Re: [PATCH 2/3] mm: update core kernel code to use vm_flags_t consistently

Oscar Salvador
2025-06-19T12:06:57Z

On Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 08:42:53PM +0100, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> The core kernel code is currently very inconsistent in its use of
> vm_flags_t vs. unsigned long. This prevents us from changing the type of
> vm_flags_t in the future and is simply not correct, so correct this.
>
> While this results in rather a lot of churn, it is a critical pre-requisite
> for a future planned change to VMA flag type.
>
> Additionally, update VMA userland tests to account for the changes.
>
> To make review easier and to break things into smaller parts, driver and
> architecture-specific changes is left for a subsequent commit.
>
> The code has been adjusted to cascade the changes across all calling code
> as far as is needed.
>
> We will adjust architecture-specific and driver code in a subsequent patch.
>
> Overall, this patch does not introduce any functional change.
>
> Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>

Acked-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>

Heh, for one second I thought this was about to convert vm_fault->flags to
the actual enum fault_flag (which wouldn't be bad if you ask me, because
"unsigned int flags" is not very descriptive).

But this is quite good as well, brings in some consistency.

--
Oscar Salvador
SUSE Labs