[PATCH v3 2/4] mm: use tiered folio allocation for VM_EXEC readahead

Usama Arif
2026-04-02T18:13:57Z

When executable pages are faulted via do_sync_mmap_readahead(), request
a folio order that enables the best hardware TLB coalescing available:

- If the VMA is large enough to contain a full PMD, request
HPAGE_PMD_ORDER so the folio can be PMD-mapped. This benefits
architectures where PMD_SIZE is reasonable (e.g. 2M on x86-64
and arm64 with 4K pages). VM_EXEC VMAs are very unlikely to be
large enough for 512M pages on ARM to take into affect.

- Otherwise, fall back to exec_folio_order(), which returns the
minimum order for hardware PTE coalescing for arm64:
- arm64 4K: order 4 (64K) for contpte (16 PTEs → 1 iTLB entry)
- arm64 16K: order 2 (64K) for HPA (4 pages → 1 TLB entry)
- arm64 64K: order 5 (2M) for contpte (32 PTEs → 1 iTLB entry)
- generic: order 0 (no coalescing)

Update the arm64 exec_folio_order() to return ilog2(SZ_2M >>
PAGE_SHIFT) on 64K page configurations, where the previous SZ_64K
value collapsed to order 0 (a single page) and provided no coalescing
benefit.

Use ~__GFP_RECLAIM so the allocation is opportunistic: if a large
folio is readily available, use it, otherwise fall back to smaller
folios without stalling on reclaim or compaction. The existing fallback
in page_cache_ra_order() handles this naturally.

The readahead window is already clamped to the VMA boundaries, so
ra->size naturally caps the folio order via ilog2(ra->size) in
page_cache_ra_order().

Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usama.arif@linux.dev>
---
arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h | 16 +++++++++----
mm/filemap.c | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++---------
mm/internal.h | 3 ++-
mm/readahead.c | 7 +++---
4 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
index 52bafe79c10a..9ce9f73a6f35 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
@@ -1591,12 +1591,18 @@ static inline void update_mmu_cache_range(struct vm_fault *vmf,
#define arch_wants_old_prefaulted_pte cpu_has_hw_af

/*
- * Request exec memory is read into pagecache in at least 64K folios. This size
- * can be contpte-mapped when 4K base pages are in use (16 pages into 1 iTLB
- * entry), and HPA can coalesce it (4 pages into 1 TLB entry) when 16K base
- * pages are in use.
+ * Request exec memory is read into pagecache in folios large enough for
+ * hardware TLB coalescing. On 4K and 16K page configs this is 64K, which
+ * enables contpte mapping (16 × 4K) and HPA coalescing (4 × 16K). On
+ * 64K page configs, contpte requires 2M (32 × 64K).
*/
-#define exec_folio_order() ilog2(SZ_64K >> PAGE_SHIFT)
+#define exec_folio_order exec_folio_order
+static inline unsigned int exec_folio_order(void)
+{
+ if (PAGE_SIZE == SZ_64K)
+ return ilog2(SZ_2M >> PAGE_SHIFT);
+ return ilog2(SZ_64K >> PAGE_SHIFT);
+}

static inline bool pud_sect_supported(void)
{
diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index a4ea869b2ca1..7ffea986b3b4 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -3311,6 +3311,7 @@ static struct file *do_sync_mmap_readahead(struct vm_fault *vmf)
DEFINE_READAHEAD(ractl, file, ra, mapping, vmf->pgoff);
struct file *fpin = NULL;
vm_flags_t vm_flags = vmf->vma->vm_flags;
+ gfp_t gfp = readahead_gfp_mask(mapping);
bool force_thp_readahead = false;
unsigned short mmap_miss;

@@ -3363,28 +3364,45 @@ static struct file *do_sync_mmap_readahead(struct vm_fault *vmf)
ra->size *= 2;
ra->async_size = HPAGE_PMD_NR;
ra->order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
- page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra);
+ page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra, gfp);
return fpin;
}

