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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



             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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