Thread (65 messages) 65 messages, 6 authors, 30m ago

Re: [PATCH v6 16/20] dma: swiotlb: free dynamic pools from process context

From: Petr Tesarik <hidden>
Date: 2026-06-09 13:25:41
Also in: linux-arm-kernel, linux-coco, linux-iommu, linux-s390, lkml

On Thu,  4 Jun 2026 14:09:55 +0530
"Aneesh Kumar K.V (Arm)" [off-list ref] wrote:
swiotlb_dyn_free() is used after removing a dynamic swiotlb pool from
RCU-protected lists. It can call swiotlb_free_tlb(), which may need to
restore the encryption state of an unencrypted pool with
set_memory_encrypted() before freeing the pages.

RCU callbacks run in atomic context, but set_memory_encrypted() is not
guaranteed to be atomic-safe on all architectures. For example, page
attribute updates may allocate page tables or take sleeping locks.
Good catch!
Use queue_rcu_work() for dynamic pool freeing instead. This keeps the RCU
grace period before freeing a published pool, while running the actual pool
teardown from workqueue context. Use the same helper for the transient-pool
error path, since that path may also be reached from atomic DMA mapping
context.
Strictly speaking, it's not necessary, because this is in the error
path just after allocating a transient pool. There are only two
possible scenarios:

a. The transient buffer was allocated from a sleeping context, and then
   it's also OK to decrypt memory.

b. The transient buffer was allocated in atomic context, but then it was
   allocated from a coherent pool and it is returned to that pool
   rather than decrypted.

However, it's also fine to queue an RCU work. The logic is definitely
cleaner and easier to maintain.
Tested-by: Michael Kelley <redacted>
Tested-by: Mostafa Saleh <smostafa@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Aneesh Kumar K.V (Arm) <aneesh.kumar@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Petr Tesarik <redacted>

Petr T
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
---
 include/linux/swiotlb.h |  4 ++--
 kernel/dma/swiotlb.c    | 19 +++++++++++--------
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/swiotlb.h b/include/linux/swiotlb.h
index 4dcbf3931be1..526f82e9da45 100644
--- a/include/linux/swiotlb.h
+++ b/include/linux/swiotlb.h
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ extern void __init swiotlb_update_mem_attributes(void);
  * @areas:	Array of memory area descriptors.
  * @slots:	Array of slot descriptors.
  * @node:	Member of the IO TLB memory pool list.
- * @rcu:	RCU head for swiotlb_dyn_free().
+ * @dyn_free:	RCU work item used to free the pool from process context.
  * @transient:  %true if transient memory pool.
  */
 struct io_tlb_pool {
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ struct io_tlb_pool {
 	struct io_tlb_slot *slots;
 #ifdef CONFIG_SWIOTLB_DYNAMIC
 	struct list_head node;
-	struct rcu_head rcu;
+	struct rcu_work dyn_free;
 	bool transient;
 	bool unencrypted;
 #endif
diff --git a/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c b/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c
index f4e8b241a1c4..4c56f64602ea 100644
--- a/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c
+++ b/kernel/dma/swiotlb.c
@@ -774,13 +774,10 @@ static void swiotlb_dyn_alloc(struct work_struct *work)
 	add_mem_pool(mem, pool);
 }
 
-/**
- * swiotlb_dyn_free() - RCU callback to free a memory pool
- * @rcu:	RCU head in the corresponding struct io_tlb_pool.
- */
-static void swiotlb_dyn_free(struct rcu_head *rcu)
+static void swiotlb_dyn_free_work(struct work_struct *work)
 {
-	struct io_tlb_pool *pool = container_of(rcu, struct io_tlb_pool, rcu);
+	struct io_tlb_pool *pool =
+		container_of(to_rcu_work(work), struct io_tlb_pool, dyn_free);
 	size_t slots_size = array_size(sizeof(*pool->slots), pool->nslabs);
 	size_t tlb_size = pool->end - pool->start;
 
@@ -789,6 +786,12 @@ static void swiotlb_dyn_free(struct rcu_head *rcu)
 	kfree(pool);
 }
 
+static void swiotlb_schedule_dyn_free(struct io_tlb_pool *pool)
+{
+	INIT_RCU_WORK(&pool->dyn_free, swiotlb_dyn_free_work);
+	queue_rcu_work(system_wq, &pool->dyn_free);
+}
+
 /**
  * __swiotlb_find_pool() - find the IO TLB pool for a physical address
  * @dev:        Device which has mapped the DMA buffer.
@@ -835,7 +838,7 @@ static void swiotlb_del_pool(struct device *dev, struct io_tlb_pool *pool)
 	list_del_rcu(&pool->node);
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev->dma_io_tlb_lock, flags);
 
-	call_rcu(&pool->rcu, swiotlb_dyn_free);
+	swiotlb_schedule_dyn_free(pool);
 }
 
 #endif	/* CONFIG_SWIOTLB_DYNAMIC */
@@ -1276,7 +1279,7 @@ static int swiotlb_find_slots(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t orig_addr,
 	index = swiotlb_search_pool_area(dev, pool, 0, orig_addr, tbl_dma_addr,
 					 alloc_size, alloc_align_mask);
 	if (index < 0) {
-		swiotlb_dyn_free(&pool->rcu);
+		swiotlb_schedule_dyn_free(pool);
 		return -1;
 	}
 
  
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