+ mm-vma-add-vma_is_mm_managed-predicates.patch added to mm-unstable branch

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

The patch titled
     Subject: mm/vma: add vma[_flags]_is_mm_managed() predicates
has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch.  Its filename is
     mm-vma-add-vma_is_mm_managed-predicates.patch

This patch will shortly appear at
     https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/mm-vma-add-vma_is_mm_managed-predicates.patch

This patch will later appear in the mm-unstable branch at
    git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm

Before you just go and hit "reply", please:
   a) Consider who else should be cc'ed
   b) Prefer to cc a suitable mailing list as well
   c) Ideally: find the original patch on the mailing list and do a
      reply-to-all to that, adding suitable additional cc's

*** Remember to use Documentation/process/submit-checklist.rst when testing your code ***

The -mm tree is included into linux-next via various
branches at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
and is updated there most days

------------------------------------------------------
From: "Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)" <ljs@kernel.org>
Subject: mm/vma: add vma[_flags]_is_mm_managed() predicates
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 2026 17:32:45 +0100

Rather than referring to VMA flags with uncertain meaning, add a new
predicate that explicitly describes what absence of the VMA_PFNMAP_BIT and
VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT flags means, and then refer to that function for
determining VMA mergeability.

If neither of these flags are set, that means the contents of the mapping
are managed by core mm.

Otherwise they are instead owned by some other kernel component, usually a
driver: the memory may be MMIO, kernel-allocated pages or even ordinary
pages the driver maps itself, but core mm must not populate, reclaim,
migrate, copy-on-write or merge the range itself.

We initially also treat VMA_IO_BIT as implying a mapping is not mm-managed,
as by implication it cannot be. (mlock() also sets VMA_IO_BIT transiently
on ordinary VMAs while locking them, which is addressed later in this
series.)

However the intent is to in future remove this, as no mapping should be
marked as an I/O mapping without also being marked with VMA_PFNMAP_BIT.

This forms the basis of further work intended to improve how we express VMA
properties such as this.

Also update the VMA userland tests to reflect the change.

No functional change intended.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20261003-b4-mmap-prepare-vma-flag-sanify-v4-14-a1f052500fd7@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Cc: Liam R. Howlett <liam@infradead.org>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>
Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: Dennis Dalessandro <dennis.dalessandro@cornelisnetworks.com>
Cc: Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@ziepe.ca>
Cc: Leon Romanovsky <leon@kernel.org>
Cc: Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>
Cc: Stephen Smalley <stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com>
Cc: Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz>
Cc: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.com>
Cc: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Cc: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Cc: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Cc: Eduard Zingerman <eddyz87@gmail.com>
Cc: Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@gmail.com>
Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
Cc: Nico Pache <nico.pache@linux.dev>
Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Cc: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>
Cc: Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>
Cc: Lance Yang <lance.yang@linux.dev>
Cc: Usama Arif <usama.arif@linux.dev>
Cc: Kiryl Shutsemau <kas@kernel.org>
Cc: Doug Gilbert <dgilbert@interlog.com>
Cc: James Bottomley <james.bottomley@hansenpartnership.com>
Cc: Martin K. Petersen <mkp@kernel.org>
Cc: Simona Vetter <simona@ffwll.ch>
Cc: Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>
Cc: Sebastian Reichel <sre@kernel.org>
Cc: John Hubbard <jhubbard@nvidia.com>
Cc: Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>
Cc: Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>
Cc: Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@redhat.com>
Cc: Vincent Guittot <vincent.guittot@linaro.org>
Cc: Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Maxime Ripard <mripard@kernel.org>
Cc: Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@suse.de>
Cc: David Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Cc: Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@kernel.org>
Cc: Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@gmail.com>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org>
Cc: Oliver Upton <oupton@kernel.org>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Cc: Madhavan Srinivasan <maddy@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Anup Patel <anup@brainfault.org>
Cc: Paul Walmsley <pjw@kernel.org>
Cc: Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@dabbelt.com>
Cc: Albert Ou <aou@eecs.berkeley.edu>
Cc: Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Janosch Frank <frankja@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Claudio Imbrenda <imbrenda@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Heiko Carstens <hca@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: Andreas Larsson <andreas@gaisler.com>
Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@intel.com>
Cc: Joshua Hahn <joshua.hahnjy@gmail.com>
Cc: Rakie Kim <rakie.kim@sk.com>
Cc: Byungchul Park <byungchul@sk.com>
Cc: Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>
Cc: Ying Huang <ying.huang@linux.alibaba.com>
Cc: Alistair Popple <apopple@nvidia.com>
Cc: Chris Li <chrisl@kernel.org>
Cc: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>
Cc: Kemeng Shi <shikemeng@huaweicloud.com>
Cc: Nhat Pham <nphamcs@gmail.com>
Cc: Baoquan He <baoquan.he@linux.dev>
Cc: Youngjun Park <youngjun.park@lge.com>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Cc: Qi Zheng <qi.zheng@linux.dev>
Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Cc: Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com>
Cc: Yuanchu Xie <yuanchu@google.com>
Cc: Wei Xu <weixugc@google.com>
Cc: Chengming Zhou <chengming.zhou@linux.dev>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
Cc: Miklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>
Cc: Xu Xin <xu.xin@linux.dev>
---

 include/linux/mm.h              |   53 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h |   29 +++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 80 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

