Re: [PATCH v3 3/3] mm/page_alloc: Optimize __free_contig_frozen_range()

[Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>]

On 24 Mar 2026, at 9:35, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:

> Apply the same batch-freeing optimization from free_contig_range() to the
> frozen page path. The previous __free_contig_frozen_range() freed each
> order-0 page individually via free_frozen_pages(), which is slow for the
> same reason the old free_contig_range() was: each page goes to the
> order-0 pcp list rather than being coalesced into higher-order blocks.
>
> Rewrite __free_contig_frozen_range() to call free_pages_prepare() for
> each order-0 page, then batch the prepared pages into the largest
> possible power-of-2 aligned chunks via free_prepared_contig_range().
> If free_pages_prepare() fails (e.g. HWPoison, bad page) the page is
> deliberately not freed; it should not be returned to the allocator.
>
> I've tested CMA through debugfs. The test allocates 16384 pages per
> allocation for several iterations. There is 3.5x improvement.
>
> Before: 1406 usec per iteration
> After:   402 usec per iteration
>
> Before:
>
>     70.89%     0.69%  cma              [kernel.kallsyms]      [.] free_contig_frozen_range
>             |
>             |--70.20%--free_contig_frozen_range
>             |          |
>             |          |--46.41%--__free_frozen_pages
>             |          |          |
>             |          |           --36.18%--free_frozen_page_commit
>             |          |                     |
>             |          |                      --29.63%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
>             |          |
>             |          |--8.76%--_raw_spin_trylock
>             |          |
>             |          |--7.03%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
>             |          |
>             |          |--4.57%--_raw_spin_unlock
>             |          |
>             |          |--1.96%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
>             |          |
>             |           --1.15%--free_frozen_page_commit
>             |
>              --0.69%--el0t_64_sync
>
> After:
>
>     23.57%     0.00%  cma              [kernel.kallsyms]      [.] free_contig_frozen_range
>             |
>             ---free_contig_frozen_range
>                |
>                |--20.45%--__free_contig_frozen_range
>                |          |
>                |          |--17.77%--free_pages_prepare
>                |          |
>                |           --0.72%--free_prepared_contig_range
>                |                     |
>                |                      --0.55%--__free_frozen_pages
>                |
>                 --3.12%--free_pages_prepare
>
> Suggested-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
> ---
> Changes since v2:
> - Rework the loop to check for memory sections just like __free_contig_range()
> - Didn't add reviewed-by tags because of rework
> ---
>  mm/page_alloc.c | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>  1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 250cc07e547b8..26eac35ef73bd 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -7038,8 +7038,30 @@ static int __alloc_contig_verify_gfp_mask(gfp_t gfp_mask, gfp_t *gfp_cc_mask)
>
>  static void __free_contig_frozen_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages)
>  {
> -	for (; nr_pages--; pfn++)
> -		free_frozen_pages(pfn_to_page(pfn), 0);
> +	struct page *page = pfn_to_page(pfn);
> +	struct page *start = NULL;
> +	unsigned long start_sec;
> +	unsigned long i;
> +
> +	for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++, page++) {
> +		if (!free_pages_prepare(page, 0)) {
> +			if (start) {
> +				free_prepared_contig_range(start, page - start);
> +				start = NULL;
> +			}
> +		} else if (start &&
> +			   memdesc_section(page->flags) != start_sec) {
> +			free_prepared_contig_range(start, page - start);
> +			start = page;
> +			start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
> +		} else if (!start) {
> +			start = page;
> +			start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
> +		}
> +	}
> +
> +	if (start)
> +		free_prepared_contig_range(start, page - start);
>  }

This looks almost the same as __free_contig_range().

Two approaches to deduplicate the code:

1. __free_contig_range() first does put_page_testzero()
on all pages and call __free_contig_frozen_range()
on the range, __free_contig_frozen_range() will need
to skip not frozen pages. It is not ideal.

2. add a helper function
__free_contig_range_common(unsigned long pfn,
unsigned long nr_pages, bool is_page_frozen),
and
a. call __free_contig_range_common(..., /*is_page_frozen=*/ false)
in __free_contig_range(),
b. __free_contig_range_common(..., /*is_page_frozen=*/ true)
in __free_contig_frozen_range().

But I would like to hear others’ opinions.



Best Regards,
Yan, Zi