[PATCH 6.18 48/83] mm/memory_hotplug: maintain N_NORMAL_MEMORY during hotplug

Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-04-13T16:10:17Z

From: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>

commit 2ecbe06abf9bfb2261cd6464a6bc3a3615625402 upstream.

N_NORMAL_MEMORY is initialized from zone population at boot, but memory
hotplug currently only updates N_MEMORY. As a result, a node that gains
normal memory via hotplug can remain invisible to users iterating over
N_NORMAL_MEMORY, while a node that loses its last normal memory can stay
incorrectly marked as such.

The most visible effect is that
/sys/devices/system/node/has_normal_memory does not report a node even
after that node has gained normal memory via hotplug.

Also, list_lru-based shrinkers can undercount objects on such a node
and may skip reclaim on that node entirely, which can lead to a higher
memory footprint than expected.

Restore N_NORMAL_MEMORY maintenance directly in online_pages() and
offline_pages(). Set the bit when a node that currently lacks normal
memory onlines pages into a zone <= ZONE_NORMAL, and clear it when
offlining removes the last present pages from zones <= ZONE_NORMAL.

This restores the intended semantics without bringing back the old
status_change_nid_normal notifier plumbing which was removed in
8d2882a8edb8.

Current users that benefit include list_lru, zswap, nfsd filecache,
hugetlb_cgroup, and has_normal_memory sysfs reporting.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20260330035941.518186-1-hao.li@linux.dev
Fixes: 8d2882a8edb8 ("mm,memory_hotplug: remove status_change_nid_normal and update documentation")
Signed-off-by: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>
Reviewed-by: Harry Yoo (Oracle) <harry@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Joshua Hahn <joshua.hahnjy@gmail.com>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@kernel.org>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
mm/memory_hotplug.c | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 20 insertions(+)

--- a/mm/memory_hotplug.c
+++ b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
@@ -1218,6 +1218,13 @@ int online_pages(unsigned long pfn, unsi

if (node_arg.nid >= 0)
node_set_state(nid, N_MEMORY);
+ /*
+ * Check whether we are adding normal memory to the node for the first
+ * time.
+ */
+ if (!node_state(nid, N_NORMAL_MEMORY) && zone_idx(zone) <= ZONE_NORMAL)
+ node_set_state(nid, N_NORMAL_MEMORY);
+
if (need_zonelists_rebuild)
build_all_zonelists(NULL);

@@ -1919,6 +1926,8 @@ int offline_pages(unsigned long start_pf
unsigned long flags;
char *reason;
int ret;
+ unsigned long normal_pages = 0;
+ enum zone_type zt;

/*
* {on,off}lining is constrained to full memory sections (or more
@@ -2067,6 +2076,17 @@ int offline_pages(unsigned long start_pf
init_per_zone_wmark_min();

/*
+ * Check whether this operation removes the last normal memory from
+ * the node. We do this before clearing N_MEMORY to avoid the possible
+ * transient "!N_MEMORY && N_NORMAL_MEMORY" state.
+ */
+ if (zone_idx(zone) <= ZONE_NORMAL) {
+ for (zt = 0; zt <= ZONE_NORMAL; zt++)
+ normal_pages += pgdat->node_zones[zt].present_pages;
+ if (!normal_pages)
+ node_clear_state(node, N_NORMAL_MEMORY);
+ }
+ /*
* Make sure to mark the node as memory-less before rebuilding the zone
* list. Otherwise this node would still appear in the fallback lists.
*/