Re: [PATCH v3 40/40] mm/vma: introduce and use vma[_flags]_can_gup()
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From: "David Hildenbrand (Arm)" <david@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-10-02 07:49:02
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On 9/17/26 18:22, Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) wrote:
GUP cannot be used for VMAs which set VMA_IO_BIT - because memory-mapped I/O must not be accessed on the user's behalf - or VMA_PFNMAP_BIT - because PFN maps have no folios which the kernel is permitted to access.
The interesting thing will be: what if we want to allow gup for COW'ed pages in PFNMAP. We discussed that already, and it might be a bit harder to squeeze into the new vma[_flags]_can_gup() checks that are also used elsewhere now. Because GUP itself mostly already handles the VMA_PFNMAP_BIT, just has to be taught about vm_normal_page() etc *properly* on all levels. I even have that on my todo list. Updating vma[_flags]_can_gup() won't be enough in that case (ignore VMA_PFNMAP_BIT in cow-mappings), because suddenly we would unlock other code paths that now depend on this helper. Also, there is the secretmem thing I comment on below. I think this also belongs in this helper but other unrelated users don't really want it. Which makes me wonder whether vma[_flags]_can_gup() is actually the right abstraction to use in some other cases that you convert below. For the actual GUP users I think it's the right thing to do. But not for things that are somewhat related to GUP (but actually different) I think you much rather want a separate helper. Long story short: I wonder whether vma[_flags]_can_gup() is the right abstraction, especially for users that don't actually *use* gup but just want slightly similar semantics (no VM_IO|VM_PFNMAP).
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Rather than keeping these checks open-coded, abstract them to vma_flags_can_gup() and its VMA wrapper vma_can_gup(). A number of other places make the same check to decide whether a mapping can be populated or accessed as GUP would, so update those too. While here, drop a reference to 'special' and replace a use of the deprecated VMA flags API in vma_dump_size(). No functional change intended. Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org> --- fs/coredump.c | 4 ++-- include/linux/mm.h | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ mm/gup.c | 7 +++---- mm/hmm.c | 3 +-- mm/memory.c | 14 ++++++++------ mm/mempolicy.c | 3 ++- 6 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)diff --git a/fs/coredump.c b/fs/coredump.c index fb21fb6703dd..9f729c594c47 100644 --- a/fs/coredump.c +++ b/fs/coredump.c@@ -1616,8 +1616,8 @@ static unsigned long vma_dump_size(struct vm_area_struct *vma, return 0; } - /* Do not dump I/O mapped devices or special mappings */ - if (vma->vm_flags & VM_IO) + /* Do not dump memory-mapped I/O, which may have side effects on read. */ + if (vma_test(vma, VMA_IO_BIT)) return 0;
In the end, we use GUP to lookup the pages through get_dump_page(). I think we should just use the gup helper instead?
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/* By default, dump shared memory if mapped from an anonymous file. */diff --git a/include/linux/mm.h b/include/linux/mm.h index 5860a3b4dba9..1249e04d7b98 100644 --- a/include/linux/mm.h +++ b/include/linux/mm.h@@ -1777,6 +1777,35 @@ static inline bool vma_is_persistent(const struct vm_area_struct *vma) return vma_flags_is_persistent(&vma->flags); } +/** + * vma_flags_can_gup() - Do the specified VMA flags permit GUP to access the + * mapping's pages? + * @flags: The VMA flags to test. + * + * GUP cannot obtain pages from a PFN map (VMA_PFNMAP_BIT), which may have no + * struct pages behind it, and must not provide access to memory-mapped I/O + * (VMA_IO_BIT). + * + * Returns: true if GUP may access pages from the mapping, otherwise false. + */ +static inline bool vma_flags_can_gup(const vma_flags_t *flags) +{ + return !vma_flags_test_any(flags, VMA_IO_BIT, VMA_PFNMAP_BIT); +}
This only covers some things though. See check_vma_flags(): vma_is_secretmem() is another case we universally reject and that is just simply incompatible. In the future, it be an address space flag which we can have from the VMA. So we'd want a vma_can_gup() helper but not necessarily a vma_flags_can_gup() helper. I think this belongs into the vma_can_gup() helper. Also, we should better clarify in the doc that other GUP flags will decide whether GUP is actually allowed. the semantics are a bit vague right now "Do the specified VMA flags permit GUP to access". [...]
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diff --git a/mm/hmm.c b/mm/hmm.c index 2f1e98c6b644..e9569b82a1f0 100644 --- a/mm/hmm.c +++ b/mm/hmm.c@@ -595,8 +595,7 @@ static int hmm_vma_walk_test(unsigned long start, unsigned long end, struct hmm_range *range = hmm_vma_walk->range; struct vm_area_struct *vma = walk->vma; - if (!(vma->vm_flags & (VM_IO | VM_PFNMAP)) && - vma->vm_flags & VM_READ) + if (vma_can_gup(vma) && vma_test(vma, VMA_READ_BIT)) return 0;
Where do we end up using gup? I don't think we do, because hmm essentially implements an alternative to KVM-style GUP-fast usage. So likely this wants a different helper.
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/*diff --git a/mm/memory.c b/mm/memory.c index 6c011979401a..338fce99e711 100644 --- a/mm/memory.c +++ b/mm/memory.c@@ -2417,11 +2417,11 @@ static bool vm_mixed_zeropage_allowed(struct vm_area_struct *vma) * be problematic as soon as the zeropage gets replaced by a different * page due to vma->vm_ops->pfn_mkwrite, because what's mapped would * now differ to what GUP looked up. FSDAX is incompatible to - * FOLL_LONGTERM and VM_IO is incompatible to GUP completely (see - * check_vma_flags). + * FOLL_LONGTERM and memory-mapped I/O is incompatible to GUP completely + * (see vma_can_gup()). */ return vma->vm_ops && vma->vm_ops->pfn_mkwrite && - (vma_is_fsdax(vma) || vma->vm_flags & VM_IO); + (vma_is_fsdax(vma) || vma_test(vma, VMA_IO_BIT));
This looks a bit misplaces in this patch. Also, not spelled out in the patch description? [...]
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retry: pgdp = pgd_offset(mm, address);@@ -7316,8 +7317,9 @@ static int __access_remote_vm(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr, } /* - * Check if this is a VM_IO | VM_PFNMAP VMA, which - * we can access using slightly different code. + * GUP failed, perhaps because this is a mapping it + * cannot handle (see vma_can_gup()) - such mappings may + * provide access via vm_ops->access() instead. */ bytes = 0; #ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_IOREMAP_PROTdiff --git a/mm/mempolicy.c b/mm/mempolicy.c index 044ffb4f4128..2fd759e348ca 100644 --- a/mm/mempolicy.c +++ b/mm/mempolicy.c@@ -2013,7 +2013,8 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE5(get_mempolicy, int __user *, policy, bool vma_migratable(struct vm_area_struct *vma) { - if (vma->vm_flags & (VM_IO | VM_PFNMAP)) + /* Pages which GUP cannot obtain cannot be migrated either. */ + if (!vma_can_gup(vma)) return false;
It's slightly confusing, because we don't really use GUP (except in one scenario for lookup_node). -- Cheers, David