Re: [PATCH v6 1/5] mm/zone_device: Reinitialize large zone device private folios

Balbir Singh
2026-01-19T22:15:45Z

On 1/20/26 07:35, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 03:09:00PM -0500, Zi Yan wrote:
>>> diff --git a/mm/internal.h b/mm/internal.h
>>> index e430da900430a1..a7d3f5e4b85e49 100644
>>> --- a/mm/internal.h
>>> +++ b/mm/internal.h
>>> @@ -806,14 +806,21 @@ static inline void prep_compound_head(struct page *page, unsigned int order)
>>> atomic_set(&folio->_pincount, 0);
>>> atomic_set(&folio->_entire_mapcount, -1);
>>> }
>>> - if (order > 1)
>>> + if (order > 1) {
>>> INIT_LIST_HEAD(&folio->_deferred_list);
>>> + } else {
>>> + folio->mapping = NULL;
>>> +#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
>>> + folio->memcg_data = 0;
>>> +#endif
>>> + }
>>
>> prep_compound_head() is only called on >0 order pages. The above
>> code means when order == 1, folio->mapping and folio->memcg_data are
>> assigned NULL.
>
> OK, fair enough, the conditionals would have to change and maybe it
> shouldn't be called "compound_head" if it also cleans up normal pages.
>
>>> static inline void prep_compound_tail(struct page *head, int tail_idx)
>>> {
>>> struct page *p = head + tail_idx;
>>>
>>> + p->flags.f &= ~0xffUL; /* Clear possible order, page head */
>>
>> No one cares about tail page flags if it is not checked in check_new_page()
>> from mm/page_alloc.c.
>
> At least page_fixed_fake_head() does check PG_head in some
> configurations. It does seem safer to clear it. Possibly order is
> never used, but it is free to clear it.
>
>>> - if (order)
>>> - prep_compound_page(page, order);
>>> + prep_compound_page(page, order);
>>
>> prep_compound_page() should only be called for >0 order pages. This creates
>> another weirdness in device pages by assuming all pages are
>> compound.
>
> OK
>
>>> + folio = page_folio(page);
>>> + folio->pgmap = pgmap;
>>> + folio_lock(folio);
>>> + folio_set_count(folio, 1);
>>
>> /* clear possible previous page->mapping */
>> folio->mapping = NULL;
>>
>> /* clear possible previous page->_nr_pages */
>> #ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
>> folio->memcg_data = 0;
>> #endif
>
> This is reasonable too, but prep_compound_head() was doing more than
> that, it is also clearing the order, and this needs to clear the head
> bit. That's why it was apppealing to reuse those functions, but you
> are right they are not ideal.
>
> I suppose we want some prep_single_page(page) and some reorg to share
> code with the other prep function.
>

There is __init_zone_device_page() and __init_single_page(),
it does zero out the page and sets the zone, pfn, nid among other things.
I propose we use the current version with zone_device_free_folio() as is.

We can figure out if __init_zone_device_page() can be reused or refactored
for the purposes to doing this with core MM API's

>> This patch mixed the concept of page and folio together, thus
>> causing confusion. Core MM sees page and folio two separate things:
>> 1. page is the smallest internal physical memory management unit,
>> 2. folio is an abstraction on top of pages, and other abstractions can be
>> slab, ptdesc, and more (https://kernelnewbies.org/MatthewWilcox/Memdescs).
>
> I think the users of zone_device_page_init() are principally trying to
> create something that can be installed in a non-special PTE. Meaning
> the output is always a folio because it is going to be read as a folio
> in the page walkers.
>
> Thus, the job of this function is to take the memory range starting at
> page for 2^order and turn it into a single valid folio with refcount
> of 1.
>
>> If device pages have to initialize on top of pages with obsolete states,
>> at least it should be first initialized as pages, then as folios to avoid
>> confusion.
>
> I don't think so. It should do the above job efficiently and iterate
> over the page list exactly once.
>
> Jason

Agreed

Balbir