Re: [PATCH mm-unstable v18 04/14] mm/khugepaged: generalize __collapse_huge_page_* for mTHP support
From: Nico Pache <hidden>
Date: 2026-05-26 14:38:19
Also in:
linux-doc, linux-mm, lkml
Subsystem:
memory management, memory management - thp (transparent huge page), the rest · Maintainers:
Andrew Morton, David Hildenbrand, Linus Torvalds
On 5/22/26 8:59 AM, Nico Pache wrote:
generalize the order of the __collapse_huge_page_* and collapse_max_* functions to support future mTHP collapse. The current mechanism for determining collapse with the khugepaged_max_ptes_none value is not designed with mTHP in mind. This raises a key design issue: if we support user defined max_pte_none values (even those scaled by order), a collapse of a lower order can introduces an feedback loop, or "creep", when max_ptes_none is set to a value greater than HPAGE_PMD_NR / 2. [1] With this configuration, a successful collapse to order N will populate enough pages to satisfy the collapse condition on order N+1 on the next scan. This leads to unnecessary work and memory churn. To fix this issue introduce a helper function that will limit mTHP collapse support to two max_ptes_none values, 0 and HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1. This effectively supports two modes: [2] - max_ptes_none=0: never collapses if it encounters an empty PTE or a PTE that maps the shared zeropage. Consequently, no memory bloat. - max_ptes_none=511 (on 4k pagesz): Always collapse to the highest available mTHP order. This removes the possibility of "creep", and a warning will be emitted if any non-supported max_ptes_none value is configured with mTHP enabled. Any intermediate value will default mTHP collapse to max_ptes_none=0. mTHP collapse will not honor the khugepaged_max_ptes_shared or khugepaged_max_ptes_swap parameters, and will fail if it encounters a shared or swapped entry. No functional changes in this patch; however it defines future behavior for mTHP collapse.
Hi Andrew,
Can you please append the following fixup to this commit.
Changes are described below but are very minor nits!
Thank you!
commit e3985903daa4fa77a27a632c1c2fa4c23aac9ad5
Author: Nico Pache [off-list ref]
Date: Tue May 26 05:40:03 2026 -0600
fixup: cleanup collapse_max_ptes_none
make max_ptes_none a const and cleanup the pr_warn_once
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (arm) [off-list ref]
Signed-off-by: Nico Pache [off-list ref]
diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
index e98ba5b15163..4c7e404b0f8d 100644
--- a/mm/khugepaged.c
+++ b/mm/khugepaged.c@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@ static bool pte_none_or_zero(pte_t pte) static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_none(struct collapse_control *cc, struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned int order) { - unsigned int max_ptes_none = khugepaged_max_ptes_none; + const unsigned int max_ptes_none = khugepaged_max_ptes_none; if (vma && userfaultfd_armed(vma)) return 0;
@@ -376,14 +376,13 @@ static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_none(struct collapse_control *cc, */ if (max_ptes_none == KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT) return (1 << order) - 1; - if (!max_ptes_none) - return 0; /* * For mTHP collapse of values other than 0 or KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT, * emit a warning and return 0. */ - pr_warn_once("mTHP collapse does not support max_ptes_none values" - " other than 0 or %u, defaulting to 0.\n", + if (max_ptes_none) + pr_warn_once("mTHP collapse does not support max_ptes_none" + " values other than 0 or %u, defaulting to 0.\n", KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT); return 0; }
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
[1] - https://lore.kernel.org/all/e46ab3ab-a3d7-4fb7-9970-d0704bd5d05a@arm.com (local) [2] - https://lore.kernel.org/all/37375ace-5601-4d6c-9dac-d1c8268698e9@redhat.com (local) Reviewed-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@linux.dev> Co-developed-by: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com> Signed-off-by: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com> Signed-off-by: Nico Pache <redacted> --- mm/khugepaged.c | 121 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------- 1 file changed, 88 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c index 116f39518948..e98ba5b15163 100644 --- a/mm/khugepaged.c +++ b/mm/khugepaged.c@@ -353,30 +353,52 @@ static bool pte_none_or_zero(pte_t pte) * the shared zeropage for the given collapse operation. * @cc: The collapse control struct * @vma: The vma to check for userfaultfd + * @order: The folio order being collapsed to * * Return: Maximum number of empty/shared zeropage PTEs for the collapse operation */ static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_none(struct collapse_control *cc, - struct vm_area_struct *vma) + struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned int order) { + unsigned int max_ptes_none = khugepaged_max_ptes_none; + if (vma && userfaultfd_armed(vma)) return 0; /* for MADV_COLLAPSE, allow any empty/shared zeropage PTEs */ if (!cc->is_khugepaged) return HPAGE_PMD_NR; - /* For all other cases respect the user defined maximum */ - return khugepaged_max_ptes_none; + /* for PMD collapse, respect the user defined maximum */ + if (is_pmd_order(order)) + return max_ptes_none; + /* + * for mTHP collapse with the sysctl value set to KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT, + * scale the maximum number of PTEs to the order of the collapse. + */ + if (max_ptes_none == KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT) + return (1 << order) - 1; + if (!max_ptes_none) + return 0; + /* + * For mTHP collapse of values other than 0 or KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT, + * emit a warning and return 0. + */ + pr_warn_once("mTHP collapse does not support max_ptes_none values" + " other than 0 or %u, defaulting to 0.