[PATCH v4 0/3] introduce kernel file mapped folios

[PATCH v4 0/3] introduce kernel file mapped folios

[Boris Burkov]

I would like to revisit Qu's proposal to not charge btrfs extent_buffer
allocations to the user's cgroup.

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/b5fef5372ae454a7b6da4f2f75c427aeab6a07d6.1727498749.git.wqu@suse.com/

I believe it is detrimental to account these global pages to the cgroup
using them, basically at random. A bit more justification and explanation
in the patches themselves.

---
Changelog:
v4:
- change the concept from "uncharged" to "kernel_file"
- no longer violates the invariant that each mapped folio has a memcg
  when CONFIG_MEMCG=y
- no longer really tied to memcg conceptually, so simplify build/helpers
v3:
- use mod_node_page_state since we will never count cgroup stats
- include Shakeel's patch that removes a WARNING triggered by this series
v2:
- switch from filemap_add_folio_nocharge() to AS_UNCHARGED on the
  address_space.
- fix an interrupt safety bug in the vmstat patch.
- fix some foolish build errors for CONFIG_MEMCG=n



Boris Burkov (3):
  mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE
  mm: add vmstat for kernel_file pages
  btrfs: set AS_KERNEL_FILE on the btree_inode

 fs/btrfs/disk-io.c      |  1 +
 include/linux/mmzone.h  |  1 +
 include/linux/pagemap.h |  2 ++
 mm/filemap.c            | 13 +++++++++++++
 mm/vmstat.c             |  1 +
 5 files changed, 18 insertions(+)

-- 
2.50.1

[PATCH v4 1/3] mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE

[Boris Burkov]

Btrfs currently tracks its metadata pages in the page cache, using a
fake inode (fs_info->btree_inode) with offsets corresponding to where
the metadata is stored in the filesystem's full logical address space.

A consequence of this is that when btrfs uses filemap_add_folio(), this
usage is charged to the cgroup of whichever task happens to be running
at the time. These folios don't belong to any particular user cgroup, so
I don't think it makes much sense for them to be charged in that way.
Some negative consequences as a result:
- A task can be holding some important btrfs locks, then need to lookup
  some metadata and go into reclaim, extending the duration it holds
  that lock for, and unfairly pushing its own reclaim pain onto other
  cgroups.
- If that cgroup goes into reclaim, it might reclaim these folios a
  different non-reclaiming cgroup might need soon. This is naturally
  offset by LRU reclaim, but still.

We have two options for how to manage such file pages:
1. charge them to the root cgroup.
2. don't charge them to any cgroup at all.

2. breaks the invariant that every mapped page has a cgroup. This is
workable, but unnecessarily risky. Therefore, go with 1.

A very similar proposal to use the root cgroup was previously made by
Qu, where he eventually proposed the idea of setting it per
address_space. This makes good sense for the btrfs use case, as the
behavior should apply to all use of the address_space, not select
allocations. I.e., if someone adds another filemap_add_folio() call
using btrfs's btree_inode, we would almost certainly want to account
that to the root cgroup as well.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/b5fef5372ae454a7b6da4f2f75c427aeab6a07d6.1727498749.git.wqu@suse.com/
Suggested-by: Qu Wenruo <wqu@suse.com>
Suggested-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Tested-by: syzbot@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>
---
 include/linux/pagemap.h | 2 ++
 mm/filemap.c            | 6 ++++++
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/pagemap.h b/include/linux/pagemap.h
index c9ba69e02e3e..a3e16d74792f 100644
--- a/include/linux/pagemap.h
+++ b/include/linux/pagemap.h
@@ -211,6 +211,8 @@ enum mapping_flags {
 				   folio contents */
 	AS_INACCESSIBLE = 8,	/* Do not attempt direct R/W access to the mapping */
 	AS_WRITEBACK_MAY_DEADLOCK_ON_RECLAIM = 9,
+	AS_KERNEL_FILE = 10,	/* mapping for a fake kernel file that shouldn't
+				   account usage to user cgroups */
 	/* Bits 16-25 are used for FOLIO_ORDER */
 	AS_FOLIO_ORDER_BITS = 5,
 	AS_FOLIO_ORDER_MIN = 16,
diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index e4a5a46db89b..05c1384bd611 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -960,8 +960,14 @@ int filemap_add_folio(struct address_space *mapping, struct folio *folio,
 {
 	void *shadow = NULL;
 	int ret;
+	struct mem_cgroup *tmp;
+	bool kernel_file = test_bit(AS_KERNEL_FILE, &mapping->flags);
 
+	if (kernel_file)
+		tmp = set_active_memcg(root_mem_cgroup);
 	ret = mem_cgroup_charge(folio, NULL, gfp);
+	if (kernel_file)
+		set_active_memcg(tmp);
 	if (ret)
 		return ret;
 
-- 
2.50.1

[PATCH v4 2/3] mm: add vmstat for kernel_file pages

[Boris Burkov]

Kernel file pages are tricky to track because they are indistinguishable
from files whose usage is accounted to the root cgroup.

