[PATCH 7/7] mm: discard __GFP_ATOMIC

Mel Gorman
2023-01-09T15:19:05Z

From: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>

__GFP_ATOMIC serves little purpose. Its main effect is to set
ALLOC_HARDER which adds a few little boosts to increase the chance of an
allocation succeeding, one of which is to lower the water-mark at which it
will succeed.

It is *always* paired with __GFP_HIGH which sets ALLOC_HIGH which also
adjusts this watermark. It is probable that other users of __GFP_HIGH
should benefit from the other little bonuses that __GFP_ATOMIC gets.

__GFP_ATOMIC also gives a warning if used with __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM.
There is little point to this. We already get a might_sleep() warning if
__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM is set.

__GFP_ATOMIC allows the "watermark_boost" to be side-stepped. It is
probable that testing ALLOC_HARDER is a better fit here.

__GFP_ATOMIC is used by tegra-smmu.c to check if the allocation might
sleep. This should test __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM instead.

This patch:
- removes __GFP_ATOMIC
- allows __GFP_HIGH allocations to ignore watermark boosting as well
as GFP_ATOMIC requests.
- makes other adjustments as suggested by the above.

The net result is not change to GFP_ATOMIC allocations. Other
allocations that use __GFP_HIGH will benefit from a few different extra
privileges. This affects:
xen, dm, md, ntfs3
the vermillion frame buffer
hibernation
ksm
swap
all of which likely produce more benefit than cost if these selected
allocation are more likely to succeed quickly.

[mgorman: Minor adjustments to rework on top of a series]
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/163712397076.13692.4727608274002939094@noble.neil.brown.name
Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@techsingularity.net>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
---
Documentation/mm/balance.rst | 2 +-
drivers/iommu/tegra-smmu.c | 4 ++--
include/linux/gfp_types.h | 12 ++++--------
include/trace/events/mmflags.h | 1 -
lib/test_printf.c | 8 ++++----
mm/internal.h | 2 +-
mm/page_alloc.c | 13 +++----------
tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c | 1 -
8 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/mm/balance.rst b/Documentation/mm/balance.rst
index 6a1fadf3e173..e38e9d83c1c7 100644
--- a/Documentation/mm/balance.rst
+++ b/Documentation/mm/balance.rst
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Memory Balancing

Started Jan 2000 by Kanoj Sarcar <kanoj@sgi.com>

-Memory balancing is needed for !__GFP_ATOMIC and !__GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM as
+Memory balancing is needed for !__GFP_HIGH and !__GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM as
well as for non __GFP_IO allocations.

The first reason why a caller may avoid reclaim is that the caller can not
diff --git a/drivers/iommu/tegra-smmu.c b/drivers/iommu/tegra-smmu.c
index 5b1af40221ec..af8d0e685260 100644
--- a/drivers/iommu/tegra-smmu.c
+++ b/drivers/iommu/tegra-smmu.c
@@ -671,12 +671,12 @@ static struct page *as_get_pde_page(struct tegra_smmu_as *as,
* allocate page in a sleeping context if GFP flags permit. Hence
* spinlock needs to be unlocked and re-locked after allocation.
*/
- if (!(gfp & __GFP_ATOMIC))
+ if (gfpflags_allow_blocking(gfp))
spin_unlock_irqrestore(&as->lock, *flags);

page = alloc_page(gfp | __GFP_DMA | __GFP_ZERO);

- if (!(gfp & __GFP_ATOMIC))
+ if (gfpflags_allow_blocking(gfp))
spin_lock_irqsave(&as->lock, *flags);

/*
diff --git a/include/linux/gfp_types.h b/include/linux/gfp_types.h
index d88c46ca82e1..5088637fe5c2 100644
--- a/include/linux/gfp_types.h
+++ b/include/linux/gfp_types.h
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ typedef unsigned int __bitwise gfp_t;
#define ___GFP_IO 0x40u
#define ___GFP_FS 0x80u
#define ___GFP_ZERO 0x100u
-#define ___GFP_ATOMIC 0x200u
+/* 0x200u unused */
#define ___GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM 0x400u
#define ___GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM 0x800u
#define ___GFP_WRITE 0x1000u
@@ -116,11 +116,8 @@ typedef unsigned int __bitwise gfp_t;
*
* %__GFP_HIGH indicates that the caller is high-priority and that granting
* the request is necessary before the system can make forward progress.
- * For example, creating an IO context to clean pages.
- *
- * %__GFP_ATOMIC indicates that the caller cannot reclaim or sleep and is
- * high priority. Users are typically interrupt handlers. This may be
- * used in conjunction with %__GFP_HIGH
+ * For example creating an IO context to clean pages and requests
+ * from atomic context.
*
* %__GFP_MEMALLOC allows access to all memory. This should only be used when
* the caller guarantees the allocation will allow more memory to be freed
@@ -135,7 +132,6 @@ typedef unsigned int __bitwise gfp_t;
* %__GFP_NOMEMALLOC is used to explicitly forbid access to emergency reserves.
* This takes precedence over the %__GFP_MEMALLOC flag if both are set.
*/
-#define __GFP_ATOMIC ((__force gfp_t)___GFP_ATOMIC)
#define __GFP_HIGH ((__force gfp_t)___GFP_HIGH)
#define __GFP_MEMALLOC ((__force gfp_t)___GFP_MEMALLOC)
#define __GFP_NOMEMALLOC ((__force gfp_t)___GFP_NOMEMALLOC)
@@ -329,7 +325,7 @@ typedef unsigned int __bitwise gfp_t;
* version does not attempt reclaim/compaction at all and is by default used
* in page fault path, while the non-light is used by khugepaged.
*/
-#define GFP_ATOMIC (__GFP_HIGH|__GFP_ATOMIC|__GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM)
+#define GFP_ATOMIC (__GFP_HIGH|__GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM)
#define GFP_KERNEL (__GFP_RECLAIM | __GFP_IO | __GFP_FS)
#define GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT (GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_ACCOUNT)
#define GFP_NOWAIT (__GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM)
diff --git a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
index 412b5a46374c..9db52bc4ce19 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
gfpflag_string(__GFP_HIGHMEM), \
gfpflag_string(GFP_DMA32), \
gfpflag_string(__GFP_HIGH), \
- gfpflag_string(__GFP_ATOMIC), \
gfpflag_string(__GFP_IO), \
gfpflag_string(__GFP_FS), \
gfpflag_string(__GFP_NOWARN), \
diff --git a/lib/test_printf.c b/lib/test_printf.c
index d34dc636b81c..46b4e6c414a3 100644
--- a/lib/test_printf.c
+++ b/lib/test_printf.c
@@ -674,17 +674,17 @@ flags(void)
gfp = GFP_ATOMIC|__GFP_DMA;
test("GFP_ATOMIC|GFP_DMA", "%pGg", &gfp);

