From: "Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)" <kas@kernel.org>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>,
Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>,
Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>, Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>,
Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>,
Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>,
Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Miklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>,
Miaohe Lin <linmiaohe@huawei.com>,
Naoya Horiguchi <nao.horiguchi@gmail.com>,
Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>,
"Liam R . Howlett" <liam@infradead.org>,
Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>,
Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>,
Brendan Jackman <brendan.jackman@linux.dev>,
Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>, Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>,
Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>,
Nico Pache <nico.pache@linux.dev>,
Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>, Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>,
Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>, Lance Yang <lance.yang@linux.dev>,
Usama Arif <usama.arif@linux.dev>,
Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>, Qi Zheng <qi.zheng@linux.dev>,
Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>,
Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com>,
Yuanchu Xie <yuanchu@google.com>, Wei Xu <weixugc@google.com>,
Baoquan He <baoquan.he@linux.dev>,
"Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>, Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>,
Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>,
Ilya Gladyshev <ilya.gladyshev@linux.dev>,
Jaegeuk Kim <jaegeuk@kernel.org>,
linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, fuse-devel@lists.linux.dev,
kernel-team@meta.com, "Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)" <kas@kernel.org>
Subject: [RFC PATCH 01/18] mm: free PG_rcu_free folios only after an RCU grace period
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:48:54 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261019154913.1765974-2-kas@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261019154913.1765974-1-kas@kernel.org>
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Reading a page cache folio without taking a reference would keep CPUs
that read the same file from bouncing its refcount. But without a
reference the folio can be freed, and its memory reused, while the
reader copies from it.
Add PG_rcu_free: the free of a folio with the flag waits for an RCU
grace period. A reader that saw the flag under rcu_read_lock(), and
then still found the folio where it looked, can read it until
rcu_read_unlock(). A split copies the flag, as such a reader may still
be reading the new folios.
The folios wait on per-CPU lists, one grace period in flight per CPU:
call_rcu() per folio would queue a callback for every folio of a
truncated file. A work, which can reschedule, frees each batch.
Reclaim depends on these frees, so the workqueue is WQ_MEM_RECLAIM.
The flag is 64-bit only (CONFIG_PAGE_RCU_FREE): page flags are scarce
on 32-bit, and the contention this avoids is a problem of large
machines.
pgfree_rcu in /proc/vmstat counts the deferred pages. Nothing sets the
flag yet.
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
[kas: rework for flagging at read time, 64-bit only, shorter comments
and changelog]
Signed-off-by: Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta) <kas@kernel.org>
---
include/linux/page-flags.h | 21 +++++++
include/linux/vm_event_item.h | 1 +
include/trace/events/mmflags.h | 7 +++
mm/Kconfig | 12 ++++
mm/huge_memory.c | 1 +
mm/memory-failure.c | 4 ++
mm/page_alloc.c | 105 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
mm/vmstat.c | 1 +
8 files changed, 152 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/linux/page-flags.h b/include/linux/page-flags.h
index 7a863572adce..a1e52a1f8a52 100644
--- a/include/linux/page-flags.h
+++ b/include/linux/page-flags.h
@@ -111,6 +111,9 @@ enum pageflags {
PG_swapbacked, /* Page is backed by RAM/swap */
PG_unevictable, /* Page is "unevictable" */
PG_dropbehind, /* drop pages on IO completion */
+#ifdef CONFIG_PAGE_RCU_FREE
+ PG_rcu_free, /* free only after an RCU grace period */
+#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
PG_mlocked, /* Page is vma mlocked */
#endif
@@ -602,6 +605,24 @@ FOLIO_FLAG(dropbehind, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
FOLIO_TEST_CLEAR_FLAG(dropbehind, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
__FOLIO_SET_FLAG(dropbehind, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
+/*
+ * A lockless lookup that sees PG_rcu_free and then still finds the folio
+ * where it looked may read it until rcu_read_unlock(). Set under a
+ * reference, cleared only by the free. Not for hugetlb or
+ * free_pages_nolock().
