Re: [PATCH v2 2/7] mm: introduce local state for lazy_mmu sections
From: Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@linux.ibm.com>
Date: 2025-09-09 11:46:59
Also in:
linux-arm-kernel, linux-mm, lkml, sparclinux, xen-devel
On Tue, Sep 09, 2025 at 12:09:48PM +0200, David Hildenbrand wrote:
On 09.09.25 11:40, Alexander Gordeev wrote:quoted
On Tue, Sep 09, 2025 at 11:07:36AM +0200, David Hildenbrand wrote:quoted
On 08.09.25 09:39, Kevin Brodsky wrote:quoted
arch_{enter,leave}_lazy_mmu_mode() currently have a stateless API (taking and returning no value). This is proving problematic in situations where leave() needs to restore some context back to its original state (before enter() was called). In particular, this makes it difficult to support the nesting of lazy_mmu sections - leave() does not know whether the matching enter() call occurred while lazy_mmu was already enabled, and whether to disable it or not. This patch gives all architectures the chance to store local state while inside a lazy_mmu section by making enter() return some value, storing it in a local variable, and having leave() take that value. That value is typed lazy_mmu_state_t - each architecture defining __HAVE_ARCH_ENTER_LAZY_MMU_MODE is free to define it as it sees fit. For now we define it as int everywhere, which is sufficient to support nesting....quoted
quoted
{ + lazy_mmu_state_t lazy_mmu_state; ... - arch_enter_lazy_mmu_mode(); + lazy_mmu_state = arch_enter_lazy_mmu_mode(); ... - arch_leave_lazy_mmu_mode(); + arch_leave_lazy_mmu_mode(lazy_mmu_state); ... } * In a few cases (e.g. xen_flush_lazy_mmu()), a function knows that lazy_mmu is already enabled, and it temporarily disables it by calling leave() and then enter() again. Here we want to ensure that any operation between the leave() and enter() calls is completed immediately; for that reason we pass LAZY_MMU_DEFAULT to leave() to fully disable lazy_mmu. enter() will then re-enable it - this achieves the expected behaviour, whether nesting occurred before that function was called or not. Note: it is difficult to provide a default definition of lazy_mmu_state_t for architectures implementing lazy_mmu, because that definition would need to be available in arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt_types.h and adding a new generic #include there is very tricky due to the existing header soup.Yeah, I was wondering about exactly that. In particular because LAZY_MMU_DEFAULT etc resides somewehere compeltely different. Which raises the question: is using a new type really of any benefit here? Can't we just use an "enum lazy_mmu_state" and call it a day?I could envision something completely different for this type on s390, e.g. a pointer to a per-cpu structure. So I would really ask to stick with the current approach.Would that integrate well with LAZY_MMU_DEFAULT etc?
Hmm... I though the idea is to use LAZY_MMU_* by architectures that want to use it - at least that is how I read the description above. It is only kasan_populate|depopulate_vmalloc_pte() in generic code that do not follow this pattern, and it looks as a problem to me.
-- Cheers David / dhildenb
Thanks!