slab allocator · Maintained

Maintainers

• M Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
• M Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>
• M Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
• R Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• R Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>
• R David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
• R Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>

Paths

• F Documentation/admin-guide/mm/slab.rst
• F Documentation/mm/slab.rst
• F include/linux/mempool.h
• F include/linux/slab.h
• F lib/tests/slub_kunit.c
• F mm/failslab.c
• F mm/mempool.c
• F mm/slab.h
• F mm/slab_common.c
• F mm/slub.c
• F scripts/gdb/linux/slab.py
• F tools/cgroup/memcg_slabinfo.py
• F tools/include/linux/slab.h
• F tools/lib/slab.c
• F tools/mm/slabinfo-gnuplot.sh
• F tools/mm/slabinfo.c

Last 30 days

Most active threads (last 7 days)

• HOTtoday [PATCH slab/for-next v4 0/8] mm/slab: introduce kfree_rcu_nolock() and improve slub_kunit coverage
  2026-07-20 12:46 · 8 replies in 7d · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>

Active reviewers (last 30 days)

• Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
  4 attestations (2 Acked-by, 1 Reviewed-by, 1 Suggested-by) · last on 2026-07-20
• Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
  2 attestations (2 Suggested-by) · last on 2026-07-20
• Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
  1 attestation (1 Reviewed-by) · last on 2026-07-20
• Sashiko <sashiko+bot@kernel.org>
  1 attestation (1 Reported-by) · last on 2026-06-24
• Sashiko <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
  1 attestation (1 Reported-by) · last on 2026-06-24

Recent patches

Most-recent 30 patches in this subsystem on bpf (capped at 30), ordered by date desc.

• HOTtoday REVIEWED: 9 (9M) [PATCH slab/for-next v4 8/8] slub_kunit: extend the test for kfree_rcu_nolock()
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday [PATCH slab/for-next v4 7/8] mm/slab: introduce kfree_rcu_nolock()
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday [PATCH slab/for-next v4 6/8] mm/slab: introduce struct kvfree_rcu_head for kvfree_rcu batching
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday [PATCH slab/for-next v4 5/8] mm/slab: allow kfree_rcu_sheaf() on PREEMPT_RT
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday REVIEWED: 10 (10M) [PATCH slab/for-next v4 4/8] mm/slab: extend deferred free mechanism to handle rcu sheaves
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday [PATCH slab/for-next v4 3/8] mm/slab: use call_rcu() in unknown context if irqs are enabled
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday [PATCH slab/for-next v4 2/8] mm/slab: handle the !allow_spin case in kfree_rcu_sheaf()
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• HOTtoday REVIEWED: 9 (9M) [PATCH slab/for-next v4 1/8] mm/slab, slub_kunit: register kprobe to trigger _nolock APIs
  2026-07-20 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD26d [PATCH RFC 4/4] mm/slab: serialize defer_free_barrier()
  2026-06-24 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD26d [PATCH RFC 3/4] mm/slab: fix a deadlock in memcg_alloc_abort_single()
  2026-06-24 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD26d [PATCH RFC 2/4] mm/slab: handle allow_spin in slab_free_hook() instead of open coding
  2026-06-24 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD26d [PATCH RFC 1/4] mm/memcontrol: do not drain objcg stock when spinning is not allowed
  2026-06-24 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 9/9] slub_kunit: extend the test for kfree_rcu_nolock()
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 8/9] mm/slab: introduce struct kfree_rcu_head and use in kfree_rcu_nolock()
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 7/9] mm/slab: introduce kfree_rcu_nolock()
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 6/9] mm/slab: allow kfree_rcu_sheaf() on PREEMPT_RT
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 5/9] mm/slab: extend deferred free mechanism to handle rcu sheaves
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 4/9] mm/slab: use call_rcu() in unknown context if irqs are enabled
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 3/9] mm/slab: handle the !allow_spin case in kfree_rcu_sheaf()
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 2/9] mm/slab, slub_kunit: register kprobe to trigger _nolock APIs
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD23d [PATCH for-next v3 1/9] slub_kunit: fall back to SW perf events when HW PMU is not available
  2026-06-15 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD49d [PATCH v2 bpf-next 3/4] bpf,slab: Add slub-backed allocator for bpf_arena
  2026-05-30 · Alexei Starovoitov <hidden>
• COLD49d [PATCH v2 bpf-next 2/4] slub: Pass kmem_cache to alloc_slab_page()
  2026-05-30 · Alexei Starovoitov <hidden>
• COLD49d [PATCH v2 bpf-next 1/4] slab: Introduce kmem_cache_alloc_arena_nolock and kfree_arena_nolock
  2026-05-30 · Alexei Starovoitov <hidden>
• COLD54d [PATCH bpf-next 3/4] bpf,slab: Add slub-backed allocator for bpf_arena
  2026-05-29 · Alexei Starovoitov <hidden>
• COLD54d [PATCH bpf-next 2/4] slub: Pass kmem_cache to alloc_slab_page()
  2026-05-29 · Alexei Starovoitov <hidden>
• COLD54d [PATCH bpf-next 1/4] slab: Introduce kmem_cache_alloc_nolock()
  2026-05-29 · Alexei Starovoitov <hidden>
• COLD48d Re: [PATCH] mm/slab: improve kmem_cache_alloc_bulk
  2026-05-29 · "Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)" <vbabka@kernel.org>
• COLD48d [PATCH] mm/slab: improve kmem_cache_alloc_bulk
  2026-05-28 · Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
• COLD55d [PATCH] mm/slab: improve kmem_cache_alloc_bulk
  2026-05-27 · Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>

