From: "Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)" <vbabka@kernel.org>
To: Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>
Cc: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>, Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>,
David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>,
Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>,
Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>,
Alexander Potapenko <glider@google.com>,
Marco Elver <elver@google.com>,
Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@google.com>,
kasan-dev@googlegroups.com, linux-mm@kvack.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, cgroups@vger.kernel.org,
"Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)" <vbabka@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH RFC 00/15] mm/slab: introduce alloc_flags and slab_alloc_context
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:17:45 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260609-slab_alloc_flags-v1-0-2bf4a4b9b526@kernel.org> (raw)
This series is based on slab/for-next. If all goes well, it would
hopefully go to slab/for-next soon after the 7.2 merge window, so any
other work can be based on it to avoid conflicts, as it touches a lot
parts of slab.
Git: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vbabka/linux.git/log/?h=b4/slab_alloc_flags
The slab implementation currently relies on gfp flags to convey
some context information internally:
- The absence of both __GFP_RECLAIM flags is interpreted as "cannot spin
on locks", and intended to be used by kmalloc_nolock(). But false
positives are possible e.g. during early boot where gfp_allowed_mask
clears __GFP_RECLAIM from all allocations. This leads to unnecessary
allocation failures and workarounds such as fd3634312a04 ("debugobject:
Make it work with deferred page initialization - again").
- __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT exists and takes up valuable bit in the gfp flags
space, only to prevent recursive kmalloc() allocations for obj_ext
arrays and sheaves.
The page allocator uses its internal alloc_flags to convey various
context information, including ALLOC_TRYLOCK (meaning "cannot spin").
This series copies that concept for the slab allocator, with its own
slab-specific internal flags:
- SLAB_ALLOC_DEFAULT - no extra flags (the value is 0), but explicit
- SLAB_ALLOC_TRYLOCK - do not spin on locks (used by kmalloc_nolock())
- SLAB_ALLOC_NEW_SLAB - replacing existing 'bool new_slab' parameter
for allocating obj_ext arrays
- SLAB_ALLOC_NO_RECURSE - replacing usage of __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT
To reduce the amount of parameters in various internal functions, we
additionally introduce slab_alloc_context (also inspired by page
allocator's alloc_context) for passing a number of existing arguments
and the new alloc_flags:
/* Structure holding extra parameters for slab allocations */
struct slab_alloc_context {
unsigned long caller_addr;
unsigned long orig_size;
unsigned int alloc_flags;
struct list_lru *lru;
};
This also replaces the existing struct partial_context.
The last necessary piece is kmalloc_flags() which can take the
alloc_flags in addition to gfp flags and is intended for the recursive
allocations of sheaves and obj_ext arrays, so that both
SLAB_ALLOC_TRYLOCK and SLAB_ALLOC_NO_RECURSE can be communicated.
Internally it decides between kmalloc_nolock() and normal kmalloc()
depending SLAB_ALLOC_TRYLOCK.
The rest of the series is gradually expanding the usage of both
alloc_flags and slab_alloc_context as necessary, with bits of
refactoring. Then, __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT is removed completely.
Note that some usage of gfpflags_allow_spinning() relying on absence of
__GFP_RECLAIM remains outside of slab (and page allocator) in memcg,
page_owner and stackdepot code. These can thus yield false-positive
decisions that spinning is not allowed, but should not result in
important allocations failing anymore.
Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
---
Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) (15):
mm/slab: always zero only requested size on alloc
mm/slab: stop inlining __slab_alloc_node()
mm/slab: introduce slab_alloc_context
mm/slab: introduce alloc_flags and SLAB_ALLOC_TRYLOCK
mm/slab: add alloc_flags to slab_alloc_context
mm/slab: replace struct partial_context with slab_alloc_context
mm/slab: pass alloc_flags to new slab allocation
mm/slab: pass alloc_flags through slab_post_alloc_hook() chain
mm/slab: replace slab_alloc_node() parameters with slab_alloc_context
mm/slab: allow kmem_cache_alloc_bulk() with any gfp flags
mm/slab: pass slab_alloc_context to __do_kmalloc_node()
mm/slab: introduce kmalloc_flags()
mm/slab: remove __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT usage from alloc_slab_obj_exts()
mm/slab: replace __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT with SLAB_ALLOC_NO_RECURSE for sheaves
mm: remove the __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT flag
include/linux/gfp_types.h | 7 -
include/linux/slab.h | 14 +-
include/trace/events/mmflags.h | 10 +-
lib/alloc_tag.c | 2 +-
mm/kfence/core.c | 6 +-
mm/memcontrol.c | 5 +-
mm/slab.h | 16 +-
mm/slub.c | 423 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
tools/include/linux/gfp_types.h | 7 -
9 files changed, 288 insertions(+), 202 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 500b2c9755301742bdbb61249511ac11a4665dae
change-id: 20260601-slab_alloc_flags-25c782b0c57c
Best regards,
--
Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
next reply other threads:[~2026-06-09 9:17 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-09 9:17 Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) [this message]
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 01/15] mm/slab: always zero only requested size on alloc Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 02/15] mm/slab: stop inlining __slab_alloc_node() Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 03/15] mm/slab: introduce slab_alloc_context Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 04/15] mm/slab: introduce alloc_flags and SLAB_ALLOC_TRYLOCK Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 05/15] mm/slab: add alloc_flags to slab_alloc_context Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 06/15] mm/slab: replace struct partial_context with slab_alloc_context Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 07/15] mm/slab: pass alloc_flags to new slab allocation Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 08/15] mm/slab: pass alloc_flags through slab_post_alloc_hook() chain Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 09/15] mm/slab: replace slab_alloc_node() parameters with slab_alloc_context Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 10/15] mm/slab: allow kmem_cache_alloc_bulk() with any gfp flags Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 11/15] mm/slab: pass slab_alloc_context to __do_kmalloc_node() Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 12/15] mm/slab: introduce kmalloc_flags() Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 13/15] mm/slab: remove __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT usage from alloc_slab_obj_exts() Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:17 ` [PATCH RFC 14/15] mm/slab: replace __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT with SLAB_ALLOC_NO_RECURSE for sheaves Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 9:18 ` [PATCH RFC 15/15] mm: remove the __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT flag Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 13:35 ` [PATCH RFC 00/15] mm/slab: introduce alloc_flags and slab_alloc_context Usama Arif
2026-06-09 14:28 ` Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-06-09 18:40 ` Alexei Starovoitov
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20260609-slab_alloc_flags-v1-0-2bf4a4b9b526@kernel.org \
--to=vbabka@kernel.org \
--cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=ast@kernel.org \
--cc=cgroups@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=cl@gentwo.org \
--cc=dvyukov@google.com \
--cc=elver@google.com \
--cc=glider@google.com \
--cc=hannes@cmpxchg.org \
--cc=hao.li@linux.dev \
--cc=harry@kernel.org \
--cc=kasan-dev@googlegroups.com \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-mm@kvack.org \
--cc=mhocko@kernel.org \
--cc=rientjes@google.com \
--cc=roman.gushchin@linux.dev \
--cc=shakeel.butt@linux.dev \
--cc=surenb@google.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.