if (vm_flags & VM_EXEC) {
/*
- * Allow arch to request a preferred minimum folio order for
- * executable memory. This can often be beneficial to
- * performance if (e.g.) arm64 can contpte-map the folio.
- * Executable memory rarely benefits from readahead, due to its
- * random access nature, so set async_size to 0.
+ * Request large folios for executable memory to enable
+ * hardware PTE coalescing and PMD mappings:
*
- * Limit to the boundaries of the VMA to avoid reading in any
- * pad that might exist between sections, which would be a waste
- * of memory.
+ * - If the VMA is large enough for a PMD, request
+ * HPAGE_PMD_ORDER so the folio can be PMD-mapped.
+ * - Otherwise, use exec_folio_order() which returns
+ * the minimum order for hardware TLB coalescing
+ * (e.g. arm64 contpte/HPA).
+ *
+ * Use ~__GFP_RECLAIM so large folio allocation is
+ * opportunistic — if memory isn't readily available,
+ * fall back to smaller folios rather than stalling on
+ * reclaim or compaction.
+ *
+ * Executable memory rarely benefits from speculative
+ * readahead due to its random access nature, so set
+ * async_size to 0.
+ *
+ * Limit to the boundaries of the VMA to avoid reading
+ * in any pad that might exist between sections, which
+ * would be a waste of memory.
*/
+ gfp &= ~__GFP_RECLAIM;
struct vm_area_struct *vma = vmf->vma;
unsigned long start = vma->vm_pgoff;
unsigned long end = start + vma_pages(vma);
unsigned long ra_end;

- ra->order = exec_folio_order();
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE) &&
+ vma_pages(vma) >= HPAGE_PMD_NR)
+ ra->order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
+ else
+ ra->order = exec_folio_order();
ra->start = round_down(vmf->pgoff, 1UL << ra->order);
ra->start = max(ra->start, start);
ra_end = round_up(ra->start + ra->ra_pages, 1UL << ra->order);
@@ -3403,7 +3421,7 @@ static struct file *do_sync_mmap_readahead(struct vm_fault *vmf)

fpin = maybe_unlock_mmap_for_io(vmf, fpin);
ractl._index = ra->start;
- page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra);
+ page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra, gfp);
return fpin;
}

diff --git a/mm/internal.h b/mm/internal.h
index 475bd281a10d..e624cb619057 100644
--- a/mm/internal.h
+++ b/mm/internal.h
@@ -545,7 +545,8 @@ int zap_vma_for_reaping(struct vm_area_struct *vma);
int folio_unmap_invalidate(struct address_space *mapping, struct folio *folio,
gfp_t gfp);

-void page_cache_ra_order(struct readahead_control *, struct file_ra_state *);
+void page_cache_ra_order(struct readahead_control *, struct file_ra_state *,
+ gfp_t gfp);
void force_page_cache_ra(struct readahead_control *, unsigned long nr);
static inline void force_page_cache_readahead(struct address_space *mapping,
struct file *file, pgoff_t index, unsigned long nr_to_read)
diff --git a/mm/readahead.c b/mm/readahead.c
index 7b05082c89ea..b3dc08cf180c 100644
--- a/mm/readahead.c
+++ b/mm/readahead.c
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@ static inline int ra_alloc_folio(struct readahead_control *ractl, pgoff_t index,
}

void page_cache_ra_order(struct readahead_control *ractl,
- struct file_ra_state *ra)
+ struct file_ra_state *ra, gfp_t gfp)
{
struct address_space *mapping = ractl->mapping;
pgoff_t start = readahead_index(ractl);
@@ -475,7 +475,6 @@ void page_cache_ra_order(struct readahead_control *ractl,
pgoff_t mark = index + ra->size - ra->async_size;
unsigned int nofs;
int err = 0;
- gfp_t gfp = readahead_gfp_mask(mapping);
unsigned int new_order = ra->order;

trace_page_cache_ra_order(mapping->host, start, ra);
@@ -626,7 +625,7 @@ void page_cache_sync_ra(struct readahead_control *ractl,
readit:
ra->order = 0;
ractl->_index = ra->start;
- page_cache_ra_order(ractl, ra);
+ page_cache_ra_order(ractl, ra, readahead_gfp_mask(ractl->mapping));
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(page_cache_sync_ra);

@@ -697,7 +696,7 @@ void page_cache_async_ra(struct readahead_control *ractl,
ra->size -= end - aligned_end;
ra->async_size = ra->size;
ractl->_index = ra->start;
- page_cache_ra_order(ractl, ra);
+ page_cache_ra_order(ractl, ra, readahead_gfp_mask(ractl->mapping));
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(page_cache_async_ra);

--
2.52.0