To maintain good accounting, introduce a vmstat counter tracking kernel
file pages.

Confirmed that these work as expected at a high level by mounting a
btrfs using AS_KERNEL_FILE for metadata pages, and seeing the counter
rise with fs usage then go back to a minimal level after drop_caches and
finally down to 0 after unmounting the fs.

Suggested-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Acked-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Tested-by: syzbot@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>
---
 include/linux/mmzone.h | 1 +
 mm/filemap.c           | 7 +++++++
 mm/vmstat.c            | 1 +
 3 files changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
index fe13ad175fed..f3272ef5131b 100644
--- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
+++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
@@ -259,6 +259,7 @@ enum node_stat_item {
 	NR_HUGETLB,
 #endif
 	NR_BALLOON_PAGES,
+	NR_KERNEL_FILE_PAGES,
 	NR_VM_NODE_STAT_ITEMS
 };
 
diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index 05c1384bd611..344ab106c21c 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -190,6 +190,9 @@ static void filemap_unaccount_folio(struct address_space *mapping,
 		__lruvec_stat_mod_folio(folio, NR_FILE_THPS, -nr);
 		filemap_nr_thps_dec(mapping);
 	}
+	if (test_bit(AS_KERNEL_FILE, &folio->mapping->flags))
+		mod_node_page_state(folio_pgdat(folio),
+				    NR_KERNEL_FILE_PAGES, -nr);
 
 	/*
 	 * At this point folio must be either written or cleaned by
@@ -989,6 +992,10 @@ int filemap_add_folio(struct address_space *mapping, struct folio *folio,
 		if (!(gfp & __GFP_WRITE) && shadow)
 			workingset_refault(folio, shadow);
 		folio_add_lru(folio);
+		if (kernel_file)
+			mod_node_page_state(folio_pgdat(folio),
+					    NR_KERNEL_FILE_PAGES,
+					    folio_nr_pages(folio));
 	}
 	return ret;
 }
diff --git a/mm/vmstat.c b/mm/vmstat.c
index e74f0b2a1021..e522decf6a72 100644
--- a/mm/vmstat.c
+++ b/mm/vmstat.c
@@ -1290,6 +1290,7 @@ const char * const vmstat_text[] = {
 	[I(NR_HUGETLB)]				= "nr_hugetlb",
 #endif
 	[I(NR_BALLOON_PAGES)]			= "nr_balloon_pages",
+	[I(NR_KERNEL_FILE_PAGES)]		= "nr_kernel_file_pages",
 #undef I
 
 	/* system-wide enum vm_stat_item counters */
-- 
2.50.1

[PATCH v4 3/3] btrfs: set AS_KERNEL_FILE on the btree_inode

[Boris Burkov]

extent_buffers are global and shared so their pages should not belong to
any particular cgroup (currently whichever cgroups happens to allocate
the extent_buffer).

Btrfs tree operations should not arbitrarily block on cgroup reclaim or
have the shared extent_buffer pages on a cgroup's reclaim lists.

Acked-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Tested-by: syzbot@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>
---
 fs/btrfs/disk-io.c | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
index 70fc4e7cc5a0..7fab5057cf8e 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
@@ -1930,6 +1930,7 @@ static int btrfs_init_btree_inode(struct super_block *sb)
 	BTRFS_I(inode)->root = btrfs_grab_root(fs_info->tree_root);
 	set_bit(BTRFS_INODE_DUMMY, &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags);
 	__insert_inode_hash(inode, hash);
+	set_bit(AS_KERNEL_FILE, &inode->i_mapping->flags);
 	fs_info->btree_inode = inode;
 
 	return 0;
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH v4 1/3] mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE

[Shakeel Butt]

