From: Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>
To: linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, kernel-team@meta.com,
akpm@linux-foundation.org, liam@infradead.org, ljs@kernel.org,
david@kernel.org, vbabka@kernel.org, jannh@google.com,
sashiko-bot <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>,
stable@vger.kernel.org,
"Gregory Price (Meta)" <gourry@gourry.net>
Subject: [RESEND PATCH] mm/madvise: use folio_trylock() in the cold/pageout PMD split
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2026 07:05:40 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260912110540.3203010-1-gourry@gourry.net> (raw)
MADV_COLD or MADV_PAGEOUT over part of a PMD splits the THP in
madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(). Two threads doing that to
the same THP create spurious failures.
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
folio_get()
spin_unlock(ptl)
folio_lock()
folio_get()
spin_unlock(ptl)
folio_lock() <- blocks, keeps its ref
split_folio()
folio_expected_ref_count(folio) != folio_ref_count(folio) - 1
-EAGAIN
CPU1 cannot drop its reference until it gets the lock CPU0 holds, so CPU0's
split always fails. folio_trylock() makes CPU1 leave without ever taking a
reference. The PTE branch of this same function already does this, as do
madvise_free_pte_range() and madvise_free_huge_pmd().
Reproducer: 400 rounds of eight threads calling MADV_COLD on half of each
of eight THPs, re-formed with MADV_COLLAPSE between rounds. From
/proc/vmstat:
thp_split_page thp_split_page_failed
before 3186 860
after 3200 0
The short before count is rounds where every thread failed and the
advice was dropped for that THP entirely.
On failure the walker returns 0 and nothing retries. The PMD path becomes
best effort when the folio lock is held elsewhere - same as the PTE path.
Reported-by: sashiko-bot <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Closes: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260817220810.1175596-1-gourry%40gourry.net
Assisted-by: LLM
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Gregory Price (Meta) <gourry@gourry.net>
Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
---
mm/madvise.c | 3 ++-
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c
index f75a9d139980..ae3d7127d87c 100644
--- a/mm/madvise.c
+++ b/mm/madvise.c
@@ -419,9 +419,10 @@ static int madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(pmd_t *pmd,
if (next - addr != HPAGE_PMD_SIZE) {
int err;
+ if (!folio_trylock(folio))
+ goto huge_unlock;
folio_get(folio);
spin_unlock(ptl);
- folio_lock(folio);
err = split_folio(folio);
folio_unlock(folio);
folio_put(folio);
--
2.55.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-09-12 11:05 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-09-12 11:05 Gregory Price [this message]
2026-09-16 1:46 ` [RESEND PATCH] mm/madvise: use folio_trylock() in the cold/pageout PMD split Andrew Morton
2026-09-16 3:27 ` Gregory Price
2026-09-16 6:25 ` David Hildenbrand (Arm)
2026-09-16 13:05 ` Gregory Price
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