From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: mm-commits@vger.kernel.org,vbabka@kernel.org,surenb@google.com,shuah@kernel.org,rppt@kernel.org,mhocko@suse.com,ljs@kernel.org,liam@infradead.org,geert@linux-m68k.org,david@kernel.org,corbet@lwn.net,catalin.marinas@arm.com,leitao@debian.org,akpm@linux-foundation.org
Subject: [merged mm-stable] mm-kmemleak-report-leaks-only-after-n-consecutive-unreferenced-scans.patch removed from -mm tree
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:55:04 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260825015504.800271F000E9@smtp.kernel.org> (raw)
The quilt patch titled
Subject: mm: kmemleak: report leaks only after N consecutive unreferenced scans
has been removed from the -mm tree. Its filename was
mm-kmemleak-report-leaks-only-after-n-consecutive-unreferenced-scans.patch
This patch was dropped because it was merged into the mm-stable branch
of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
------------------------------------------------------
From: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Subject: mm: kmemleak: report leaks only after N consecutive unreferenced scans
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2026 04:48:05 -0700
kmemleak reports an object the first scan it is found unreferenced. Its
mark phase runs without stopping the rest of the kernel and without a
write barrier, so a live object whose only reference is briefly invisible
during a concurrent RCU update -- e.g. a VMA moved between maple tree
nodes, or a page-cache xa_node -- can be seen as unreferenced for that one
scan. Because an object is flagged as reported only once, such a
transient race turns into a permanent false positive.
Track how many consecutive scans each object has been seen unreferenced
and only report it once that reaches min_unref_scans, a new module
parameter. It defaults to 1, leaving the behaviour unchanged; setting it
higher (e.g. 2) still reports a genuine leak, one scan later, while an
object referenced again before the threshold restarts its run and is never
reported.
min_unref_scans can be set at boot with kmemleak.min_unref_scans=<n> or at
run-time via /sys/module/kmemleak/parameters/min_unref_scans.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260713-catalin_pto-v1-2-5b93b1131089@debian.org
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Reviewed-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>
Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Liam R. Howlett <liam@infradead.org>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Shuah Khan <shuah@kernel.org>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
---
Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst | 8 ++++++++
mm/kmemleak.c | 13 ++++++++++++-
2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
--- a/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst~mm-kmemleak-report-leaks-only-after-n-consecutive-unreferenced-scans
+++ a/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst
@@ -198,6 +198,14 @@ systems, because of pointers temporarily
stacks. Kmemleak defines MSECS_MIN_AGE (defaulting to 1000) representing
the minimum age of an object to be reported as a memory leak.
+The ``min_unref_scans`` module parameter (default 1) requires an object to
+be seen unreferenced in that many consecutive scans before it is reported.
+Keeping it at 1 preserves the historical behaviour; higher values filter
+the transient false positives described above, at the cost of delaying
+genuine reports by up to that many scans. It can be set at boot with
+``kmemleak.min_unref_scans=<n>`` or at run-time via
+``/sys/module/kmemleak/parameters/min_unref_scans``.
+
Limitations and Drawbacks
-------------------------
--- a/mm/kmemleak.c~mm-kmemleak-report-leaks-only-after-n-consecutive-unreferenced-scans
+++ a/mm/kmemleak.c
@@ -151,6 +151,8 @@ struct kmemleak_object {
int min_count;
/* the total number of pointers found pointing to this object */
int count;
+ /* consecutive scans the object has been seen unreferenced */
+ unsigned int unref_scans;
/* checksum for detecting modified objects */
u32 checksum;
depot_stack_handle_t trace_handle;
@@ -234,6 +236,9 @@ static unsigned long max_percpu_addr;
static struct task_struct *scan_thread;
/* used to avoid reporting of recently allocated objects */
static unsigned long jiffies_min_age;
+/* consecutive scans an object must stay unreferenced before reporting */
+static unsigned int min_unref_scans = 1;
+module_param(min_unref_scans, uint, 0644);
static unsigned long jiffies_last_scan;
/* delay between automatic memory scannings */
static unsigned long jiffies_scan_wait;
@@ -692,6 +697,7 @@ static struct kmemleak_object *__alloc_o
object->excess_ref = 0;
object->count = 0; /* white color initially */
object->checksum = ~0;
+ object->unref_scans = 0;
object->del_state = 0;
/* task information */
@@ -1890,6 +1896,9 @@ static int __kmemleak_scan(bool full)
__paint_it(object, KMEMLEAK_BLACK);
}
+ /* referenced last scan: restart the unreferenced run */
+ if (!color_white(object))
+ object->unref_scans = 0;
/* reset the reference count (whiten the object) */
object->count = 0;
if (full)
@@ -2064,9 +2073,11 @@ static void kmemleak_scan(void)
raw_spin_lock_irq(&object->lock);
trace_handle = 0;
dedup_print = false;
+
if (unreferenced_object(object) &&
(object->flags & OBJECT_SUSPECT) &&
- !(object->flags & OBJECT_REPORTED)) {
+ !(object->flags & OBJECT_REPORTED) &&
+ ++object->unref_scans >= min_unref_scans) {
object->flags |= OBJECT_REPORTED;
if (kmemleak_verbose) {
trace_handle = object->trace_handle;
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from leitao@debian.org are
reply other threads:[~2026-08-25 1:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: [no followups] expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed
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=20260825015504.800271F000E9@smtp.kernel.org \
--to=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=catalin.marinas@arm.com \
--cc=corbet@lwn.net \
--cc=david@kernel.org \
--cc=geert@linux-m68k.org \
--cc=leitao@debian.org \
--cc=liam@infradead.org \
--cc=ljs@kernel.org \
--cc=mhocko@suse.com \
--cc=mm-commits@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=rppt@kernel.org \
--cc=shuah@kernel.org \
--cc=surenb@google.com \
--cc=vbabka@kernel.org \
/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.