Re: [PATCH v4 6/8] mm/hugetlb: retry the pool walk when the zonelist is rebuilt

From: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)

Date: Thu Oct 29 2026 - 14:08:11 EST


On 10/28/26 22:19, Gregory Price (Meta) wrote:
> Onlining the first block of a zone rebuilds every zonelist in place,
> shifting the slots after the new zone. dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask()
> approves a slot by its node, then loads the zone from it, so a hugetlb
> fault bound to one node can take a pool page from another:
>
> CPU 0 CPU 1
> dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask(nodemask {2})
> slot 3 (NORMAL2) approved
> online_pages()
> build_all_zonelists()
> [.., NORMAL1, NORMAL2]
> -> [.., MOVABLE1, NORMAL1, ...]
> zone = zonelist_zone(slot 3) /* NORMAL1 */
> dequeue_hugetlb_folio_node_exact(h, 1)
>
> Check zonelist_update_seq before using each zone, and on the way out
> with nothing found, and restart the walk if it changed. Checking before
> the dequeue leaves nothing to put back. Reset the last-tried node on
> restart, so it is not skipped.
>
> With kprobes holding the walk across the online, a fault bound to node 2
> took a node 1 page in 3 of 3 runs, and a node 2 page in 3 of 3 with this
> change.
>
> Fixes: 11cd8638c37f ("mm, page_alloc: remove stop_machine from build_all_zonelists")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Gregory Price (Meta) <gourry@xxxxxxxxxx>

LGTM, but...

> ---
> mm/hugetlb.c | 13 ++++++++++---
> mm/page_alloc.c | 4 ++--
> mm/page_alloc.h | 3 +++
> 3 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/hugetlb.c b/mm/hugetlb.c
> index b37d7d0db7fc..8edf323baf0f 100644
> --- a/mm/hugetlb.c
> +++ b/mm/hugetlb.c
> @@ -1293,11 +1293,11 @@ static struct folio *dequeue_hugetlb_folio_node_exact(struct hstate *h,
> static struct folio *dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask(struct hstate *h, gfp_t gfp_mask,
> int nid, nodemask_t *nmask)
> {
> - unsigned int cpuset_mems_cookie;
> + unsigned int cpuset_mems_cookie, zonelist_cookie;
> struct zonelist *zonelist;
> struct zone *zone;
> struct zoneref *z;
> - int node = NUMA_NO_NODE;
> + int node;
>
> /* 'nid' should not be NUMA_NO_NODE. Try to catch any misuse of it and rectifiy. */
> if (nid == NUMA_NO_NODE)
> @@ -1306,10 +1306,16 @@ static struct folio *dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask(struct hstate *h, gfp_t gfp_
> zonelist = node_zonelist(nid, gfp_mask);
>
> retry_cpuset:
> + node = NUMA_NO_NODE;
> cpuset_mems_cookie = read_mems_allowed_begin();
> + zonelist_cookie = zonelist_iter_begin();
> for_each_zone_zonelist_nodemask(zone, z, zonelist, gfp_zone(gfp_mask), nmask) {
> struct folio *folio;
>
> + /* A rebuild may have shifted a node outside @nmask into this slot. */
> + if (unlikely(check_retry_zonelist(zonelist_cookie)))
> + goto retry_cpuset;
> +
> if (!cpuset_zone_allowed(zone, gfp_mask))
> continue;
> /*
> @@ -1324,7 +1330,8 @@ static struct folio *dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask(struct hstate *h, gfp_t gfp_
> if (folio)
> return folio;
> }
> - if (unlikely(read_mems_allowed_retry(cpuset_mems_cookie)))
> + if (unlikely(read_mems_allowed_retry(cpuset_mems_cookie) ||
> + check_retry_zonelist(zonelist_cookie)))
> goto retry_cpuset;
>
> return NULL;
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 33aab9deaaa1..70830689048a 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -4411,7 +4411,7 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(fs_reclaim_release);
> */
> static DEFINE_SEQLOCK(zonelist_update_seq);
>
> -static unsigned int zonelist_iter_begin(void)
> +unsigned int zonelist_iter_begin(void)
> {
> if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG))
> return read_seqbegin(&zonelist_update_seq);
> @@ -4432,7 +4432,7 @@ static unsigned int zonelist_iter_sample(void)
> return 0;
> }
>
> -static unsigned int check_retry_zonelist(unsigned int seq)
> +unsigned int check_retry_zonelist(unsigned int seq)
> {
> if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG))
> return read_seqretry(&zonelist_update_seq, seq);
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.h b/mm/page_alloc.h
> index 2b1017a91928..53df6b8a0c00 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.h
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.h
> @@ -265,6 +265,9 @@ extern void zone_pcp_disable(struct zone *zone);
> extern void zone_pcp_enable(struct zone *zone);
> extern void zone_pcp_init(struct zone *zone);
>
> +unsigned int zonelist_iter_begin(void);
> +unsigned int check_retry_zonelist(unsigned int seq);

... is it possible to inline these here instead?

> +
> enum fallback_result {
> /* Found suitable migratetype, *mt_out is valid. */
> FALLBACK_FOUND,