Re: [PATCH RFC v2 4/6] mm/memcg: return the memcg when putting memcgid

[Bingfang Guo <bfguo@icloud.com>]

On Sat, Sep 05, 2026 at 03:28:50PM +0800, Muchun Song wrote:
> 

Hi, Muchun!

> 
> On 2026/9/1 16:58, Bingfang Guo via B4 Relay wrote:
> > From: Bingfang Guo <bingfangguo@tencent.com>
> > 
> > __mem_cgroup_uncharge_swap() needs both the memcg and the id refcount
> > drop.  Right now it looks the memcg up by id, uncharges it, then looks
> > it up again inside mem_cgroup_private_id_put() to drop the reference.
> > 
> > Make mem_cgroup_private_id_put() resolve the id once, drop the
> > reference, and return the nearest online memcg with a reference held for
> > the caller.  __mem_cgroup_uncharge_swap() then uses that memcg directly
> > and drops the reference after uncharging, avoiding the second xarray
> > lookup.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Bingfang Guo <bingfangguo@tencent.com>
> > ---
> >   mm/memcontrol.c | 20 +++++++++++++++++---
> >   1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
> > index 048c9bb0fad79..f0503a1e5492d 100644
> > --- a/mm/memcontrol.c
> > +++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
> > @@ -4048,14 +4048,28 @@ static void __mem_cgroup_private_id_put(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, unsigned int n
> >   	}
> >   }
> > -static void mem_cgroup_private_id_put(unsigned short id, unsigned int n)
> > +/**
> > + * mem_cgroup_private_id_put - put memcgid and get the nearest online memcg
> > + * @id: the memcg private id got from mem_cgroup_id_get_online
> > + * @n: count of references to put
> > + */
> > +static struct mem_cgroup *mem_cgroup_private_id_put(unsigned short id, unsigned int n)
> 
> Having an API that put reference-counted resources return a struct pointer
> is a very strange design. Please don't do that.

That's true.

> 
> >   {
> >   	struct mem_cgroup *memcg;
> >   	rcu_read_lock();
> >   	memcg = mem_cgroup_from_private_id(id);
> > +	if (!memcg)
> > +		goto out;
> > +
> >   	__mem_cgroup_private_id_put(memcg, n);
> > +
> > +	while (memcg_is_dying(memcg) || !mem_cgroup_tryget(memcg))
> > +		memcg = parent_mem_cgroup(memcg);
> > +
> > +out:
> >   	rcu_read_unlock();
> > +	return memcg;
> >   }
> >   static void mem_cgroup_private_id_kill(struct mem_cgroup *memcg)
> > @@ -5816,7 +5830,7 @@ void __mem_cgroup_uncharge_swap(unsigned short id, unsigned int nr_pages)
> >   	struct mem_cgroup *memcg;
> >   	rcu_read_lock();
> > -	memcg = mem_cgroup_from_private_id(id);
> 
> I think we can introduce a new helper like obj_cgroup_from_private_id(),
> We can use the ID to get the corresponding obj_cgroup, and then get the
> mem_cgroup.

I actually did this in some local versions but gave up in the end
because the ID should be referring to some memcg and I was not
sure if getting some objcg from a memcgid looks normal.

So if that is acceptable, I think it's a great idea to do like
that! And the put can look less weird then.

Thanks for your idea!

Regards,
Bingfang

> 
> Muhcun,
> Thanks.
> > +	memcg = mem_cgroup_private_id_put(id, nr_pages);
> >   	if (memcg) {
> >   		if (!mem_cgroup_is_root(memcg)) {
> >   			if (do_memsw_account())
> > @@ -5825,10 +5839,10 @@ void __mem_cgroup_uncharge_swap(unsigned short id, unsigned int nr_pages)
> >   				page_counter_uncharge(&memcg->swap, nr_pages);
> >   		}
> >   		mod_memcg_state(memcg, MEMCG_SWAP, -nr_pages);
> > -		mem_cgroup_private_id_put(id, nr_pages);
> >   	}
> >   	rcu_read_unlock();
> > +	mem_cgroup_put(memcg);
> >   }
> >   long mem_cgroup_get_nr_swap_pages(struct mem_cgroup *memcg)
> > 
>