Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] mm: swap: Swap-out small-sized THP without splitting

Barry Song
2024-02-23T09:46:14Z

On Thu, Feb 22, 2024 at 11:09 PM David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On 22.02.24 08:05, Barry Song wrote:
> > Hi Ryan,
> >
> >> diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> >> index 2cc0cb41fb32..ea19710aa4cd 100644
> >> --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> >> +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> >> @@ -1212,11 +1212,13 @@ static unsigned int shrink_folio_list(struct list_head *folio_list,
> >> if (!can_split_folio(folio, NULL))
> >> goto activate_locked;
> >> /*
> >> - * Split folios without a PMD map right
> >> - * away. Chances are some or all of the
> >> - * tail pages can be freed without IO.
> >> + * Split PMD-mappable folios without a
> >> + * PMD map right away. Chances are some
> >> + * or all of the tail pages can be freed
> >> + * without IO.
> >> */
> >> - if (!folio_entire_mapcount(folio) &&
> >> + if (folio_test_pmd_mappable(folio) &&
> >> + !folio_entire_mapcount(folio) &&
> >> split_folio_to_list(folio,
> >> folio_list))
> >> goto activate_locked;
> >
> > I ran a test to investigate what would happen while reclaiming a partially
> > unmapped large folio. for example, for 64KiB large folios, MADV_DONTNEED
> > 4KB~64KB, and keep the first subpage 0~4KiB.
>
> IOW, something that already happens with ordinary THP already IIRC.
>
> >
> > My test wants to address my three concerns,
> > a. whether we will have leak on swap slots
> > b. whether we will have redundant I/O
> > c. whether we will cause races on swapcache
> >
> > what i have done is printing folio->_nr_pages_mapped and dumping 16 swap_map[]
> > at some specific stage
> > 1. just after add_to_swap (swap slots are allocated)
> > 2. before and after try_to_unmap (ptes are set to swap_entry)
> > 3. before and after pageout (also add printk in zram driver to dump all I/O write)
> > 4. before and after remove_mapping
> >
> > The below is the dumped info for a particular large folio,
> >
> > 1. after add_to_swap
> > [ 27.267357] vmscan: After add_to_swap shrink_folio_list 1947 mapnr:1
> > [ 27.267650] vmscan: offset:101b0 swp_map 40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40
> >
> > as you can see,
> > _nr_pages_mapped is 1 and all 16 swap_map are SWAP_HAS_CACHE (0x40)
> >
> >
> > 2. before and after try_to_unmap
> > [ 27.268067] vmscan: before try to unmap shrink_folio_list 1991 mapnr:1
> > [ 27.268372] try_to_unmap_one address:ffff731f0000 pte:e8000103cd0b43 pte_p:ffff0000c36a8f80
> > [ 27.268854] vmscan: after try to unmap shrink_folio_list 1997 mapnr:0
> > [ 27.269180] vmscan: offset:101b0 swp_map 41-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40
> >
> > as you can see, one pte is set to swp_entry, and _nr_pages_mapped becomes
> > 0 from 1. The 1st swp_map becomes 0x41, SWAP_HAS_CACHE + 1
> >
> > 3. before and after pageout
> > [ 27.269602] vmscan: before pageout shrink_folio_list 2065 mapnr:0
> > [ 27.269880] vmscan: offset:101b0 swp_map 41-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40
> > [ 27.270691] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3400 index:101b0
> > [ 27.271061] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3440 index:101b1
> > [ 27.271416] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3480 index:101b2
> > [ 27.271751] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f34c0 index:101b3
> > [ 27.272046] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3500 index:101b4
> > [ 27.272384] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3540 index:101b5
> > [ 27.272746] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3580 index:101b6
> > [ 27.273042] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f35c0 index:101b7
> > [ 27.273339] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3600 index:101b8
> > [ 27.273676] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3640 index:101b9
> > [ 27.274044] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3680 index:101ba
> > [ 27.274554] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f36c0 index:101bb
> > [ 27.274870] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3700 index:101bc
> > [ 27.275166] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3740 index:101bd
> > [ 27.275463] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f3780 index:101be
> > [ 27.275760] zram: zram_write_page page:fffffc00030f37c0 index:101bf
> > [ 27.276102] vmscan: after pageout and before needs_release shrink_folio_list 2124 mapnr:0
> >
> > as you can see, obviously, we have done redundant I/O - 16 zram_write_page though
> > 4~64KiB has been zap_pte_range before, we still write them to zRAM.
> >
> > 4. before and after remove_mapping
> > [ 27.276428] vmscan: offset:101b0 swp_map 41-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40-40
> > [ 27.277485] vmscan: after remove_mapping shrink_folio_list 2169 mapnr:0 offset:0
> > [ 27.277802] vmscan: offset:101b0 01-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
> >
> > as you can see, swp_map 1-15 becomes 0 and only the first swp_map is 1.
> > all SWAP_HAS_CACHE has been removed. This is perfect and there is no swap
> > slot leak at all!
> >
> > Thus, only two concerns are left for me,
> > 1. as we don't split anyway, we have done 15 unnecessary I/O if a large folio
> > is partially unmapped.
> > 2. large folio is added as a whole as a swapcache covering the range whose
> > part has been zapped. I am not quite sure if this will cause some problems
> > while some concurrent do_anon_page, swapin and swapout occurs between 3 and
> > 4 on zapped subpage1~subpage15. still struggling.. my brain is exploding...
>
> Just noting: I was running into something different in the past with
> THP. And it's effectively the same scenario, just swapout and
> MADV_DONTNEED reversed.
>
> Imagine you swapped out a THP and the THP it still is in the swapcache.
>
> Then you unmap/zap some PTEs, freeing up the swap slots.
>
> In zap_pte_range(), we'll call free_swap_and_cache(). There, we run into
> the "!swap_page_trans_huge_swapped(p, entry)", and we won't be calling
> __try_to_reclaim_swap().