+ */
+#ifdef CONFIG_PAGE_RCU_FREE
+FOLIO_TEST_FLAG(rcu_free, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
+ FOLIO_TEST_SET_FLAG(rcu_free, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
+ __FOLIO_CLEAR_FLAG(rcu_free, FOLIO_HEAD_PAGE)
+#define __PG_RCU_FREE (1UL << PG_rcu_free)
+#else
+FOLIO_TEST_FLAG_FALSE(rcu_free)
+ FOLIO_TEST_SET_FLAG_FALSE(rcu_free)
+ __FOLIO_CLEAR_FLAG_NOOP(rcu_free)
+#define __PG_RCU_FREE 0
+#endif
+
#ifdef CONFIG_HIGHMEM
/*
* Must use a macro here due to header dependency issues. page_zone() is not
diff --git a/include/linux/vm_event_item.h b/include/linux/vm_event_item.h
index 2628ccda076a..cbe849701653 100644
--- a/include/linux/vm_event_item.h
+++ b/include/linux/vm_event_item.h
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ enum vm_event_item { PGPGIN, PGPGOUT, PSWPIN, PSWPOUT,
FOR_ALL_ZONES(ALLOCSTALL)
FOR_ALL_ZONES(PGSCAN_SKIP)
PGFREE, PGACTIVATE, PGDEACTIVATE, PGLAZYFREE,
+ PGFREE_RCU,
PGFAULT, PGMAJFAULT,
PGLAZYFREED,
PGREUSE,
diff --git a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
index 935893e5ea53..47c3411a75e8 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
@@ -117,6 +117,12 @@ TRACE_DEFINE_ENUM(___GFP_LAST_BIT);
#define IF_HAVE_PG_IDLE(_name)
#endif
+#ifdef CONFIG_PAGE_RCU_FREE
+#define IF_HAVE_PG_RCU_FREE(_name) ,{1UL << PG_##_name, __stringify(_name)}
+#else
+#define IF_HAVE_PG_RCU_FREE(_name)
+#endif
+
#ifdef CONFIG_ARCH_USES_PG_ARCH_2
#define IF_HAVE_PG_ARCH_2(_name) ,{1UL << PG_##_name, __stringify(_name)}
#else
@@ -152,6 +158,7 @@ TRACE_DEFINE_ENUM(___GFP_LAST_BIT);
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(swapbacked), \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(unevictable), \
DEF_PAGEFLAG_NAME(dropbehind) \
+IF_HAVE_PG_RCU_FREE(rcu_free) \
IF_HAVE_PG_MLOCK(mlocked) \
IF_HAVE_PG_HWPOISON(hwpoison) \
IF_HAVE_PG_IDLE(idle) \
diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index 604c58199acb..5af00db23f90 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -718,6 +718,18 @@ config PCP_BATCH_SCALE_MAX
latency. This option sets the upper limit of scale factor to limit
the maximum latency.
+config PAGE_RCU_FREE
+ def_bool 64BIT
+ help
+ Reads from the page cache can copy from folios that are read
+ again and again without taking a reference on them, so small
+ reads of one file from many CPUs do not contend on the folio's
+ reference count. The cost is that memory freed from such
+ folios becomes reusable only after an RCU grace period.
+
+ 64-bit only: it takes a page flag, and those are scarce on
+ 32-bit.
+
config PHYS_ADDR_T_64BIT
def_bool 64BIT
diff --git a/mm/huge_memory.c b/mm/huge_memory.c
index 1e5d68acf62a..25082949a4ca 100644
--- a/mm/huge_memory.c
+++ b/mm/huge_memory.c
@@ -3743,6 +3743,7 @@ static void __split_folio_to_order(struct folio *folio, int old_order,
#endif
(1L << PG_dirty) |
(1L << PG_dropbehind) |
+ __PG_RCU_FREE |
LRU_GEN_MASK | LRU_REFS_MASK));
new_folio->mapping = folio->mapping;
diff --git a/mm/memory-failure.c b/mm/memory-failure.c
index a8b03e2920ba..7dde7c3c9a0c 100644
--- a/mm/memory-failure.c
+++ b/mm/memory-failure.c
@@ -211,6 +211,10 @@ static bool page_handle_poison(struct page *page, bool hugepage_or_freepage, boo
return false;
}
+ /* The free of a hwpoisoned page is not deferred: wait for readers */
+ if (release && folio_test_rcu_free(page_folio(page)))
+ synchronize_rcu();
+
SetPageHWPoison(page);
if (release)
put_page(page);
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 12fac9084c48..a371e92da273 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -1313,6 +1313,96 @@ static inline void pgalloc_tag_sub_pages(struct alloc_tag *tag, unsigned int nr)
#endif /* CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING */
+/*
+ * Each CPU has at most one grace period in flight (@queued), covering
+ * @batch. Folios freed meanwhile wait on @pending for the next one.
