From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: mm-commits@vger.kernel.org,leitao@debian.org,akpm@linux-foundation.org
Subject: [to-be-updated] mm-memory-failure-add-panic-option-for-unrecoverable-pages.patch removed from -mm tree
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:00:06 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260427160007.276C3C19425@smtp.kernel.org> (raw)
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The quilt patch titled
Subject: mm/memory-failure: add panic option for unrecoverable pages
has been removed from the -mm tree. Its filename was
mm-memory-failure-add-panic-option-for-unrecoverable-pages.patch
This patch was dropped because an updated version will be issued
------------------------------------------------------
From: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Subject: mm/memory-failure: add panic option for unrecoverable pages
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2026 05:24:00 -0700
Add a sysctl panic_on_unrecoverable_memory_failure that triggers a kernel
panic when memory_failure() encounters pages that cannot be recovered.
This provides a clean crash with useful debug information rather than
allowing silent data corruption or a delayed crash at an unrelated code
path.
The panic is triggered for three categories of unrecoverable failures,
all requiring result == MF_IGNORED:
- MF_MSG_KERNEL: reserved pages identified via PageReserved.
- MF_MSG_KERNEL_HIGH_ORDER: pages that get_hwpoison_page() observed
with refcount 0 but that are not in the buddy allocator (e.g. tail
pages of a high-order kernel allocation). A buddy page being
concurrently allocated to userspace can briefly land on this branch
too — its refcount is 0 inside the allocator and it is no longer on
the buddy free list — and panicking on such a page would defeat the
standard SIGBUS recovery path. The page allocator cannot reject
hwpoisoned buddy pages reliably either: check_new_pages() is gated by
is_check_pages_enabled() and is a no-op when CONFIG_DEBUG_VM=n.
Rule out the race inside panic_on_unrecoverable_mf(): yield with
cpu_relax() so a concurrent allocator on another CPU can finish
prep_new_page() and have its writes become visible, then re-check.
A genuine high-order kernel tail page stays unowned (refcount 0,
no LRU, no mapping, not in buddy); an in-flight allocation will
have bumped the refcount, attached a mapping, or placed the page
on an LRU by then. Only panic if the recheck still observes a
fully unowned page. The window is narrowed, not eliminated, but
is far below any allocator path's cost.
- MF_MSG_UNKNOWN: pages that do not match any known recoverable state
in error_states[]. A theoretical false positive from concurrent LRU
isolation is mitigated by identify_page_state()'s two-pass design
which rechecks using saved page_flags.
MF_MSG_GET_HWPOISON is intentionally excluded: it covers both non-reserved
kernel memory (SLAB/SLUB, vmalloc, kernel stacks, page tables) and
transient refcount races, so panicking would risk false positives.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260424-ecc_panic-v5-2-a35f4b50425c@debian.org
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Liam Howlett <liam@infradead.org>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>
Cc: Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@huawei.com>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Naoya Horiguchi <nao.horiguchi@gmail.com>
Cc: Shuah Khan <shuah@kernel.org>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Cc: Lance Yang <lance.yang@linux.dev>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
---
mm/memory-failure.c | 91 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 91 insertions(+)
--- a/mm/memory-failure.c~mm-memory-failure-add-panic-option-for-unrecoverable-pages
+++ a/mm/memory-failure.c
@@ -74,6 +74,8 @@ static int sysctl_memory_failure_recover
static int sysctl_enable_soft_offline __read_mostly = 1;
+static int sysctl_panic_on_unrecoverable_mf __read_mostly;
+
atomic_long_t num_poisoned_pages __read_mostly = ATOMIC_LONG_INIT(0);
static bool hw_memory_failure __read_mostly = false;
@@ -155,6 +157,15 @@ static const struct ctl_table memory_fai
.proc_handler = proc_dointvec_minmax,
.extra1 = SYSCTL_ZERO,
.extra2 = SYSCTL_ONE,
+ },
+ {
+ .procname = "panic_on_unrecoverable_memory_failure",
+ .data = &sysctl_panic_on_unrecoverable_mf,
+ .maxlen = sizeof(sysctl_panic_on_unrecoverable_mf),
+ .mode = 0644,
+ .proc_handler = proc_dointvec_minmax,
+ .extra1 = SYSCTL_ZERO,
+ .extra2 = SYSCTL_ONE,
}
};
@@ -1282,6 +1293,75 @@ static void update_per_node_mf_stats(uns
}
/*
+ * Determine whether to panic on an unrecoverable memory failure.
+ *
+ * Panics on three categories of failures (all requiring result == MF_IGNORED):
+ *
+ * - MF_MSG_KERNEL: Reserved pages (PageReserved) that belong to the kernel.