\n", + KHUGEPAGED_MAX_PTES_LIMIT); + return 0; } /** * collapse_max_ptes_shared - Calculate maximum allowed PTEs that map shared * anonymous pages for the given collapse operation. * @cc: The collapse control struct + * @order: The folio order being collapsed to * * Return: Maximum number of PTEs that map shared anonymous pages for the * collapse operation */ -static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_shared(struct collapse_control *cc) +static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_shared(struct collapse_control *cc, + unsigned int order) { /* * For MADV_COLLAPSE, do not restrict the number of PTEs that map shared@@ -384,6 +406,13 @@ static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_shared(struct collapse_control *cc) */ if (!cc->is_khugepaged) return HPAGE_PMD_NR; + /* + * for mTHP collapse do not allow collapsing anonymous memory pages that + * are shared between processes. + */ + if (!is_pmd_order(order)) + return 0; + /* for PMD collapse, respect the user defined maximum */ return khugepaged_max_ptes_shared; }@@ -391,11 +420,13 @@ static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_shared(struct collapse_control *cc) * collapse_max_ptes_swap - Calculate the maximum allowed non-present PTEs or the * maximum allowed non-present pagecache entries for the given collapse operation. * @cc: The collapse control struct + * @order: The folio order being collapsed to * * Return: Maximum number of non-present PTEs or the maximum allowed non-present * pagecache entries for the collapse operation. */ -static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_swap(struct collapse_control *cc) +static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_swap(struct collapse_control *cc, + unsigned int order) { /* * For MADV_COLLAPSE, do not restrict the number PTEs entries or@@ -403,6 +434,10 @@ static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_swap(struct collapse_control *cc) */ if (!cc->is_khugepaged) return HPAGE_PMD_NR; + /* for mTHP collapse do not allow any non-present PTEs or pagecache entries */ + if (!is_pmd_order(order)) + return 0; + /* for PMD collapse, respect the user defined maximum */ return khugepaged_max_ptes_swap; }@@ -596,10 +631,11 @@ static void release_pte_pages(pte_t *pte, pte_t *_pte, static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_isolate(struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long start_addr, pte_t *pte, struct collapse_control *cc, - struct list_head *compound_pagelist) + unsigned int order, struct list_head *compound_pagelist) { - const unsigned int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(cc, vma); - const unsigned int max_ptes_shared = collapse_max_ptes_shared(cc); + const unsigned int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(cc, vma, order); + const unsigned int max_ptes_shared = collapse_max_ptes_shared(cc, order); + const unsigned long nr_pages = 1UL << order; struct page *page = NULL; struct folio *folio = NULL; unsigned long addr = start_addr;@@ -607,7 +643,7 @@ static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_isolate(struct vm_area_struct *vma, int none_or_zero = 0, shared = 0, referenced = 0; enum scan_result result = SCAN_FAIL; - for (_pte = pte; _pte < pte + HPAGE_PMD_NR; + for (_pte = pte; _pte < pte + nr_pages; _pte++, addr += PAGE_SIZE) { pte_t pteval = ptep_get(_pte); if (pte_none_or_zero(pteval)) {@@ -740,18 +776,18 @@ static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_isolate(struct vm_area_struct *vma, } static void __collapse_huge_page_copy_succeeded(pte_t *pte, - struct vm_area_struct *vma, - unsigned long address, - spinlock_t *ptl, - struct list_head *compound_pagelist) + struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long address, + spinlock_t *ptl, unsigned int order, + struct list_head *compound_pagelist) { - unsigned long end = address + HPAGE_PMD_SIZE; + const unsigned long nr_pages = 1UL << order; + unsigned long end = address + (PAGE_SIZE << order); struct folio *src, *tmp; pte_t pteval; pte_t *_pte; unsigned int nr_ptes; - for (_pte = pte; _pte < pte + HPAGE_PMD_NR; _pte += nr_ptes, + for (_pte = pte; _pte < pte + nr_pages; _pte += nr_ptes, address += nr_ptes * PAGE_SIZE) { nr_ptes = 1; pteval = ptep_get(_pte);@@ -804,11 +840,10 @@ static void __collapse_huge_page_copy_succeeded(pte_t *pte, } static void __collapse_huge_page_copy_failed(pte_t *pte, - pmd_t *pmd, - pmd_t orig_pmd, - struct vm_area_struct *vma, - struct list_head *compound_pagelist) + pmd_t *pmd, pmd_t orig_pmd, struct vm_area_struct *vma, + unsigned int order, struct list_head *compound_pagelist) { + const unsigned long nr_pages = 1UL << order; spinlock_t *pmd_ptl; /*@@ -824,7 +859,7 @@ static void __collapse_huge_page_copy_failed(pte_t *pte, * Release both raw and compound pages isolated * in __collapse_huge_page_isolate. */ - release_pte_pages(pte, pte + HPAGE_PMD_NR, compound_pagelist); + release_pte_pages(pte, pte + nr_pages, compound_pagelist); } /*@@ -844,16 +879,17 @@ static void __collapse_huge_page_copy_failed(pte_t *pte, */ static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_copy(pte_t *pte, struct folio *folio, pmd_t *pmd, pmd_t orig_pmd, struct vm_area_struct *vma, - unsigned long address, spinlock_t *ptl, + unsigned long address, spinlock_t *ptl, unsigned int order, struct list_head *compound_pagelist) { + const unsigned long nr_pages = 1UL << order; unsigned int i; enum scan_result result = SCAN_SUCCEED; /* * Copying pages' contents is subject to memory poison at any iteration. */ - for (i = 0; i < HPAGE_PMD_NR; i++) { + for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) { pte_t pteval = ptep_get(pte + i); struct page *page = folio_page(folio, i); unsigned long src_addr = address + i * PAGE_SIZE;@@ -872,10 +908,10 @@ static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_copy(pte_t *pte, struct folio *foli if (likely(result == SCAN_SUCCEED)) __collapse_huge_page_copy_succeeded(pte, vma, address, ptl, - compound_pagelist); + order, compound_pagelist); else __collapse_huge_page_copy_failed(pte, pmd, orig_pmd, vma, - compound_pagelist); + order, compound_pagelist); return result; }@@ -1042,16 +1078,20 @@ static enum scan_result check_pmd_still_valid(struct mm_struct *mm, * Bring missing pages in from swap, to complete THP collapse. * Only done if khugepaged_scan_pmd believes it is worthwhile. * + * For mTHP orders the function bails on the first swap entry, because + * faulting pages back in during collapse could re-populate PTEs that + * push a later scan over the threshold for a higher-order collapse. + * * Called and returns without pte mapped or spinlocks held. * Returns result: if not SCAN_SUCCEED, mmap_lock has been released. */ static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_swapin(struct mm_struct *mm, - struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long start_addr, pmd_t *pmd, - int referenced) + struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long start_addr, + pmd_t *pmd, int referenced, unsigned int order) { int swapped_in = 0; vm_fault_t ret = 0; - unsigned long addr, end = start_addr + (HPAGE_PMD_NR * PAGE_SIZE); + unsigned long addr, end = start_addr + (PAGE_SIZE << order); enum scan_result result; pte_t *pte = NULL; spinlock_t *ptl;@@ -1083,6 +1123,19 @@ static enum scan_result __collapse_huge_page_swapin(struct mm_struct *mm, pte_present(vmf.orig_pte)) continue; + /* + * TODO: Support swapin without leading to further mTHP + * collapses. Currently bringing in new pages via swapin may + * cause a future higher order collapse on a rescan of the same + * range. + */ + if (!is_pmd_order(order)) { + pte_unmap(pte); + mmap_read_unlock(mm); + result = SCAN_EXCEED_SWAP_PTE; + goto out; + } + vmf.pte = pte; vmf.ptl = ptl; ret = do_swap_page(&vmf);@@ -1203,7 +1256,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_huge_page(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long a * that case. Continuing to collapse causes inconsistency. */ result = __collapse_huge_page_swapin(mm, vma, address, pmd, - referenced); + referenced, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER); if (result != SCAN_SUCCEED) goto out_nolock; }@@ -1251,6 +1304,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_huge_page(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long a pte = pte_offset_map_lock(mm, &_pmd, address, &pte_ptl); if (pte) { result = __collapse_huge_page_isolate(vma, address, pte, cc, + HPAGE_PMD_ORDER, &compound_pagelist); spin_unlock(pte_ptl); } else {@@ -1281,6 +1335,7 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_huge_page(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long a result = __collapse_huge_page_copy(pte, folio, pmd, _pmd, vma, address, pte_ptl, + HPAGE_PMD_ORDER, &compound_pagelist); pte_unmap(pte); if (unlikely(result != SCAN_SUCCEED))@@ -1316,9 +1371,9 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm, struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long start_addr, bool *lock_dropped, struct collapse_control *cc) { - const unsigned int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(cc, vma); - const unsigned int max_ptes_shared = collapse_max_ptes_shared(cc); - const unsigned int max_ptes_swap = collapse_max_ptes_swap(cc); + const unsigned int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(cc, vma, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER); + const unsigned int max_ptes_shared = collapse_max_ptes_shared(cc, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER); + const unsigned int max_ptes_swap = collapse_max_ptes_swap(cc, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER); pmd_t *pmd; pte_t *pte, *_pte; int none_or_zero = 0, shared = 0, referenced = 0;@@ -2372,8 +2427,8 @@ static enum scan_result collapse_scan_file(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr, struct file *file, pgoff_t start, struct collapse_control *cc) { - const unsigned int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(cc, NULL); - const unsigned int max_ptes_swap = collapse_max_ptes_swap(cc); + const unsigned int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(cc, NULL, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER); + const unsigned int max_ptes_swap = collapse_max_ptes_swap(cc, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER); struct folio *folio = NULL; struct address_space *mapping = file->f_mapping; XA_STATE(xas, &mapping->i_pages, start);