--- a/include/linux/mm.h~mm-vma-add-vma_is_mm_managed-predicates
+++ a/include/linux/mm.h
@@ -1614,6 +1614,41 @@ static inline bool vma_is_shared_maywrit
 }
 
 /**
+ * vma_flags_is_mm_managed() - Do the specified VMA flags indicate that the
+ * contents of the VMA are managed by core mm?
+ * @flags: The VMA flags to test.
+ *
+ * Such a mapping is one established by a simple mmap() or brk() with no driver
+ * or other kernel component involved.
+ *
+ * They are rmappable, and core mm services rmap operations including reclaim,
+ * as well as population, CoW and merge/split (if eligible).
+ *
+ * Mappings which fail this test are those where this is not the case -
+ * e.g. MMIO, user-mapped kernel pages, udmabuf (pfnmap shmem), etc.
+ *
+ * Returns: true if the flags indicate an mm-managed mapping.
+ */
+static inline bool vma_flags_is_mm_managed(const vma_flags_t *flags)
+{
+	return !vma_flags_test_any(flags, VMA_PFNMAP_BIT, VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT,
+				   VMA_IO_BIT);
+}
+
+/**
+ * vma_is_mm_managed() - Are the contents of @vma managed by core mm?
+ * @vma: The VMA to test.
+ *
+ * See vma_flags_is_mm_managed() for a description of this property.
+ *
+ * Returns: true if the VMA is mm-managed.
+ */
+static inline bool vma_is_mm_managed(const struct vm_area_struct *vma)
+{
+	return vma_flags_is_mm_managed(&vma->flags);
+}
+
+/**
  * vma_flags_can_merge() - Do the specified VMA flags permit the VMA to be
  * merged with another?
  * @flags: The VMA flags to test.
@@ -1621,7 +1656,23 @@ static inline bool vma_is_shared_maywrit
  */
 static inline bool vma_flags_can_merge(const vma_flags_t *flags)
 {
-	return !vma_flags_test_any_mask(flags, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS);
+	/*
+	 * VMA merging assumes that a VMA's flags and fields completely describe
+	 * its state.
+	 *
+	 * However, mappings which are not mm-managed may have established state
+	 * upon mapping not embodied in any attribute of the VMA.
+	 *
+	 * Additionally, private (CoW) PFN maps encode the source PFN of the
+	 * range in vma->vm_pgoff, which may otherwise cause spurious merges.
+	 */
+	if (!vma_flags_is_mm_managed(flags))
+		return false;
+	/* VMA explicitly marked as being unmergeable. */
+	if (vma_flags_test(flags, VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT))
+		return false;
+
+	return true;
 }
 
 /**
--- a/tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h~mm-vma-add-vma_is_mm_managed-predicates
+++ a/tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h
@@ -1665,7 +1665,34 @@ static inline bool file_is_dev_zero(cons
 	return file && file->f_op == &zero_fops;
 }
 
+static inline bool vma_flags_is_mm_managed(const vma_flags_t *flags)
+{
+	return !vma_flags_test_any(flags, VMA_PFNMAP_BIT, VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT,
+				   VMA_IO_BIT);
+}
+
+static inline bool vma_is_mm_managed(const struct vm_area_struct *vma)
+{
+	return vma_flags_is_mm_managed(&vma->flags);
+}
+
 static inline bool vma_flags_can_merge(const vma_flags_t *flags)
 {
-	return !vma_flags_test_any_mask(flags, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS);
+	/*
+	 * VMA merging assumes that a VMA's flags and fields completely describe
+	 * its state.
+	 *
+	 * However, mappings which are not mm-managed may have established state
+	 * upon mapping not embodied in any attribute of the VMA.
+	 *
+	 * Additionally, private (CoW) PFN maps encode the source PFN of the
+	 * range in vma->vm_pgoff, which may otherwise cause spurious merges.
+	 */
+	if (!vma_flags_is_mm_managed(flags))
+		return false;
+	/* VMA explicitly marked as being unmergeable. */
+	if (vma_flags_test(flags, VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT))
+		return false;
+
+	return true;
 }
_

