Re: (sashiko review) [RFC PATCH v5 02/11] mm/damon/core: merge quota-sliced regions back

SeongJae Park
2026-04-10T23:55:37Z

TL; DR: sashiko found an issue. I will address that in the next revision.

Forwarding sashiko review in a reply format with my inline
comments below, for details of my view and doing discussions
via mails if needed.

> # review url: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260410142034.83798-3-sj@kernel.org
> # start of sashiko.dev inline review
> commit ae9f581463db42127fa24541161baf201709d5f9
> Author: SeongJae Park <sj@kernel.org>
>
> mm/damon/core: merge quota-sliced regions back
>
> This commit merges quota-sliced regions back together to reduce overhead.
> It avoids merging regions if their age is non-zero, meaning no scheme
> action was applied to them.
>
> > diff --git a/mm/damon/core.c b/mm/damon/core.c
> > index 8dbc365bb8e97..97b375c720251 100644
> > --- a/mm/damon/core.c
> > +++ b/mm/damon/core.c
>
> [ ... ]
>
> > +static void damos_apply_target(struct damon_ctx *c, struct damon_target *t)
> > +{
> > + struct damon_region *r, *orig_region = NULL;
> > + unsigned long orig_end_addr;
> > +
> > + damon_for_each_region(r, t) {
> > + /*
> > + * damon_do_apply_schemes() could split the region for the
> > + * quota. Keeping the new slices is an overhead. Merge back
> > + * the slices into the original region if there is no reason to
> > + * keep those.
> > + */
> > + if (!orig_region || orig_end_addr <= r->ar.start) {
> > + orig_region = r;
> > + orig_end_addr = r->ar.end;
> > + }
> > + damon_do_apply_schemes(c, t, r);
> > + if (r == orig_region)
> > + continue;
> > + /*
> > + * If no scheme was applied to the sliced region, the age of
> > + * the slice ain't be reset. Don't merge that back.
> > + * Otherwise, the monitored information of the region is lost.
> > + */
> > + if (r->age) {
> > + orig_region = NULL;
> > + continue;
> > + }
> > + orig_region->ar.end = r->ar.end;
> > + damon_destroy_region(r, t);
> > + r = orig_region;
> > + }
> > +}
>
> Does this logic safely handle cases where orig_region and r have differing
> ages?
>
> If a scheme applies to slice r (resetting r->age to 0), but was skipped
> for orig_region (leaving orig_region->age > 0), the check if (r->age)
> will be false. The slice r will then be merged into orig_region, and
> the reset age of r will be lost because it structurally inherits the
> non-zero age of orig_region.
>
> Could this cause age-based rate-limiting to be bypassed, allowing schemes
> to erroneously apply to the same memory regions repeatedly in subsequent
> intervals?
>
> Additionally, if both orig_region and r have the same non-zero age
> (e.g., both were skipped), if (r->age) evaluates to true, setting
> orig_region = NULL and skipping the merge entirely.
>
> Should the merge condition verify that the contiguous slices share identical
> state before merging, perhaps by checking if (orig_region->age != r->age)?

Good finding. I was thinking the scheme will anyway be applied, once the
quota-split is happened. But I was wrong, since DAMOS core filter is applied
after the split operation. Also, age is not reset if the action is DAMOS_STAT.

I will address this in the next revision, like below.

'''
--- a/mm/damon/core.c
+++ b/mm/damon/core.c
@@ -2439,35 +2439,32 @@ static void damon_do_apply_schemes(struct damon_ctx *c,

static void damos_apply_target(struct damon_ctx *c, struct damon_target *t)
{
- struct damon_region *r, *orig_region = NULL;
- unsigned long orig_end_addr;
+ struct damon_region *r;

damon_for_each_region(r, t) {
+ struct damon_region *prev_r;
+
+ damon_do_apply_schemes(c, t, r);
/*
- * damon_do_apply_schemes() could split the region for the
+ * damon_do_apply_scheems() could split the region for the
* quota. Keeping the new slices is an overhead. Merge back
- * the slices into the original region if there is no reason to
- * keep those.
+ * the slices into the previous region if it doesn't lose any
+ * information.
*/
- if (!orig_region || orig_end_addr <= r->ar.start) {
- orig_region = r;
- orig_end_addr = r->ar.end;
- }
- damon_do_apply_schemes(c, t, r);
- if (r == orig_region)
+ if (damon_first_region(t) == r)
continue;
- /*
- * If no scheme was applied to the sliced region, the age of
- * the slice ain't be reset. Don't merge that back.
- * Otherwise, the monitored information of the region is lost.
- */
- if (r->age) {
- orig_region = NULL;
+ prev_r = damon_prev_region(r);
+ if (prev_r->ar.end != r->ar.start)
continue;
- }
- orig_region->ar.end = r->ar.end;
+ if (prev_r->age != r->age)
+ continue;
+ if (prev_r->last_nr_accesses != r->last_nr_accesses)
+ continue;
+ if (prev_r->nr_accesses != r->nr_accesses)
+ continue;
+ prev_r->ar.end = r->ar.end;
damon_destroy_region(r, t);
- r = orig_region;
+ r = prev_r;
}
}
'''

>
>
> # end of sashiko.dev inline review
> # review url: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260410142034.83798-3-sj@kernel.org

Thanks,
SJ

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