[PATCH v2 0/4] mm/ksm: use per-VMA locking to reduce mmap_lock contention

[xu . xin]

From: Xu Xin <xu.xin@xxxxxxxxx>

KSM scans VM_MERGEABLE VMAs and currently protects each scan with
mmap_read_lock(). Per-VMA locking allows KSM to read-lock only the VMA
it is actually interested in, so that unrelated mmap()/munmap() activity
in the same mm no longer blocks ksmd.

This series is organized as follows:

  Patch 1 removes an unused 'vma' member from struct folio_walk.  It has
  never been used since its introduction and is pure cleanup.

  Patch 2 adds a 'walk_lock' member to struct folio_walk and extends
  folio_walk_start() to assert the required locking mode.  Existing
  callers are converted to pass PGWALK_RDLOCK, so there is no functional
  change.  This prepares folio_walk_start() for callers that hold a
  per-VMA read lock instead of mmap_read_lock(), which is needed by the
  Patch 4. No functional change.

  Patch 3 replaces the boolean 'lock_vma' argument of break_ksm() with a
  KSM-local enum ksm_walk_lock and builds the mm_walk_ops on the stack,
  so the function-pointer table stays const and there is no shared
  mutable state.  No functional change.

  Patch 4 introduces find_mergeable_vma_locked(), which uses the
  universal per-VMA locking helper vma_start_read_unlocked() to look up
  and read-lock a VM_MERGEABLE VMA without taking mmap_read_lock().  All
  KSM call sites that previously used find_mergeable_vma() under
  mmap_read_lock() are converted to the new helper, and the locking in
  get_mergeable_page() is switched to PGWALK_VMA_RDLOCK_VERIFY so that
  folio_walk_start() can verify the per-VMA lock is held.  Because ksmd
  no longer holds mmap_read_lock() while walking, __ksm_exit() must also
  write-lock every VMA (in addition to mmap_write_lock()) to keep
  serializing against an in-flight ksmd walk before the page tables are
  freed.

A microbenchmark was run to measure the time KSM takes to merge a
victim region under mmap_lock contention. Under interference from 4 churner
threads, the merge time of the per-VMA KSM-optimized kernel is
significantly reduced by 50%.

Changelog:
  v2:
  - Patch 1: rewrote the commit message to explain the introducing
    commit, how the VMA is actually used, and the audit performed;
    dropped the Fixes: tag.

  - Patch 3: 
    * replaced the boolean 'lock_vma' with a KSM-local enum
    ksm_walk_lock instead of exposing the internal enum page_walk_lock
    as a parameter;
    * build the mm_walk_ops on the stack rather than
    mutating a global struct, so the function-pointer table stays const
    and there is no shared mutable state; rewrote the commit message.

  - Patch 4:
    * Fixed a per-VMA read-lock leak in find_mergeable_vma_locked()
    when the VMA is not mergeable;
    made __ksm_exit() write-lock every VMA (vma_start_write()) in
    addition to mmap_write_lock(), so that it still serializes against a
    ksmd walk that holds only a per-VMA read lock.

Xu Xin (4):
  mm/pagewalk: delete the unused member
  mm: make folio_walk_start()'s locking asserts scalable
  mm/ksm: make break_ksm() more scalable
  ksm: add find_mergeable_vma_locked() to use per-VMA locking

 arch/s390/mm/fault.c     |   4 +-
 include/linux/pagewalk.h |   2 +-
 kernel/events/uprobes.c  |   4 +-
 mm/huge_memory.c         |   4 +-
 mm/ksm.c                 | 124 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
 mm/migrate.c             |   8 ++-
 mm/pagewalk.c            |  10 +++-
 mm/rmap.c                |   4 +-
 8 files changed, 116 insertions(+), 44 deletions(-)

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2.34.1