+ *
+ * - MF_MSG_KERNEL_HIGH_ORDER: Pages that get_hwpoison_page() observed with
+ * refcount 0 but that are not in the buddy allocator (e.g. tail pages of
+ * a high-order kernel allocation). A buddy page being concurrently
+ * allocated could also reach this branch — its refcount is briefly 0
+ * inside the allocator and it is no longer on the buddy free list — and
+ * such a page may be destined for userspace, where the standard hwpoison
+ * path would recover it via SIGBUS. The page allocator cannot reject
+ * hwpoisoned buddy pages reliably either: check_new_pages() is gated by
+ * is_check_pages_enabled() and is a no-op when CONFIG_DEBUG_VM=n. The
+ * recheck below rules out this race before panicking.
+ *
+ * - MF_MSG_UNKNOWN: Pages that reached identify_page_state() but matched no
+ * recoverable state in error_states[]. A theoretical false positive from
+ * concurrent LRU isolation is mitigated by identify_page_state()'s
+ * two-pass design which rechecks using saved page_flags.
+ *
+ * MF_MSG_GET_HWPOISON is intentionally excluded: it covers dynamically
+ * allocated kernel memory (SLAB/SLUB, vmalloc, kernel stacks, page tables)
+ * which shares the return path with transient refcount races, so panicking
+ * would risk false positives.
+ */
+static bool panic_on_unrecoverable_mf(unsigned long pfn,
+ enum mf_action_page_type type,
+ enum mf_result result)
+{
+ struct page *p;
+
+ if (!sysctl_panic_on_unrecoverable_mf || result != MF_IGNORED)
+ return false;
+
+ switch (type) {
+ case MF_MSG_KERNEL:
+ case MF_MSG_UNKNOWN:
+ return true;
+ case MF_MSG_KERNEL_HIGH_ORDER:
+ /*
+ * Rule out a concurrent buddy allocation: give the
+ * allocator a moment to finish prep_new_page() and
+ * re-check. A genuine high-order kernel tail page stays
+ * unowned; an in-flight allocation will have bumped the
+ * refcount, attached a mapping, or placed the page on
+ * an LRU by now.
+ */
+ p = pfn_to_online_page(pfn);
+ if (!p)
+ return true;
+ /*
+ * Yield so a concurrent allocator on another CPU can
+ * finish prep_new_page() and have its writes become
+ * visible before we resample the page state.
+ */
+ cpu_relax();
+ return page_count(p) == 0 &&
+ !PageLRU(p) &&
+ !page_mapped(p) &&
+ !page_folio(p)->mapping &&
+ !is_free_buddy_page(p);
+ default:
+ return false;
+ }
+}
+
+/*
* "Dirty/Clean" indication is not 100% accurate due to the possibility of
* setting PG_dirty outside page lock. See also comment above set_page_dirty().
*/
@@ -1298,6 +1378,9 @@ static int action_result(unsigned long p
pr_err("%#lx: recovery action for %s: %s\n",
pfn, action_page_types[type], action_name[result]);
+ if (panic_on_unrecoverable_mf(pfn, type, result))
+ panic("Memory failure: %#lx: unrecoverable page", pfn);
+
return (result == MF_RECOVERED || result == MF_DELAYED) ? 0 : -EBUSY;
}
@@ -2428,6 +2511,14 @@ try_again:
}
res = action_result(pfn, MF_MSG_BUDDY, res);
} else {
+ /*
+ * The page has refcount 0 but is not in the buddy
+ * allocator — typically a tail page of a high-order
+ * kernel allocation. A buddy page being concurrently
+ * allocated to userspace can also briefly land here;
+ * panic_on_unrecoverable_mf() rechecks to rule that
+ * out before triggering a panic.
+ */
res = action_result(pfn, MF_MSG_KERNEL_HIGH_ORDER, MF_IGNORED);
}
goto unlock_mutex;
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from leitao@debian.org are
documentation-document-panic_on_unrecoverable_memory_failure-sysctl.patch
selftests-mm-regression-test-for-panic_on_unrecoverable_memory_failure.patch
mm-huge_memory-use-sysfs_match_string-in-defrag_store.patch
mm-huge_memory-refactor-defrag_show-to-use-defrag_flags.patch
mm-vmstat-spread-vmstat_update-requeue-across-the-stat-interval.patch
next reply other threads:[~2026-04-27 16:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-04-27 16:00 Andrew Morton [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2026-06-30 20:50 [to-be-updated] mm-memory-failure-add-panic-option-for-unrecoverable-pages.patch removed from -mm tree Andrew Morton
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