From: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
sashiko-bot <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>,
"Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM)" <ljs@kernel.org>,
"David Hildenbrand (Arm)" <david@kernel.org>,
Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>,
"Liam R. Howlett" <liam@infradead.org>,
Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>,
Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 5.15.y] mm/madvise: use folio_trylock() in the cold/pageout PMD split
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2026 09:42:26 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261110144208.1960054-1-sashal@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261107060446-failed-5.15-5a6c9cf117fc@kernel.org>
From: Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>
[ Upstream commit 5a6c9cf117fca3c38a98fb2a2d5549795c8b0b73 ]
MADV_COLD or MADV_PAGEOUT over part of a PMD splits the THP in
madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(). Two threads doing that to the same
THP create spurious failures.
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
folio_get()
spin_unlock(ptl)
folio_lock()
folio_get()
spin_unlock(ptl)
folio_lock() <- blocks, keeps its ref
split_folio()
folio_expected_ref_count(folio) != folio_ref_count(folio) - 1
-EAGAIN
CPU1 cannot drop its reference until it gets the lock CPU0 holds, so
CPU0's split always fails. folio_trylock() makes CPU1 leave without ever
taking a reference. The PTE branch of this same function already does
this, as do madvise_free_pte_range() and madvise_free_huge_pmd().
Reproducer: 400 rounds of eight threads calling MADV_COLD on half of each
of eight THPs, re-formed with MADV_COLLAPSE between rounds. From
/proc/vmstat:
thp_split_page thp_split_page_failed
before 3186 860
after 3200 0
The short before count is rounds where every thread failed and the advice
was dropped for that THP entirely.
On failure the walker returns 0 and nothing retries. The PMD path becomes
best effort when the folio lock is held elsewhere - same as the PTE path.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260912110540.3203010-1-gourry@gourry.net
Signed-off-by: Gregory Price (Meta) <gourry@gourry.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Reported-by: sashiko-bot <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Closes: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260817220810.1175596-1-gourry%40gourry.net
Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@kernel.org>
Assisted-by: LLM
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Liam R. Howlett <liam@infradead.org>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
[ sashal: replaced folio_trylock(folio) with trylock_page(page) to match the existing page-based API ]
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
mm/madvise.c | 3 ++-
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c
index 367220e1fe52a..b19ed034e84f4 100644
--- a/mm/madvise.c
+++ b/mm/madvise.c
@@ -351,9 +351,10 @@ static int madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(pmd_t *pmd,
if (next - addr != HPAGE_PMD_SIZE) {
int err;
+ if (!trylock_page(page))
+ goto huge_unlock;
get_page(page);
spin_unlock(ptl);
- lock_page(page);
err = split_huge_page(page);
unlock_page(page);
put_page(page);
--
2.53.0
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-11-10 14:42 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-11-07 11:04 FAILED: patch "[PATCH] mm/madvise: use folio_trylock() in the cold/pageout PMD split" failed to apply to 5.15-stable tree Sasha Levin
2026-11-10 14:42 ` Sasha Levin [this message]
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