL(test, c);
+}
+
+/*
+ * A bucket cache stands in for a kmalloc cache, so it has to be aligned like
+ * one. The DMA layer decides whether a buffer needs bouncing from its size,
+ * on the grounds that a kmalloc cache of that size is already aligned for
+ * the device, so a weaker alignment here is not something a caller can see
+ * coming. Without slab debugging the size implies the alignment and this
+ * holds either way; with it, only the cache's own alignment does.
+ */
+static void test_kmem_buckets_alignment(struct kunit *test)
+{
+ static const size_t sizes[] = { 128, 512, 2048 };
+ struct kmem_cache *bucket_cache, *general_cache;
+ kmem_buckets *b;
+ void *p;
+ int i;
+
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS))
+ kunit_skip(test, "needs CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS");
+
+ b = kmem_buckets_create("aligned_buckets", 0, INT_MAX);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_BUCKETS_CREATED(test, b);
+
+ for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(sizes); i++) {
+ p = kmem_buckets_alloc(b, sizes[i], GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+ bucket_cache = cache_of(p);
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_TRUE_MSG(test,
+ IS_ALIGNED((unsigned long)p, ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN),
+ "size %zu: object %p is not %d byte aligned",
+ sizes[i], p, (int)ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN);
+ kfree(p);
+
+ p = kmalloc(sizes[i], GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+ general_cache = cache_of(p);
+ kfree(p);
+
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, bucket_cache);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, general_cache);
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ_MSG(test, bucket_cache->align, general_cache->align,
+ "size %zu: bucket cache aligned to %u, %s to %u",
+ sizes[i], bucket_cache->align,
+ general_cache->name, general_cache->align);
+ }
+}
+
+/*
+ * With the feature compiled out, kmem_buckets_create() still returns
+ * something non-NULL so that callers only have to check for failure, and
+ * allocations through it work (i.e. come from the general caches).
+ */
+static void test_kmem_buckets_disabled(struct kunit *test)
+{
+ kmem_buckets *b;
+ struct kmem_cache *c;
+ void *p;
+
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS))
+ kunit_skip(test, "only meaningful without CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS");
+
+ b = kmem_buckets_create("disabled_buckets", 0, INT_MAX);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_BUCKETS_CREATED(test, b);
+
+ p = kmem_buckets_alloc(b, 128, GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+ c = cache_of(p);
+ kfree(p);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, c);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_TRUE_MSG(test, !strstarts(c->name, "disabled_buckets-"),
+ "expected a general cache, got %s", c->name);
+}
+
+/* Destroying a set has to take its caches down, not just free the set. */
+static void test_kmem_buckets_destroy(struct kunit *test)
+{
+ kmem_buckets *b;
+ void *p;
+
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS))
+ kunit_skip(test, "needs CONFIG_SLAB_BUCKETS");
+
+ b = kmem_buckets_create("destroyed_buckets", 0, INT_MAX);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_BUCKETS_CREATED(test, b);
+
+ /*
+ * Deliberately leaked, as test_leak_destroy() leaks its own: the
+ * teardown below has to find it. kmem_cache_destroy() unlists the
+ * cache either way, so the name is still released.
+ */
+ p = kmem_buckets_alloc(b, 128, GFP_KERNEL);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, p);
+
+ /*
+ * A KFENCE object is in none of the cache's slabs, so the teardown
+ * would not find it to report.
+ */
+ if (is_kfence_address(p)) {
+ kfree(p);
+ kunit_skip(test, "the allocation came from KFENCE");
+ }
+
+ /* Tear the set down now, rather than at exit, to check the report. */
+ kunit_release_action(test, destroy_buckets, b);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 2, slab_errors);
+}
+
static struct kunit_case test_cases[] = {
KUNIT_CASE(test_clobber_zone),

@@ -495,6 +718,11 @@ static struct kunit_case test_cases[] = {
#if defined(CONFIG_KPROBES) && defined(CONFIG_SMP)
KUNIT_CASE_SLOW(test_kmalloc_nolock_and_friends_kprobe),
#endif
+ KUNIT_CASE(test_kmem_buckets_isolation),
+ KUNIT_CASE(test_kmem_buckets_sizes),
+ KUNIT_CASE(test_kmem_buckets_alignment),
+ KUNIT_CASE(test_kmem_buckets_disabled),
+ KUNIT_CASE(test_kmem_buckets_destroy),
{}
};

--
2.55.0