Re: [REGRESSION] mremap() fails VMA expansion when VM_MIXEDMAP is set

From: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)

Date: Fri Oct 23 2026 - 03:22:17 EST


On 10/23/26 04:31, Luiz Capitulino wrote:
> Growing a VM_MIXEDMAP VMA with mremap(), with or without MREMAP_MAYMOVE, fails
> with -ENOMEM when the address range after the VMA is free.
>
> This regression was introduced in v6.1 by commit ca3d76b0aa80 ("mm: add merging
> after mremap resize"). This commit changed mremap() to use vma_merge() instead
> of vma_adjust() for the expansion case. However, vma_merge() returns NULL for
> a VMA that has any of the VM_SPECIAL flags set.

Hi,

6.1 was a rather long time ago. How was it discovered just now? I.e. what
use case broke by the change and prompted creating the reproducer?

Thanks,
Vlastimil

> The issue is also present in latest Linus tree, except that the code has been
> refactored. In the current tree, the path now is expand_vma_in_place() ->
> vma_merge_extend() -> vma_merge_new_range(), which performs the check:
>
> /* Special VMAs are unmergeable, also if no prev/next. */
> if (vma_flags_test_any_mask(&vmg->vma_flags, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS) ||
> (!prev && !next))
> return NULL;
>
> This issue was originally reproduced with an external module that sets
> VM_MIXEDMAP on a VMA because it wants to insert pages with vm_insert_page().
> However, there's at least one in-tree reproducer: tcp_mmap().
>
> Note that commit ca3d76b0aa80 introduced other VMA expansion regressions,
> but they were caught and fixed early:
>
> - 6f12be792fde ("mm, mremap: fix mremap() expanding vma with addr inside vma")
> - d014cd7c1c35 ("mm, mremap: fix mremap() expanding for vma's with vm_ops->close()")
>
> Below you'll find a reproducer and an attempted fix.
>
> Reproducer
> ==========
>
> This reproducer was written by an LLM and uses tcp_mmap(). It reproduces
> against v6.1 and latest Linus tree (2a08195e4db5). The issue is not
> reproduced on v6.0.
>
> #define _GNU_SOURCE
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <unistd.h>
> #include <errno.h>
> #include <sys/mman.h>
> #include <sys/socket.h>
>
> int main(void)
> {
> int fd, pagesize;
> void *p, *ret;
>
> fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
> if (fd < 0) {
> perror("socket");
> return 1;
> }
>
> pagesize = getpagesize();
>
> /* tcp_mmap() sets VM_MIXEDMAP on this vma. */
> p = mmap(NULL, 2 * pagesize, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
> if (p == MAP_FAILED) {
> perror("mmap");
> return 1;
> }
>
> /* Drop the upper half, so growing back into it can happen in place. */
> if (munmap((char *)p + pagesize, pagesize)) {
> perror("munmap");
> return 1;
> }
>
> errno = 0;
> ret = mremap(p, pagesize, 2 * pagesize, MREMAP_MAYMOVE);
> if (ret == MAP_FAILED) {
> printf("BUG REPRODUCED errno=%d\n", errno);
> return 1;
> }
>
> printf("NOT REPRODUCED\n");
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> Sketch fix
> ==========
>
> In the fix below, I started with the same idea as d014cd7c1c35: on v6.1 I
> made mremap() expand VM_MIXEDMAP VMAs the same way that commit did for
> VMAs with vm_ops->close(). Then I adapted it to the current tree. It fixes
> the reproducer and I didn't get regressions in MM kselftests nor the
> tools/testing/vma test.
>
> However, I'm not posting this as a fix because I'm unfamiliar with the VMA
> code so I'm not confident this is the right approach.
>
> I really don't mind someone more familiar with the code taking this over.
>
> diff --git a/mm/vma.c b/mm/vma.c
> index 6c35f0d775ab..ac9a0a8a4be9 100644
> --- a/mm/vma.c
> +++ b/mm/vma.c
> @@ -851,9 +851,15 @@ static int commit_merge(struct vma_merge_struct *vmg)
> return 0;
> }
>
> -/* We can only remove VMAs when merging if they do not have a close hook. */
> static bool can_merge_remove_vma(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
> {
> + if (vma_flags_test(&vma->flags, VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT))
> + return false;
> +
> + /*
> + * We can only remove VMAs when merging if they do not have a
> + * close hook.
> + */
> return !vma->vm_ops || !vma->vm_ops->close;
> }
>
> @@ -1093,6 +1099,20 @@ static __must_check struct vm_area_struct *vma_merge_existing_range(
> return NULL;
> }
>
> +static bool can_merge_vma(const struct vma_merge_struct *vmg)
> +{
> + /* VMAs without prev/next are unmergeable */
> + if (!vmg->prev && !vmg->next)
> + return false;
> +
> + /* We can't merge VMA_IO, VMA_DONTEXPAND or VMA_PFNMAP */
> + if (vma_flags_test_any(&vmg->vma_flags, VMA_IO_BIT, VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT,
> + VMA_PFNMAP_BIT))
> + return false;
> +
> + return true;
> +}
> +
> /*
> * vma_merge_new_range - Attempt to merge a new VMA into address space
> *
> @@ -1152,9 +1172,7 @@ struct vm_area_struct *vma_merge_new_range(struct vma_merge_struct *vmg)
>
> vmg->state = VMA_MERGE_NOMERGE;
>
> - /* Special VMAs are unmergeable, also if no prev/next. */
> - if (vma_flags_test_any_mask(&vmg->vma_flags, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS) ||
> - (!prev && !next))
> + if (!can_merge_vma(vmg))
> return NULL;
>
> can_merge_left = can_vma_merge_left(vmg);
>