Needs attention (review trailers in, no pickup)

Patches with review trailers that haven't landed in mainline and haven't been Acked by a maintainer. Oldest first.

• STALE181d REVIEWED: 9 (7M) [PATCH v3 01/21] mm/slab: add rcu_barrier() to kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache()
  2026-01-16 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by, 1 Tested-by
• STALE181d REVIEWED: 7 (7M) [PATCH v3 19/21] slab: remove frozen slab checks from __slab_free()
  2026-01-16 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 1 Reviewed-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 8 (7M) [PATCH v4 03/22] slab: add SLAB_CONSISTENCY_CHECKS to SLAB_NEVER_MERGE
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 9 (7M) [PATCH v4 01/22] mm/slab: add rcu_barrier() to kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache()
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by, 1 Tested-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 7 (7M) [PATCH v4 10/22] slab: add optimized sheaf refill from partial list
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 1 Reviewed-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 9 (8M) [PATCH v4 08/22] slab: make percpu sheaves compatible with kmalloc_nolock()/kfree_nolock()
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 3 Reviewed-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 9 (8M) [PATCH v4 11/22] slab: remove cpu (partial) slabs usage from allocation paths
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 3 Reviewed-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 8 (8M) [PATCH v4 20/22] slab: remove frozen slab checks from __slab_free()
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by
• STALE117d REVIEWED: 8 (8M) [PATCH v4 21/22] mm/slub: remove DEACTIVATE_TO_* stat items
  2026-01-23 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by

Quiet for 30+ days

Patches with no review trailers and no replies. Either the author is heads-down elsewhere or these slipped through. Oldest first.

• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 07/20] slab: handle kmalloc sheaves bootstrap
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 10/20] slab: remove SLUB_CPU_PARTIAL
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 11/20] slab: remove the do_slab_free() fastpath
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 14/20] slab: remove struct kmem_cache_cpu
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 15/20] slab: remove unused PREEMPT_RT specific macros
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 16/20] slab: refill sheaves from all nodes
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 17/20] slab: update overview comments
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 20/20] mm/slub: cleanup and repurpose some stat items
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 18/20] slab: remove frozen slab checks from __slab_free()
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>
• STALE187d [PATCH RFC v2 19/20] mm/slub: remove DEACTIVATE_TO_* stat items
  2026-01-12 · Vlastimil Babka <hidden>