Re: [PATCH 1/7] mm/memcontrol: make lru_zone_size atomic and simplify sanity check

[Ridong Chen <ridong.chen@linux.dev>]

On 8/18/2026 1:38 PM, Kairui Song via B4 Relay wrote:
> From: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>
> 
> commit ca707239e8a7 ("mm: update_lru_size warn and reset bad lru_size")
> introduced a sanity check to catch memcg counter underflow, which was
> more of a workaround for another bug: lru_zone_size is unsigned, so
> underflow wraps it around and returns an enormously large number, then
> the memcg shrinker loops almost forever as the calculated number of
> folios to shrink is huge. That commit also checked if a zero value
> matches the empty LRU list, so we have to hold the LRU lock, and
> handle the positive and negative deltas separately.
> 
> But later commit b4536f0c829c ("mm, memcg: fix the active list aging
> for lowmem requests when memcg is enabled") already removed the LRU
> emptiness check, so handling the deltas separately is no longer
> needed. And if we just turn it into an atomic long, underflow isn't a
> big issue either, and can be checked at the reader side, which is
> called much less frequently than the updater.
> 
> So let's turn the counter into an atomic long and check at the reader
> side instead, which has a smaller overhead. The underflow correction
> is removed: a massive leak of the LRU size counter would indicate
> that something else has gone very wrong, and one should fix that
> leaking site instead. Besides, the updater-side sanity check is
> unlikely to catch the leaking site anyway: if a folio was removed
> without updating the counter while other folios remain on the LRU,
> the WARN only triggers much later, from a likely innocent callsite.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>
> ---
>   include/linux/memcontrol.h |  9 +++++++--
>   mm/memcontrol.c            | 18 +-----------------
>   2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/memcontrol.h b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
> index e78bc98ab229..b13e3f056319 100644
> --- a/include/linux/memcontrol.h
> +++ b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
> @@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ struct mem_cgroup_per_node {
>   	/* Fields which get updated often at the end. */
>   	struct lruvec		lruvec;
>   	CACHELINE_PADDING(_pad2_);
> -	unsigned long		lru_zone_size[MAX_NR_ZONES][NR_LRU_LISTS];
> +	atomic_long_t		lru_zone_size[MAX_NR_ZONES][NR_LRU_LISTS];
>   	struct mem_cgroup_reclaim_iter	iter;
>   
>   	/*
> @@ -897,10 +897,15 @@ static inline
>   unsigned long mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(struct lruvec *lruvec,
>   		enum lru_list lru, int zone_idx)
>   {
> +	long val;
>   	struct mem_cgroup_per_node *mz;
>   
>   	mz = container_of(lruvec, struct mem_cgroup_per_node, lruvec);
> -	return READ_ONCE(mz->lru_zone_size[zone_idx][lru]);
> +	val = atomic_long_read(&mz->lru_zone_size[zone_idx][lru]);
> +	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(val < 0))
> +		return 0;
> +
> +	return val;
>   }
>   
>   void __mem_cgroup_handle_over_high(gfp_t gfp_mask);
> diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
> index 1d3339520809..9d0ee3d3bda7 100644
> --- a/mm/memcontrol.c
> +++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
> @@ -1529,28 +1529,12 @@ void mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(struct lruvec *lruvec, enum lru_list lru,
>   				int zid, long nr_pages)
>   {
>   	struct mem_cgroup_per_node *mz;
> -	unsigned long *lru_size;
> -	long size;
>   
>   	if (mem_cgroup_disabled())
>   		return;
>   
>   	mz = container_of(lruvec, struct mem_cgroup_per_node, lruvec);
> -	lru_size = &mz->lru_zone_size[zid][lru];
> -
> -	if (nr_pages < 0)
> -		*lru_size += nr_pages;
> -
> -	size = *lru_size;
> -	if (WARN_ONCE(size < 0,
> -		"%s(%p, %d, %ld): lru_size %ld\n",
> -		__func__, lruvec, lru, nr_pages, size)) {
> -		VM_BUG_ON(1);
> -		*lru_size = 0;
> -	}
> -

This code is confusing, I used to try to remove it.

Well done.


> -	if (nr_pages > 0)
> -		*lru_size += nr_pages;
> +	atomic_long_add(nr_pages, &mz->lru_zone_size[zid][lru]);
>   }
>   
>   /**
> 

Looks good to me.

Reviewed-by: Ridong Chen <ridong.chen@linux.dev>
-- 
Best regards
Ridong