- gfp = __GFP_ATOMIC;
- test("__GFP_ATOMIC", "%pGg", &gfp);
+ gfp = __GFP_HIGH;
+ test("__GFP_HIGH", "%pGg", &gfp);

/* Any flags not translated by the table should remain numeric */
gfp = ~__GFP_BITS_MASK;
snprintf(cmp_buffer, BUF_SIZE, "%#lx", (unsigned long) gfp);
test(cmp_buffer, "%pGg", &gfp);

- snprintf(cmp_buffer, BUF_SIZE, "__GFP_ATOMIC|%#lx",
+ snprintf(cmp_buffer, BUF_SIZE, "__GFP_HIGH|%#lx",
(unsigned long) gfp);
- gfp |= __GFP_ATOMIC;
+ gfp |= __GFP_HIGH;
test(cmp_buffer, "%pGg", &gfp);

kfree(cmp_buffer);
diff --git a/mm/internal.h b/mm/internal.h
index 23a37588073a..71b1111427f3 100644
--- a/mm/internal.h
+++ b/mm/internal.h
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ struct folio_batch;
#define GFP_RECLAIM_MASK (__GFP_RECLAIM|__GFP_HIGH|__GFP_IO|__GFP_FS|\
__GFP_NOWARN|__GFP_RETRY_MAYFAIL|__GFP_NOFAIL|\
__GFP_NORETRY|__GFP_MEMALLOC|__GFP_NOMEMALLOC|\
- __GFP_ATOMIC|__GFP_NOLOCKDEP)
+ __GFP_NOLOCKDEP)

/* The GFP flags allowed during early boot */
#define GFP_BOOT_MASK (__GFP_BITS_MASK & ~(__GFP_RECLAIM|__GFP_IO|__GFP_FS))
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 2217bab2dbb2..7244ab522028 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -4086,13 +4086,14 @@ static inline bool zone_watermark_fast(struct zone *z, unsigned int order,
if (__zone_watermark_ok(z, order, mark, highest_zoneidx, alloc_flags,
free_pages))
return true;
+
/*
- * Ignore watermark boosting for GFP_ATOMIC order-0 allocations
+ * Ignore watermark boosting for __GFP_HIGH order-0 allocations
* when checking the min watermark. The min watermark is the
* point where boosting is ignored so that kswapd is woken up
* when below the low watermark.
*/
- if (unlikely(!order && (gfp_mask & __GFP_ATOMIC) && z->watermark_boost
+ if (unlikely(!order && (alloc_flags & ALLOC_MIN_RESERVE) && z->watermark_boost
&& ((alloc_flags & ALLOC_WMARK_MASK) == WMARK_MIN))) {
mark = z->_watermark[WMARK_MIN];
return __zone_watermark_ok(z, order, mark, highest_zoneidx,
@@ -5057,14 +5058,6 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
unsigned int zonelist_iter_cookie;
int reserve_flags;

- /*
- * We also sanity check to catch abuse of atomic reserves being used by
- * callers that are not in atomic context.
- */
- if (WARN_ON_ONCE((gfp_mask & (__GFP_ATOMIC|__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM)) ==
- (__GFP_ATOMIC|__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM)))
- gfp_mask &= ~__GFP_ATOMIC;
-
restart:
compaction_retries = 0;
no_progress_loops = 0;
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c b/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c
index e20656c431a4..173d407dce92 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c
@@ -641,7 +641,6 @@ static const struct {
{ "__GFP_HIGHMEM", "HM" },
{ "GFP_DMA32", "D32" },
{ "__GFP_HIGH", "H" },
- { "__GFP_ATOMIC", "_A" },
{ "__GFP_IO", "I" },
{ "__GFP_FS", "F" },
{ "__GFP_NOWARN", "NWR" },
--
2.35.3