Patches currently in -mm which might be from ljs@kernel.org are

mm-mremap-fix-locked_vm-leak-from-mremap_dontunmap-self-merge.patch
mm-mremap-fix-locked_vm-leak-by-splitting-vma-for-mremap_dontunmap.patch
drivers-char-mem-mmap-readonly-map_shared-dev-zero-correctly.patch
mm-vmpressure-remove-window-size-todo.patch
tools-testing-selftests-mm-add-missing-gitignore-entries.patch
mm-move-drivers-char-memc-to-mm-char-memc.patch
mm-implement-file_is_dev_zero-to-uniquely-identify-dev-zero.patch
mm-vma-only-permit-map_private-dev-zero-to-be-mapped-anonymous.patch
mm-vma-make-map_private-mapped-dev-zero-mappings-truly-anonymous.patch
tools-testing-vma-add-test-to-assert-map_private-dev-zero-is-anon.patch
tools-testing-selftests-mm-add-map_private-dev-zero-merge-tests.patch
mm-madvise-swap-in-cowd-map_private-file-mappings-on-madv_willneed.patch
mm-khugepaged-deposit-a-newly-allocated-page-table-on-collapse.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-most-2-level-architectures.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-mmu-riscv.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-mmu-arm.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-arc-microblaze-xtensa.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-sparc64.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-m68k-coldfire.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-sh-x2.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-m68k-motorola.patch
mm-enable-mmu_gather_rcu_table_free-for-sparc32.patch
mm-userland-pgtable-freeing-is-rcu-safe-now-remove-leftover-bits.patch
mm-change-the-contract-for-free_pgtables-update-docs.patch
mm-vma-fix-mmap_prepare-file-handling-remove-file_doesnt_need_get.patch
mm-vma-introduce-and-use-vma_can_merge.patch
mm-consistently-validate-vma-state-after-mmap-hooks.patch
mm-vma-ensure-mmap_prepare-doesnt-set-actions-on-a-mergeable-vma.patch
mm-make-map_kernel_pages_-internal-and-unexported.patch
mm-vma-tidy-up-map-kernel-pages-enum-values.patch
mm-add-mmap-action-for-discontiguous-kernel-page-mapping.patch
docs-filesystems-update-mmap_prepare-docs-for-discontig-kernel-pgs.patch
drivers-usb-mon-update-to-use-mmap_prepare-map-kernel-pages.patch
infiniband-update-hfi1-to-use-remap_vmalloc_range.patch
selinux-reject-writable-opens-of-policy-file-drop-mmap-shared-write-check.patch
alsa-pcm-use-vm_insert_page-to-map-pcm-status-page.patch
bpf-arena-mark-arena_map_mmap-mappings-vm_mixedmap.patch
mm-vma-add-vma_is_mm_managed-predicates.patch
mm-vma-only-allow-mmap-to-clear-vma_maywrite_bit-if-not-mm-managed.patch
mm-vma-add-and-use-vma__is_fixed_mapping.patch
scsi-sg-convert-mmap-hook-to-mmap_prepare-and-rework.patch
fbdev-defio-assert-fbinfo_virtfb-drop-vm_io-add-vm_mixedmap.patch
hsi-cmt_speech-convert-mmap-hook-to-mmap_prepare-refactor.patch
mm-gup-error-out-early-on-vma_mayread_bit-vmas.patch
uprobes-remove-vm_io-set-vm_mixedmap-for-mapped-kernel-pages.patch
mm-mlock-clear-vma_locked_mask-over-mmap-callback.patch
mm-mlock-eliminate-weird-vma_io_bit-abuse-and-simplify.patch
mm-vma-enforce-that-mm-managed-mappings-may-not-set-vma_io_bit.patch
mm-remove-vma_io_bit-check-in-vma_is_mm_managed.patch
mm-remove-hugetlb_inlineh.patch
mm-rename-is_vm_hugetlb_page-to-vma_is_hugetlb.patch
mm-drop-some-redundant-checks-around-hugetlb-vmas.patch
mm-madvise-update-is_valid_guard_vma-to-use-vma_can_merge.patch
mm-vma-introduce-vma_is_mm_backed.patch
mm-uffd-use-predicates-for-userfaultfd-checks.patch
mm-madvise-use-predicates-for-madvise-madv_dofork.patch
mm-eliminate-vma_special_flags-usage-when-hugetlb-explicitly-tested.patch
mm-eliminate-vma_special_flags-check-in-lru_gen_look_around.patch
mm-avoid-use-of-vma_special_flags-in-migrate_vma_setup.patch
mm-eliminate-vm_special-vma_special_flags.patch
fuse-dax-do-not-set-vm_mixedmap.patch
mm-huge_memory-remove-vma_is_special_huge.patch
mm-vma-const-ify-vma_assert_stabilised-and-associated-functions.patch
mm-implement-and-use-vma_has_anon_rmap-silence-kcsan.patch
mm-update-comments-to-refer-to-anon-rmap-rather-than-anon_vma.patch
mm-vma-dont-remove-vma-from-rmap-if-pgoff-unchanged.patch