From: Qinyun Tan <qinyuntan@linux.alibaba.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com>, Qi Zheng <qi.zheng@linux.dev>,
Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>,
Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>,
Xunlei Pang <xlpang@linux.alibaba.com>,
linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Qinyun Tan <qinyuntan@linux.alibaba.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2] mm/list_lru: disable memcg awareness under cgroup_disable=memory
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2026 17:32:02 +0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260902093202.609559-1-qinyuntan@linux.alibaba.com> (raw)
__list_lru_init() only collapses a memcg-aware list_lru into plain
per-node lists when kmem accounting is disabled
(cgroup.memory=nokmem). When the memory controller is disabled
entirely (cgroup_disable=memory), mem_cgroup_kmem_disabled() is
false, so the lru stays memcg aware even though no object will ever
be charged to a memcg.
This is more than a semantic inconsistency.
folio_memcg_list_lru_alloc() trusts list_lru_memcg_aware() and
dereferences the folio's memcg, which is always NULL with the
controller disabled. The only mainline caller,
folio_memcg_alloc_deferred(), papers over this with an explicit
mem_cgroup_disabled() check. The shmem unused-huge shrinker
conversion ("mm: shmem: make unused huge shrinker memcg aware") adds
a second caller without such a guard, so booting with
cgroup_disable=memory and writing to a huge=always tmpfs oopses:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000000000488
RIP: 0010:folio_memcg_list_lru_alloc+0x41/0xf0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
shmem_get_folio_gfp+0x1cd/0x7c0
shmem_write_begin+0x5d/0x100
generic_perform_write+0x89/0x2a0
shmem_file_write_iter+0x82/0x90
vfs_write+0x256/0x410
ksys_write+0x61/0xe0
do_syscall_64+0x8d/0x460
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
The faulting address is the offset of mem_cgroup->kmemcg_id,
dereferenced on a NULL memcg in memcg_list_lru_allocated():
folio_memcg_list_lru_alloc()
list_lru_memcg_aware() <- true, only nokmem checked
memcg = folio_memcg(folio) <- NULL
memcg_list_lru_allocated(memcg, lru)
memcg->kmemcg_id <- NULL pointer dereference
Check mem_cgroup_disabled() in __list_lru_init() so that all
list_lrus fall back to plain per-node lists when the controller is
disabled, matching what the shrinker side already does
(shrinker_memcg_alloc() bails out on mem_cgroup_disabled()). This
makes the mem_cgroup_disabled() check in callers unnecessary rather
than mandatory.
Signed-off-by: Qinyun Tan <qinyuntan@linux.alibaba.com>
Reviewed-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
---
v2:
- Drop the comment above the check; the code explains itself (Baolin)
- Collect Baolin's Reviewed-by
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260902032840.30250-1-qinyuntan@linux.alibaba.com/
Applies on top of mm-new. No Fixes: tag since the commit that makes
the crash reachable ("mm: shmem: make unused huge shrinker memcg
aware") is only in mm-new; no stable backport is needed either.
Reproducer, on mm-new booted with cgroup_disable=memory
(CONFIG_MEMCG=y, CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE=y):
# mount -t tmpfs -o huge=always tmpfs /mnt
# echo x > /mnt/f
Discussion: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260901115104.2944996-1-qinyuntan@linux.alibaba.com/
mm/list_lru.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/mm/list_lru.c b/mm/list_lru.c
index 36662d02ff963..a4522ca93ebcb 100644
--- a/mm/list_lru.c
+++ b/mm/list_lru.c
@@ -671,7 +671,7 @@ int __list_lru_init(struct list_lru *lru, bool memcg_aware, struct shrinker *shr
else
lru->shrinker_id = -1;
- if (mem_cgroup_kmem_disabled())
+ if (mem_cgroup_disabled() || mem_cgroup_kmem_disabled())
memcg_aware = false;
#endif
--
2.43.7
reply other threads:[~2026-09-02 9:32 UTC|newest]
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