Re: [PATCH 3/4] Check whether pages are poisoned before copying

Andi Kleen
2011-03-17T06:26:16Z

On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 02:20:42PM +0900, Hidetoshi Seto wrote:
> (2011/03/17 13:14), Andi Kleen wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 11:32:55AM +0900, Hidetoshi Seto wrote:
> >> So to avoid the above problem, add poison checks for both of 4K pages
> >> and the THP before copying in __collapse_huge_page_copy().
> >
> > I don't think you need the check for the huge page -- it should not be allocated
> > in this case.
>
> Is there no case that the THP is once allocated but poison flag
> is set before copy? Though I know it is one of corner cases,
> having this check for THP is worse than nothing.

There's a theoretical window, but it's only a few instructions.
Probably not worth caring about, especially since you have a similar
window after your check again.

BTW normally I don't recommend to add new poison checks without
doing new studies with page-types if the case is likely and happens
with enough memory.

-Andi

--
ak@linux.intel.com -- Speaking for myself only.