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)

• DORMANTno replies [PATCH] mm/slub: refill prefilled sheaves from the barn
  2026-09-18 11:44 · 0 replies in 7d · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• WARM1d [RFC PATCH 0/2] mm/slub: reduce list_lock contention with slab parking
  2026-09-11 13:06 · 1 reply in 7d · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>

Active reviewers (last 30 days)

• <hidden>
  4 attestations (4 Reported-by) · last on 2026-08-31
• Hyunwoo Kim <hidden>
  2 attestations (2 Reported-by) · last on 2026-09-03
• Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
  2 attestations (2 Suggested-by) · last on 2026-08-26
• ThangNN99 <hidden>
  1 attestation (1 Reported-by) · last on 2026-08-31
• Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
  1 attestation (1 Suggested-by) · last on 2026-08-31

Recent patches

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

• DORMANTno replies [PATCH] mm/slub: refill prefilled sheaves from the barn
  2026-09-18 · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• WARM1d Re: [RFC PATCH 2/2] mm/slub: introduce slab parking to reduce list_lock contention
  2026-09-11 · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• COOLING9d [PATCH RFC v2 06/11] mm/slub: materialize trie-backed stack depot traces
  2026-09-08 · Caleb Kan <hidden>
• COOLING14d [PATCH v3 5/5] slab: test ERR_PTR handling in kfree and hardened usercopy
  2026-09-03 · Karl Mehltretter <hidden>
• COOLING14d [PATCH v3 4/5] slab: test zero-size allocations in slub_kunit
  2026-09-03 · Karl Mehltretter <hidden>
• COOLING14d [PATCH v3 3/5] slab: handle ERR_PTR values in kfree and hardened usercopy
  2026-09-03 · Karl Mehltretter <hidden>
• COOLING14d [PATCH v3 2/5] slab: check for ZERO_SIZE_PTR by exact match
  2026-09-03 · Karl Mehltretter <hidden>
• COOLING14d [PATCH v3 1/5] slab: align ZERO_SIZE_PTR to ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN
  2026-09-03 · Karl Mehltretter <hidden>
• COOLING14d [PATCH v3] mm/slab: take n->list_lock in __slab_try_return_freelist() to avoid race
  2026-09-03 · "Harry Yoo (Meta)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD15d [PATCH v2] mm/slab: take n->list_lock in __slab_try_return_freelist() to avoid race
  2026-09-02 · "Harry Yoo (Meta)" <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD15d [PATCH v5 09/12] rust: mm: sheaf: allow use of C initialized static caches
  2026-09-02 · Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@kernel.org>
• COOLING14d [PATCH] mm/slab: disallow kfree_rcu_sheaf() on PREEMPT_RT again
  2026-08-31 · "Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)" <vbabka@kernel.org>
• COLD16d [PATCH v3] mm/slab: don't use kfree_rcu sheaves on PREEMPT_RT in kvfree_call_rcu()
  2026-08-31 · ThangNN99 <hidden>
• COLD16d [PATCH v2] mm/slab: don't use kfree_rcu sheaves on PREEMPT_RT in kvfree_call_rcu()
  2026-08-31 · ThangNN99 <hidden>
• COLD16d [PATCH] mm/slab: don't use kfree_rcu sheaves on PREEMPT_RT in kvfree_call_rcu()
  2026-08-31 · ThangNN99 <hidden>
• COLD16d [PATCH v2] mm/slab: reject unsupported kmalloc() sizes
  2026-08-31 · Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
• COLD16d Re: [PATCH] mm/slab: take n->list_lock for the list_add() in __refill_objects_node()
  2026-08-30 · Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>
• COLD16d [PATCH] mm/slab: take n->list_lock for the list_add() in __refill_objects_node()
  2026-08-30 · Hyunwoo Kim <hidden>
• COLD18d Re: [PATCH] mm/slab: reject unsupported kmalloc sizes
  2026-08-27 · "Zi Yan" <ziy@nvidia.com>
• COLD15d [PATCH v2] mm/slab_common: fix shrink budget underflow in kfree_rcu_shrink_scan
  2026-08-26 · Longlong Xia <hidden>
• COLD18d [PATCH v2 1/1] mm/slab_common: reject zero object_size before calculate_alignment
  2026-08-26 · Longlong Xia <hidden>
• WARM1d [RFC PATCH 2/2] mm/slub: introduce slab parking to reduce list_lock contention
  2026-08-24 · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• WARM1d [RFC PATCH 1/2] mm/slub: make the case handling in __slab_free() easier to follow
  2026-08-24 · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• COLD23d [PATCH 1/1] mm/slab_common: reject zero object_size before calculate_alignment
  2026-08-24 · Longlong Xia <hidden>
• COLD23d [PATCH 1/1] mm/slab_common: fix shrink budget underflow in kfree_rcu_shrink_scan
  2026-08-24 · Longlong Xia <hidden>
• COLD18d REVIEWED: 1 (0M) [PATCH] mm/slab: reject unsupported kmalloc sizes
  2026-08-17 · Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
• COLD23d Re: [syzbot] [mm?] WARNING in ep_write_iter
  2026-08-17 · "Zi Yan" <ziy@nvidia.com>
• COLD30d [PATCH RFC 6/9] mm/slub: materialize trie-backed stack depot traces
  2026-08-17 · Caleb Kan <hidden>
• COOLING10d [PATCH] mm/slub: unify slub stat definitions to simplify metric additions
  2026-08-14 · Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
• COOLING7d [PATCH v2 4/4] Documentation/mm: describe SLUB previous lifetime tracking
  2026-08-13 · Pengpeng Hou <hidden>