+ */
+struct rcu_free_pcpu {
+ spinlock_t lock;
+ bool queued;
+ struct list_head pending;
+ struct list_head batch;
+ struct rcu_work rwork;
+};
+
+static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct rcu_free_pcpu, rcu_free_pcpu);
+
+static struct workqueue_struct *rcu_free_wq __ro_after_init;
+
+static void rcu_free_start(struct rcu_free_pcpu *r)
+{
+ lockdep_assert_held(&r->lock);
+
+ if (r->queued || list_empty(&r->pending))
+ return;
+
+ list_splice_init(&r->pending, &r->batch);
+ r->queued = true;
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(!queue_rcu_work(rcu_free_wq, &r->rwork));
+}
+
+static void rcu_free_pages(struct list_head *list)
+{
+ struct folio_batch fbatch;
+ struct folio *folio, *next;
+
+ folio_batch_init(&fbatch);
+ list_for_each_entry_safe(folio, next, list, lru) {
+ if (!folio_batch_add(&fbatch, folio)) {
+ free_unref_folios(&fbatch);
+ cond_resched_tasks_rcu_qs();
+ }
+ }
+ if (folio_batch_count(&fbatch))
+ free_unref_folios(&fbatch);
+}
+
+static void rcu_free_workfn(struct work_struct *work)
+{
+ struct rcu_free_pcpu *r = container_of(to_rcu_work(work),
+ struct rcu_free_pcpu, rwork);
+ LIST_HEAD(done);
+
+ spin_lock_irq(&r->lock);
+ list_splice_init(&r->batch, &done);
+ r->queued = false;
+ rcu_free_start(r);
+ spin_unlock_irq(&r->lock);
+
+ rcu_free_pages(&done);
+}
+
+static void rcu_free_defer(struct folio *folio)
+{
+ struct rcu_free_pcpu *r = raw_cpu_ptr(&rcu_free_pcpu);
+ unsigned long flags;
+
+ spin_lock_irqsave(&r->lock, flags);
+ list_add_tail(&folio->lru, &r->pending);
+ rcu_free_start(r);
+ spin_unlock_irqrestore(&r->lock, flags);
+}
+
+static void __init rcu_free_init(void)
+{
+ int cpu;
+
+ if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PAGE_RCU_FREE))
+ return;
+
+ rcu_free_wq = alloc_workqueue("rcu_free",
+ WQ_MEM_RECLAIM | WQ_PERCPU, 0);
+
+ for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
+ struct rcu_free_pcpu *r = per_cpu_ptr(&rcu_free_pcpu, cpu);
+
+ spin_lock_init(&r->lock);
+ INIT_LIST_HEAD(&r->pending);
+ INIT_LIST_HEAD(&r->batch);
+ INIT_RCU_WORK(&r->rwork, rcu_free_workfn);
+ }
+}
+
static __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
{
@@ -1327,6 +1417,19 @@ static __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(PageTail(page), page);
+ /*
+ * Not for a hwpoisoned order-0 page: it never reaches the allocator,
+ * and page_handle_poison() takes a reference right after this free.
+ */
+ if (unlikely(folio_test_rcu_free(folio)) &&
+ !(PageHWPoison(page) && !order)) {
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(fpi_flags & FPI_NOLOCK);
+ __folio_clear_rcu_free(folio);
+ count_vm_events(PGFREE_RCU, 1 << order);
+ rcu_free_defer(folio);
+ return false;
+ }
+
trace_mm_page_free(page, order);
kmsan_free_page(page, order);
@@ -6401,6 +6504,8 @@ void __init setup_per_cpu_pageset(void)
for_each_online_pgdat(pgdat)
pgdat->per_cpu_nodestats =
alloc_percpu(struct per_cpu_nodestat);
+
+ rcu_free_init();
}
__meminit void zone_pcp_init(struct zone *zone)
diff --git a/mm/vmstat.c b/mm/vmstat.c
index cb57714539fb..66ed017bde46 100644
--- a/mm/vmstat.c
+++ b/mm/vmstat.c
@@ -1343,6 +1343,7 @@ const char * const vmstat_text[] = {
[I(PGACTIVATE)] = "pgactivate",
[I(PGDEACTIVATE)] = "pgdeactivate",
[I(PGLAZYFREE)] = "pglazyfree",
+ [I(PGFREE_RCU)] = "pgfree_rcu",
[I(PGFAULT)] = "pgfault",
[I(PGMAJFAULT)] = "pgmajfault",
--
2.54.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-10-19 15:49 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 27+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-19 15:48 [RFC PATCH 00/18] mm: read the page cache without folio references Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:48 ` Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta) [this message]
2026-10-19 15:48 ` [RFC PATCH 02/18] splice: don't steal page cache folios Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:48 ` [RFC PATCH 03/18] fuse: don't move a folio with PG_rcu_free into a fuse file Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:48 ` [RFC PATCH 04/18] mm: count the pages waiting for a grace period Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:48 ` [RFC PATCH 05/18] mm: expedite the grace period when a CPU has many deferred frees Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:48 ` [RFC PATCH 06/18] mm: free the pages waiting for a grace period before OOM Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-20 15:51 ` sashiko-bot
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 07/18] mm: free the pages waiting for a grace period before isolation fails Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-20 15:52 ` sashiko-bot
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 08/18] mm/memory-failure: handle folios with PG_rcu_free Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-20 15:52 ` sashiko-bot
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 09/18] mm: have folio_mark_accessed() return whether the folio is hot Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 10/18] mm/filemap: mark a folio accessed in one place in filemap_read() Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 11/18] mm/filemap: set PG_rcu_free on the folios that reads keep coming back to Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 12/18] mm/filemap: don't defer the free of folios of an inode being evicted Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-20 15:53 ` sashiko-bot
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 13/18] mm/filemap: store the end of a read in f_ra only when it changes Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 14/18] mm/filemap: read from the page cache without folio references Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-20 15:53 ` sashiko-bot
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 15/18] mm/filemap: read large folios " Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-20 15:54 ` sashiko-bot
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 16/18] mm/shmem: count accesses to a folio the way filemap_read() does Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 17/18] mm/shmem: read without folio references Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 15:49 ` [RFC PATCH 18/18] mm/filemap: add a debugfs switch for lockless page cache reads Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-10-19 21:20 ` [RFC PATCH 00/18] mm: read the page cache without folio references Harry Yoo
2026-10-20 17:27 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
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