Re: [PATCH v2 4/4] mm: gup: batch PTE-mapped large folios in gup_fast_pte_range()
From: David Hildenbrand (Arm)
Date: Tue Nov 03 2026 - 12:34:00 EST
On 11/2/26 12:30, Yeoreum Yun wrote:
> GUP-fast grabs a PTE-mapped large folio one page at a time. Every PTE
> costs a try_grab_folio_fast() (a refcount cmpxchg, plus the pincount
> atomic, a full barrier and a node stat update for FOLL_PIN), a
> gup_fast_folio_allowed() and a folio_set_referenced(), so a 64 kB mTHP
> pays sixteen of each and a PTE-mapped 2 MB THP pays 512.
>
> The users are the hot ones: iov_iter_extract_user_pages() pins every
> O_DIRECT buffer through pin_user_pages_fast(), io_uring registers its
> buffers through it, and so does RDMA memory registration.
> With mTHP those buffers are PTE-mapped large folios.
>
> After the head page has been grabbed and verified as before, extend the
> run to the following PTEs that map the next pages of the same folio
> with the same protection bits, take the remaining references for the
> run with try_grab_folio(), and fill pages[] from the run.
> The PTEs of the run are read while the reference on the folio is held,
> so the folio can neither be collapsed, freed nor split underneath the scan.
> A read-only run of an anonymous folio stops at the first page
> that gup_must_unshare() rejects, so the per-page exclusivity guarantee for
> FOLL_PIN is kept.
>
> folio_pte_batch_flags() does the scan. It reads the entries with
> ptep_get(), which is not safe without the page table lock on
> CONFIG_GUP_GET_PXX_LOW_HIGH (x86 PAE, mips32, sh) or with arm64 contpte,
> and GUP-fast reads every PTE with ptep_get_lockless() for that reason.
> Add FPB_LOCKLESS to make the helper do the same; it is inlined per call
> site, so the other callers do not change.
>
> The order-0 path keeps its instruction sequence. The folio flags are
> tested before folio_set_referenced() on purpose: a load of the flags
> right after that locked instruction cost about 25% on order-0 pages in
> the gup_test benchmark below, and reading them first brings that path
> back to the baseline.
>
> gup_test ioctl over a 256 MB anonymous region, FOLL_WRITE, 65536 pages
> per call, median of 15 runs, two baseline boots / one patched boot, on
> an x86-64 VM:
>
> get_user_pages_fast() pin_user_pages_fast()
> before after before after
> 4 kB pages 849/789 us 783 us 1174/1138 us 1094 us
> 64 kB mTHP 812/811 us 126 us 1215/1113 us 188 us
> 1 MB mTHP 799/774 us 59 us 1185/1077 us 64 us
> 2 MB THP, PTE-mapped 803/786 us 57 us 1159/1120 us 58 us
> 2 MB THP, PMD-mapped 42/40 us 40 us 46/41 us 42 us
>
> fio O_DIRECT randread of a null_blk device (CPU bound) with the I/O
> buffer in 64 kB mTHP, median of 15 five-second runs:
>
> bs=1M psync 126.2/125.6 GB/s -> 220.6 GB/s
> bs=1M io_uring, iodepth 16 71.2/71.6 GB/s -> 112.1 GB/s
> bs=64k io_uring, iodepth 16 50.2/50.7 GB/s -> 60.1 GB/s
>
> IORING_REGISTER_BUFFERS of 1 GB, median of 15:
>
> 64 kB mTHP 6179/5998 us -> 1599 us
> 1 MB mTHP 5790/5801 us -> 893 us
> 4 kB pages 7173/6741 us -> 6763 us
>
> Signed-off-by: Yuan-Hao Hsu <aa9736195201@xxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Yeoreum Yun <yeoreum.yun@xxxxxxx>
> ---
> mm/gup.c | 46 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------
