Re: [PATCH v2 1/5] mm: Introduce zone_appears_fragmented()

David Hildenbrand (Arm)
2026-04-23T10:27:45Z

On 4/23/26 07:56, Matthew Brost wrote:
> Introduce zone_appears_fragmented() as a lightweight helper to allow
> subsystems to make coarse decisions about reclaim behavior in the
> presence of likely fragmentation.
>
> The helper implements a simple heuristic: if the number of free pages
> in a zone exceeds twice the high watermark, the zone is considered to
> have ample free memory and allocation failures are more likely due to
> fragmentation than overall memory pressure.
>
> This is intentionally imprecise and is not meant to replace the core
> MM compaction or fragmentation accounting logic. Instead, it provides
> a cheap signal for callers (e.g., shrinkers) that wish to avoid
> overly aggressive reclaim when sufficient free memory exists but
> high-order allocations may still fail.
>
> No functional changes; this is a preparatory helper for future users.
>
> Cc: Thomas Hellström <thomas.hellstrom@linux.intel.com>
> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
> Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>
> Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>
> Cc: "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>
> Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
> Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
> Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
> Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
> Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@intel.com>
> ---
> include/linux/vmstat.h | 13 +++++++++++++
> 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/include/linux/vmstat.h b/include/linux/vmstat.h
> index 3c9c266cf782..568d9f4f1a1f 100644
> --- a/include/linux/vmstat.h
> +++ b/include/linux/vmstat.h
> @@ -483,6 +483,19 @@ static inline const char *zone_stat_name(enum zone_stat_item item)
> return vmstat_text[item];
> }
>
> +static inline bool zone_appears_fragmented(struct zone *zone)
> +{

"zone_likely_fragmented" or "zone_maybe_fragmented" might be clearer, depending
on the actual semantics.

> + /*
> + * Simple heuristic: if the number of free pages is more than twice the
> + * high watermark, this strongly suggests that the zone is heavily
> + * fragmented when called from a shrinker.
> + */

I'll cc some more people. But the "when called from a shrinker" bit is
concerning. Are there additional semantics that should be expressed in the
function name, for example?

Something that implies that this function only gives you a reasonable answer in
a certain context.

--
Cheers,

David