Re: [PATCH v12 mm-new 06/15] khugepaged: introduce collapse_max_ptes_none helper function

Nico Pache
2025-10-28T13:37:27Z

On Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 11:54 AM Lorenzo Stoakes
<lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 12:37:08PM -0600, Nico Pache wrote:
> > The current mechanism for determining mTHP collapse scales the
> > khugepaged_max_ptes_none value based on the target order. This
> > introduces an undesirable feedback loop, or "creep", when max_ptes_none
> > is set to a value greater than HPAGE_PMD_NR / 2.
> >
> > With this configuration, a successful collapse to order N will populate
> > enough pages to satisfy the collapse condition on order N+1 on the next
> > scan. This leads to unnecessary work and memory churn.
> >
> > To fix this issue introduce a helper function that caps the max_ptes_none
> > to HPAGE_PMD_NR / 2 - 1 (255 on 4k page size). The function also scales
> > the max_ptes_none number by the (PMD_ORDER - target collapse order).
> >
> > The limits can be ignored by passing full_scan=true, this is useful for
> > madvise_collapse (which ignores limits), or in the case of
> > collapse_scan_pmd(), allows the full PMD to be scanned when mTHP
> > collapse is available.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Nico Pache <npache@redhat.com>
> > ---
> > mm/khugepaged.c | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> > 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
> > index 4ccebf5dda97..286c3a7afdee 100644
> > --- a/mm/khugepaged.c
> > +++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
> > @@ -459,6 +459,39 @@ void __khugepaged_enter(struct mm_struct *mm)
> > wake_up_interruptible(&khugepaged_wait);
> > }
> >
> > +/**
> > + * collapse_max_ptes_none - Calculate maximum allowed empty PTEs for collapse
> > + * @order: The folio order being collapsed to
> > + * @full_scan: Whether this is a full scan (ignore limits)
> > + *
> > + * For madvise-triggered collapses (full_scan=true), all limits are bypassed
> > + * and allow up to HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1 empty PTEs.
> > + *
> > + * For PMD-sized collapses (order == HPAGE_PMD_ORDER), use the configured
> > + * khugepaged_max_ptes_none value.
> > + *
> > + * For mTHP collapses, scale down the max_ptes_none proportionally to the folio
> > + * order, but caps it at HPAGE_PMD_NR/2-1 to prevent a collapse feedback loop.
> > + *
> > + * Return: Maximum number of empty PTEs allowed for the collapse operation
> > + */
> > +static unsigned int collapse_max_ptes_none(unsigned int order, bool full_scan)
> > +{
> > + unsigned int max_ptes_none;
> > +
> > + /* ignore max_ptes_none limits */
> > + if (full_scan)
> > + return HPAGE_PMD_NR - 1;
> > +
> > + if (order == HPAGE_PMD_ORDER)
> > + return khugepaged_max_ptes_none;
> > +
> > + max_ptes_none = min(khugepaged_max_ptes_none, HPAGE_PMD_NR/2 - 1);
>

Hey Lorenzo,

> I mean not to beat a dead horse re: v11 commentary, but I thought we were going
> to implement David's idea re: the new 'eagerness' tunable, and again we're now just
> implementing the capping at HPAGE_PMD_NR/2 - 1 thing again?

I spoke to David and he said to continue forward with this series; the
"eagerness" tunable will take some time, and may require further
considerations/discussion.

>
> I'm still really quite uncomfortable with us silently capping this value.
>
> If we're putting forward theoretical ideas that are to be later built upon, this
> series should be an RFC.
>
> But if we really intend to silently ignore user input the problem is that then
> becomes established uAPI.
>
> I think it's _sensible_ to avoid this mTHP escalation problem, but the issue is
> visibility I think.
>
> I think people are going to find it odd that you set it to something, but then
> get something else.

The alternative solution is to not support max_ptes_none for mTHP
collapse and not allow none/zero pages. This is essentially "capping"
the value too.

>
> As an alternative we could have a new sysfs field:
>
> /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/max_mthp_ptes_none
>
> That shows the cap clearly.
>
> In fact, it could be read-only... and just expose it to the user. That reduces
> complexity.

I agree with Baolin here; adding another tunable will only increase
the complexity for our future goals, and also provides needless
insight into the internals when they can not be customized.

Cheers,
-- Nico

>
> We can then bring in eagerness later and have the same situation of
> max_ptes_none being a parameter that exists (plus this additional read-only
> parameter).
>
> > +
> > + return max_ptes_none >> (HPAGE_PMD_ORDER - order);
> > +
> > +}
> > +
> > void khugepaged_enter_vma(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
> > vm_flags_t vm_flags)
> > {
> > @@ -546,7 +579,7 @@ static int __collapse_huge_page_isolate(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
> > pte_t *_pte;
> > int none_or_zero = 0, shared = 0, result = SCAN_FAIL, referenced = 0;
> > const unsigned long nr_pages = 1UL << order;
> > - int max_ptes_none = khugepaged_max_ptes_none >> (HPAGE_PMD_ORDER - order);
> > + int max_ptes_none = collapse_max_ptes_none(order, !cc->is_khugepaged);
> >
> > for (_pte = pte; _pte < pte + nr_pages;
> > _pte++, addr += PAGE_SIZE) {
> > --
> > 2.51.0
> >
>