On Thu, Aug 21, 2025 at 02:55:35PM -0700, Boris Burkov wrote:
> Btrfs currently tracks its metadata pages in the page cache, using a
> fake inode (fs_info->btree_inode) with offsets corresponding to where
> the metadata is stored in the filesystem's full logical address space.
> 
> A consequence of this is that when btrfs uses filemap_add_folio(), this
> usage is charged to the cgroup of whichever task happens to be running
> at the time. These folios don't belong to any particular user cgroup, so
> I don't think it makes much sense for them to be charged in that way.
> Some negative consequences as a result:
> - A task can be holding some important btrfs locks, then need to lookup
>   some metadata and go into reclaim, extending the duration it holds
>   that lock for, and unfairly pushing its own reclaim pain onto other
>   cgroups.
> - If that cgroup goes into reclaim, it might reclaim these folios a
>   different non-reclaiming cgroup might need soon. This is naturally
>   offset by LRU reclaim, but still.
> 
> We have two options for how to manage such file pages:
> 1. charge them to the root cgroup.
> 2. don't charge them to any cgroup at all.
> 
> 2. breaks the invariant that every mapped page has a cgroup. This is
> workable, but unnecessarily risky. Therefore, go with 1.
> 
> A very similar proposal to use the root cgroup was previously made by
> Qu, where he eventually proposed the idea of setting it per
> address_space. This makes good sense for the btrfs use case, as the
> behavior should apply to all use of the address_space, not select
> allocations. I.e., if someone adds another filemap_add_folio() call
> using btrfs's btree_inode, we would almost certainly want to account
> that to the root cgroup as well.
> 
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/b5fef5372ae454a7b6da4f2f75c427aeab6a07d6.1727498749.git.wqu@suse.com/
> Suggested-by: Qu Wenruo <wqu@suse.com>
> Suggested-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
> Tested-by: syzbot@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
> Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>

Acked-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>

[PATCH] mm: fix CONFIG_MEMCG build for AS_KERNEL_FILE

[Boris Burkov]

this needs to be folded into

mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE

for it to build with CONFIG_MEMCG unset. Apologies for the churn.

Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>
---
 include/linux/memcontrol.h | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/memcontrol.h b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
index 9fa3afc90dd5..e693978b2022 100644
--- a/include/linux/memcontrol.h
+++ b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
@@ -1059,6 +1059,8 @@ extern int mem_cgroup_init(void);
 
 #define MEM_CGROUP_ID_SHIFT	0
 
+#define root_mem_cgroup		(NULL)
+
 static inline struct mem_cgroup *folio_memcg(struct folio *folio)
 {
 	return NULL;
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH v4 1/3] mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE

[kernel test robot]

Hi Boris,

kernel test robot noticed the following build errors:

[auto build test ERROR on akpm-mm/mm-everything]
[also build test ERROR on kdave/for-next linus/master v6.17-rc2 next-20250822]
[If your patch is applied to the wrong git tree, kindly drop us a note.
And when submitting patch, we suggest to use '--base' as documented in
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-format-patch#_base_tree_information]

url:    https://github.com/intel-lab-lkp/linux/commits/Boris-Burkov/mm-filemap-add-AS_KERNEL_FILE/20250822-055741
base:   https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm.git mm-everything
patch link:    https://lore.kernel.org/r/f09c4e2c90351d4cb30a1969f7a863b9238bd291.1755812945.git.boris%40bur.io
patch subject: [PATCH v4 1/3] mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE
config: x86_64-buildonly-randconfig-006-20250822 (https://download.01.org/0day-ci/archive/20250822/202508222105.tg88NxnV-lkp@intel.com/config)
compiler: gcc-12 (Debian 12.2.0-14+deb12u1) 12.2.0
reproduce (this is a W=1 build): (https://download.01.org/0day-ci/archive/20250822/202508222105.tg88NxnV-lkp@intel.com/reproduce)

If you fix the issue in a separate patch/commit (i.e. not just a new version of
the same patch/commit), kindly add following tags
| Reported-by: kernel test robot <lkp@intel.com>
| Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/oe-kbuild-all/202508222105.tg88NxnV-lkp@intel.com/

All errors (new ones prefixed by >>):

   mm/filemap.c: In function 'filemap_add_folio':
>> mm/filemap.c:967:40: error: 'root_mem_cgroup' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'parent_mem_cgroup'?
     967 |                 tmp = set_active_memcg(root_mem_cgroup);
         |                                        ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         |                                        parent_mem_cgroup
   mm/filemap.c:967:40: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in


