+ mm-eliminate-vm_special-vma_special_flags.patch added to mm-unstable branch

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

The patch titled
     Subject: mm: eliminate VM_SPECIAL, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS
has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch.  Its filename is
     mm-eliminate-vm_special-vma_special_flags.patch

This patch will shortly appear at
     https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/mm-eliminate-vm_special-vma_special_flags.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: eliminate VM_SPECIAL, VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 2026 17:33:07 +0100

Every user of the VM_SPECIAL or VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS has now been converted to
predicates which explicitly express what is actually being checked for
rather than the nebulous concept of possessing 'special' VMA flags.

In any case 'special' is not so special a term of art in mm - it includes
VDSO/VVAR mappings, special in the sense of vm_normal_folio() and probably
other cases too.

Therefore make things less special by eliminating these now unused flags.

No functional change intended.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20261003-b4-mmap-prepare-vma-flag-sanify-v4-36-a1f052500fd7@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@kernel.org>
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: 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              |    8 --------
 tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h |    8 --------
 2 files changed, 16 deletions(-)

--- a/include/linux/mm.h~mm-eliminate-vm_special-vma_special_flags
+++ a/include/linux/mm.h
@@ -578,14 +578,6 @@ enum {
 #define VMA_ACCESS_FLAGS mk_vma_flags(VMA_READ_BIT, VMA_WRITE_BIT, VMA_EXEC_BIT)
 
 /*
- * Special vmas that are non-mergable, non-mlock()able.
- */
-
-#define VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS mk_vma_flags(VMA_IO_BIT, VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT, \
-				       VMA_PFNMAP_BIT, VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT)
-#define VM_SPECIAL vma_flags_to_legacy(VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS)
-
-/*
  * Physically remapped pages are special. Tell the
  * rest of the world about it:
  *   IO tells people not to look at these pages
--- a/tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h~mm-eliminate-vm_special-vma_special_flags
+++ a/tools/testing/vma/include/dup.h
@@ -352,14 +352,6 @@ enum {
 #define VM_ACCESS_FLAGS (VM_READ | VM_WRITE | VM_EXEC)
 #define VMA_ACCESS_FLAGS mk_vma_flags(VMA_READ_BIT, VMA_WRITE_BIT, VMA_EXEC_BIT)
 
-/*
- * Special vmas that are non-mergable, non-mlock()able.
- */
-#define VM_SPECIAL (VM_IO | VM_DONTEXPAND | VM_PFNMAP | VM_MIXEDMAP)
-
-#define VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS mk_vma_flags(VMA_IO_BIT, VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT, \
-				       VMA_PFNMAP_BIT, VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT)
-
 #define VMA_REMAP_FLAGS mk_vma_flags(VMA_IO_BIT, VMA_PFNMAP_BIT,	\
 				     VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT, VMA_DONTDUMP_BIT)
 
_

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