Re: [RESEND 4/7] mm/gup: Add FOLL_LONGTERM capability to GUP fast

Ira Weiny
2019-03-25T14:21:25Z

On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 02:51:50PM -0300, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 02:23:15AM -0700, Ira Weiny wrote:
> > > > Unfortunately holding the lock is required to support FOLL_LONGTERM (to check
> > > > the VMAs) but we don't want to hold the lock to be optimal (specifically allow
> > > > FAULT_FOLL_ALLOW_RETRY). So I'm maintaining the optimization for *_fast users
> > > > who do not specify FOLL_LONGTERM.
> > > >
> > > > Another way to do this would have been to define __gup_longterm_unlocked with
> > > > the above logic, but that seemed overkill at this point.
> > >
> > > get_user_pages_unlocked() is an exported symbol, shouldn't it work
> > > with the FOLL_LONGTERM flag?
> > >
> > > I think it should even though we have no user..
> > >
> > > Otherwise the GUP API just gets more confusing.
> >
> > I agree WRT to the API. But I think callers of get_user_pages_unlocked() are
> > not going to get the behavior they want if they specify FOLL_LONGTERM.
>
> Oh? Isn't the only thing FOLL_LONGTERM does is block the call on DAX?

From an API yes.

> Why does the locking mode matter to this test?

DAX checks for VMA's being Filesystem DAX. Therefore, it requires collection
of VMA's as the GUP code executes. The unlocked version can drop the lock and
therefore the VMAs may become invalid. Therefore, the 2 code paths are
incompatible.

Users of GUP unlocked are going to want the benefit of FAULT_FOLL_ALLOW_RETRY.
So I don't anticipate anyone using FOLL_LONGTERM with
get_user_pages_unlocked().

FWIW this thread is making me think my original patch which simply implemented
get_user_pages_fast_longterm() would be more clear. There is some evidence
that the GUP API was trending that way (see get_user_pages_remote). That seems
wrong but I don't know how to ensure users don't specify the wrong flag.

>
> > What I could do is BUG_ON (or just WARN_ON) if unlocked is called with
> > FOLL_LONGTERM similar to the code in get_user_pages_locked() which does not
> > allow locked and vmas to be passed together:
>
> The GUP call should fail if you are doing something like this. But I'd
> rather not see confusing specialc cases in code without a clear
> comment explaining why it has to be there.

Code comment would be necessary, sure. Was just throwing ideas out there.

Ira