vim +967 mm/filemap.c

   957	
   958	int filemap_add_folio(struct address_space *mapping, struct folio *folio,
   959					pgoff_t index, gfp_t gfp)
   960	{
   961		void *shadow = NULL;
   962		int ret;
   963		struct mem_cgroup *tmp;
   964		bool kernel_file = test_bit(AS_KERNEL_FILE, &mapping->flags);
   965	
   966		if (kernel_file)
 > 967			tmp = set_active_memcg(root_mem_cgroup);
   968		ret = mem_cgroup_charge(folio, NULL, gfp);
   969		if (kernel_file)
   970			set_active_memcg(tmp);
   971		if (ret)
   972			return ret;
   973	
   974		__folio_set_locked(folio);
   975		ret = __filemap_add_folio(mapping, folio, index, gfp, &shadow);
   976		if (unlikely(ret)) {
   977			mem_cgroup_uncharge(folio);
   978			__folio_clear_locked(folio);
   979		} else {
   980			/*
   981			 * The folio might have been evicted from cache only
   982			 * recently, in which case it should be activated like
   983			 * any other repeatedly accessed folio.
   984			 * The exception is folios getting rewritten; evicting other
   985			 * data from the working set, only to cache data that will
   986			 * get overwritten with something else, is a waste of memory.
   987			 */
   988			WARN_ON_ONCE(folio_test_active(folio));
   989			if (!(gfp & __GFP_WRITE) && shadow)
   990				workingset_refault(folio, shadow);
   991			folio_add_lru(folio);
   992		}
   993		return ret;
   994	}
   995	EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(filemap_add_folio);
   996	

-- 
0-DAY CI Kernel Test Service
https://github.com/intel/lkp-tests/wiki

Re: [PATCH v4 0/3] introduce kernel file mapped folios

[Shakeel Butt]

Hi Andrew, can you please pick this series up (replacing the "introduce
uncharged file mapped folios" series)? I think it is ready for wider
testing.

thanks,
Shakeel


On Thu, Aug 21, 2025 at 02:55:34PM -0700, Boris Burkov wrote:
> I would like to revisit Qu's proposal to not charge btrfs extent_buffer
> allocations to the user's cgroup.
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/b5fef5372ae454a7b6da4f2f75c427aeab6a07d6.1727498749.git.wqu@suse.com/
> 
> I believe it is detrimental to account these global pages to the cgroup
> using them, basically at random. A bit more justification and explanation
> in the patches themselves.
> 
> ---
> Changelog:
> v4:
> - change the concept from "uncharged" to "kernel_file"
> - no longer violates the invariant that each mapped folio has a memcg
>   when CONFIG_MEMCG=y
> - no longer really tied to memcg conceptually, so simplify build/helpers
> v3:
> - use mod_node_page_state since we will never count cgroup stats
> - include Shakeel's patch that removes a WARNING triggered by this series
> v2:
> - switch from filemap_add_folio_nocharge() to AS_UNCHARGED on the
>   address_space.
> - fix an interrupt safety bug in the vmstat patch.
> - fix some foolish build errors for CONFIG_MEMCG=n
> 
> 
> 
> Boris Burkov (3):
>   mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE
>   mm: add vmstat for kernel_file pages
>   btrfs: set AS_KERNEL_FILE on the btree_inode
> 
>  fs/btrfs/disk-io.c      |  1 +
>  include/linux/mmzone.h  |  1 +
>  include/linux/pagemap.h |  2 ++
>  mm/filemap.c            | 13 +++++++++++++
>  mm/vmstat.c             |  1 +
>  5 files changed, 18 insertions(+)
> 
> -- 
> 2.50.1
> 

Re: [PATCH v4 0/3] introduce kernel file mapped folios

[David Sterba]

On Thu, Aug 21, 2025 at 02:55:34PM -0700, Boris Burkov wrote:
> I would like to revisit Qu's proposal to not charge btrfs extent_buffer
> allocations to the user's cgroup.
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/b5fef5372ae454a7b6da4f2f75c427aeab6a07d6.1727498749.git.wqu@suse.com/
> 
> I believe it is detrimental to account these global pages to the cgroup
> using them, basically at random. A bit more justification and explanation
> in the patches themselves.
> 
> ---
> Changelog:
> v4:
> - change the concept from "uncharged" to "kernel_file"
> - no longer violates the invariant that each mapped folio has a memcg
>   when CONFIG_MEMCG=y
> - no longer really tied to memcg conceptually, so simplify build/helpers
> v3:
> - use mod_node_page_state since we will never count cgroup stats
> - include Shakeel's patch that removes a WARNING triggered by this series
> v2:
> - switch from filemap_add_folio_nocharge() to AS_UNCHARGED on the
>   address_space.
> - fix an interrupt safety bug in the vmstat patch.
> - fix some foolish build errors for CONFIG_MEMCG=n
> 
> 
> 
> Boris Burkov (3):
>   mm/filemap: add AS_KERNEL_FILE
>   mm: add vmstat for kernel_file pages
>   btrfs: set AS_KERNEL_FILE on the btree_inode
> 
>  fs/btrfs/disk-io.c      |  1 +
>  include/linux/mmzone.h  |  1 +
>  include/linux/pagemap.h |  2 ++
>  mm/filemap.c            | 13 +++++++++++++
>  mm/vmstat.c             |  1 +

For the btrfs parts,

Acked-by: David Sterba <dsterba@suse.com>