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.

• STALE174d REVIEWED: 2 (0M) [PATCH] mm/slab: align kmalloc to cacheline when DMA API debugging is active
  2026-03-27 · Mikhail Gavrilov <hidden> · 2 Tested-by
• STALE156d REVIEWED: 2 (2M) [PATCH v6] mm/slub: defer freelist construction until after bulk allocation from a new slab
  2026-04-13 · <hidden> · 1 Reviewed-by
• STALE153d REVIEWED: 4 (4M) [PATCH v7] mm/slub: defer freelist construction until after bulk allocation from a new slab
  2026-04-15 · <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by, 1 Tested-by
• STALE148d REVIEWED: 1 (0M) [PATCH v2] slab: support for compiler-assisted type-based slab cache partitioning
  2026-04-15 · Marco Elver <elver@google.com> · 1 Acked-by
• STALE129d REVIEWED: 1 (0M) [PATCH v3 1/2] slab: support for compiler-assisted type-based slab cache partitioning
  2026-04-24 · Marco Elver <elver@google.com> · 1 Acked-by
• STALE126d REVIEWED: 1 (1M) [PATCH RFC v2] mm, slab: add an optimistic __slab_try_return_freelist()
  2026-04-27 · "Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)" <vbabka@kernel.org> · 1 Reviewed-by
• STALE140d REVIEWED: 4 (4M) [PATCH v8] mm/slub: defer freelist construction until after bulk allocation from a new slab
  2026-04-30 · <hidden> · 2 Reviewed-by, 1 Tested-by
• STALE121d REVIEWED: 1 (0M) [PATCH v4 1/3] slab: support for compiler-assisted type-based slab cache partitioning
  2026-05-11 · Marco Elver <elver@google.com> · 1 Acked-by
• STALE116d REVIEWED: 1 (1M) [PATCH v2 3/3] tools/mm/slabinfo: remove redundant slab->partial assignment
  2026-05-18 · Xuewen Wang <hidden> · 1 Reviewed-by
• STALE113d REVIEWED: 1 (1M) [PATCH v3 1/2] mm, slab: add an optimistic __slab_try_return_freelist()
  2026-05-22 · "Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)" <vbabka@kernel.org> · 1 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.

• STALE88d [RFC PATCH v4 03/27] mm/page_alloc: add numa_zone_allowed() and wire it up
  2026-02-22 · Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>
• STALE206d [PATCH v1 02/11] mm/slub: zero page->private when freeing pages
  2026-02-23 · Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
• DORMANTno replies FAILED: Patch "mm/slab: use prandom if !allow_spin" failed to apply to 6.18-stable tree
  2026-03-01 · Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
• STALE177d [PATCH v2 1/5] slab: distinguish lock and trylock for sheaf_flush_main()
  2026-03-02 · Marcelo Tosatti <hidden>
• STALE191d [PATCH 1/2] mm/slab: move obj_exts_in_slab() definition to slab.h
  2026-03-10 · <hidden>
• STALE136d Re: [syzbot] [mm?] [f2fs?] [exfat?] memory leak in __kfree_rcu_sheaf
  2026-03-20 · Harry Yoo <hidden>
• STALE121d [PATCH 3/8] mm/slab: move kfree_rcu_cpu[_work] definitions
  2026-04-16 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• STALE121d [PATCH 8/8] lib/tests/slub_kunit: add a test case for kfree_rcu_nolock()
  2026-04-16 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>
• STALE143d [PATCH RFC v4 03/22] mm: thread user_addr through page allocator for cache-friendly zeroing
  2026-04-26 · "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com>
• DORMANTno replies [PATCH mm-hotfixes 2/2] mm/slub: return NULL early from kmalloc_nolock() in NMI on UP
  2026-04-27 · "Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <harry@kernel.org>