Re: [PATCH] mm: memcg: stop reclaim when a limit update is superseded

[Guopeng Zhang <guopeng.zhang@linux.dev>]

在 2026/7/24 11:32, Tao Cui 写道:
> 
> 
> 在 2026/7/24 10:18, Guopeng Zhang 写道:
>> From: Guopeng Zhang <zhangguopeng@kylinos.cn>
>>
>> kernfs serializes file operations only per open file, so separate open
>> files can update the same memory.high or memory.max file concurrently.
>> Both handlers store the new limit before synchronous reclaim, but
>> continue to use the writer's local target in the reclaim loop. If another
>> writer raises or removes the limit, the first writer can continue
>> reclaiming toward a stale target.
>>
>> For memory.max, this can leave the writer looping indefinitely once
>> reclaim retries are exhausted. The OOM path sees sufficient margin under
>> the current limit and returns true without killing, while the writer
>> still compares usage against its stale target and records another OOM
>> event.
>>
>> Check the current limit at the start of each reclaim iteration and stop
>> if it no longer matches the writer's target.
>>
> 
> Fix looks correct to me.
> 
> Acked-by: Tao Cui <cuitao@kylinos.cn>
> 
> Nit: the message lumps both paths together, but only memory.max loops
> indefinitely. memory.high has no OOM path, so it just spins
> MAX_RECLAIM_RETRIES times and breaks on its own. Worth a line to avoid
> conflating the severity.
> 
Hi,

Thanks for the review and Ack.

The message separates the two cases: the first paragraph describes the
stale-target reclaim behavior common to both, while the "For memory.max"
paragraph describes the OOM-based indefinite loop.

One detail is that memory.high is not limited to MAX_RECLAIM_RETRIES
iterations. The retry counter is decremented only when reclaim makes no
progress:

        if (!reclaimed && !nr_retries--)
                break;

If reclaim continues to make progress while pages are refaulted,
nr_retries is not decremented and the loop can still fail to converge.

Thanks,
Guopeng
>> Fixes: 8c8c383c04f6 ("mm: memcontrol: try harder to set a new memory.high")
>> Fixes: b6e6edcfa405 ("mm: memcontrol: reclaim and OOM kill when shrinking memory.max below usage")
>> Signed-off-by: Guopeng Zhang <zhangguopeng@kylinos.cn>
>> ---
>> Reproducer:
>>
>> Populate a cgroup with anonymous memory and disable swapping. Lower
>> memory.max from one open file, then restore it to "max" through another
>> open file after the new limit becomes visible.
>>
>> Without the patch, the first writer remains blocked and repeatedly
>> increments the OOM event counter. With the patch, it returns normally.
>>
>>  mm/memcontrol.c | 6 ++++++
>>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
>> index 8319ad8c5c23..638bdc766616 100644
>> --- a/mm/memcontrol.c
>> +++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
>> @@ -4798,6 +4798,9 @@ static ssize_t memory_high_write(struct kernfs_open_file *of,
>>  		unsigned long nr_pages = page_counter_read(&memcg->memory);
>>  		unsigned long reclaimed;
>>  
>> +		if (high != READ_ONCE(memcg->memory.high))
>> +			break;
>> +
>>  		if (nr_pages <= high)
>>  			break;
>>  
>> @@ -4853,6 +4856,9 @@ static ssize_t memory_max_write(struct kernfs_open_file *of,
>>  	for (;;) {
>>  		unsigned long nr_pages = page_counter_read(&memcg->memory);
>>  
>> +		if (max != READ_ONCE(memcg->memory.max))
>> +			break;
>> +
>>  		if (nr_pages <= max)
>>  			break;
>>  
>