> 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/gup.c b/mm/gup.c
> index 49681f63950ec..94a9dc45e5953 100644
> --- a/mm/gup.c
> +++ b/mm/gup.c
> @@ -2901,7 +2901,8 @@ static unsigned long gup_fast_pte_range(pmd_t pmd, pmd_t *pmdp,
> unsigned long addr, unsigned long end,
> unsigned int flags, struct page **pages)
> {
> - unsigned long nr_pages = 0;
> + unsigned long nr_pages = 0, nr_batch;
> + struct folio *folio = NULL;
> pte_t *ptep, *ptem;
>
> ptem = ptep = pte_offset_map(&pmd, addr);
> @@ -2910,7 +2911,9 @@ static unsigned long gup_fast_pte_range(pmd_t pmd, pmd_t *pmdp,
> do {
> pte_t pte = ptep_get_lockless(ptep);
> struct page *page;
> - struct folio *folio;
> + unsigned long i;
> +
> + nr_batch = 1;
>
> /*
> * Always fallback to ordinary GUP on PROT_NONE-mapped pages:
> @@ -2937,19 +2940,21 @@ static unsigned long gup_fast_pte_range(pmd_t pmd, pmd_t *pmdp,
> goto pte_unmap;
>
> if (unlikely(pmd_val(pmd) != pmd_val(pmdp_get_lockless(pmdp))) ||
> - unlikely(pte_val(pte) != pte_val(ptep_get_lockless(ptep)))) {
> - gup_put_folio(folio, 1, flags);
> + unlikely(pte_val(pte) != pte_val(ptep_get_lockless(ptep))))
> goto pte_unmap;
> - }
As discussed, we should really add some more details why each of these
comparisons is required. Let's do that in a separate patch.
(I recall the pte check is required for concurrent PTE changes like
unmap/protection etc and the pmd check is for THP collapse on architectures
without IPI during TLB flushes)
>
> - if (!gup_fast_folio_allowed(folio, flags)) {
> - gup_put_folio(folio, 1, flags);
> + if (!gup_fast_folio_allowed(folio, flags))
> goto pte_unmap;
> - }
>
> - if (!pte_write(pte) && gup_must_unshare(NULL, flags, folio, page)) {
> - gup_put_folio(folio, 1, flags);
> - goto pte_unmap;
> + if (folio_test_large(folio))
> + nr_batch = folio_pte_batch_flags(folio, NULL, ptep, &pte,
> + (end - addr) >> PAGE_SHIFT,
> + FPB_LOCKLESS | FPB_RESPECT_WRITE);
Batching after the checks above, when we already stabilized the folio by
grabbing a reference should indeed be correct.
Concurrent collapse should already see the raised reference and back off.
> +
> + if (!pte_write(pte)) {
> + nr_batch = gup_unshared_pages(NULL, flags, folio, page, nr_batch);
> + if (nr_batch == 0)
!nr_batch
> + goto pte_unmap;
> }
>
> /*
> @@ -2958,16 +2963,23 @@ static unsigned long gup_fast_pte_range(pmd_t pmd, pmd_t *pmdp,
> * see Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst for
> * details.
> */
> - if ((flags & FOLL_PIN) && arch_make_folio_accessible(folio)) {
> - gup_put_folio(folio, 1, flags);
> + if ((flags & FOLL_PIN) && arch_make_folio_accessible(folio))
> goto pte_unmap;
The label is now slightly misnamed.
> - }
> +
> + if (nr_batch > 1 && try_grab_folio(folio, nr_batch - 1, flags))
> + nr_batch = 1;
> +
> folio_set_referenced(folio);
> - pages[nr_pages] = page;
> - nr_pages++;
> - } while (ptep++, addr += PAGE_SIZE, addr != end);
> + for (i = 0; i < nr_batch; i++) {
> + pages[nr_pages + i] = page + i;
> + }
No need for {}. Rik will replace that with a proper helper later.
> + nr_pages += nr_batch;
> + folio = NULL;
> + } while (ptep += nr_batch, addr += nr_batch * PAGE_SIZE, addr != end);
>
> pte_unmap:
> + if (folio)
> + gup_put_folio(folio, 1, flags);
> pte_unmap(ptem);
> return nr_pages;
> }
>
--
Cheers,
David