I guess you mean swap_page_trans_huge_swapped(p, entry) not
!swap_page_trans_huge_swapped(p, entry) ?

at that time, swap_page_trans_huge_swapped should be true as there are still
some entries whose swap_map=0x41 or above (SWAP_HAS_CACHE and
swap_count >= 1)

static bool swap_page_trans_huge_swapped(struct swap_info_struct *si,
swp_entry_t entry,
unsigned int nr_pages)
{
...
for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) {
if (swap_count(map[offset + i])) {
ret = true;
break;
}
}
unlock_out:
unlock_cluster_or_swap_info(si, ci);
return ret;
}
So this will stop the swap free even for those ptes which have been
zapped?

Another case I have reported[1] is that while reclaiming a large folio,
in try_to_unmap_one, we are calling page_vma_mapped_walk().
as it only begins to hold PTL after it hits a valid pte, a paralel
break-before-make might make 0nd, 1st and beginning PTEs zero,
try_to_unmap_one can read intermediate ptes value, thus we can run
into this below case. afte try_to_unmap_one,
pte 0 - untouched, present pte
pte 1 - untouched, present pte
pte 2 - swap entries
pte 3 - swap entries
...
pte n - swap entries

or

pte 0 - untouched, present pte
pte 1 - swap entries
pte 2 - swap entries
pte 3 - swap entries
...
pte n - swap entries

etc.

Thus, after try_to_unmap, the folio is still mapped with some ptes becoming
swap entries, some PTEs are still present. it might be staying in swapcache
for a long time with a broken CONT-PTE.

I also hate that and hope for a SYNC way to let large folio hold PTL from the
0nd pte, thus, it won't get intermediate PTEs from other break-before-make.

This also doesn't increase PTL contention as my test shows we will always
get PTL for a large folio after skipping zero, one or two PTEs in
try_to_unmap_one.
but skipping 1 or 2 is really bad and sad, breaking a large folio from the same
whole to nr_pages different segments.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/CAGsJ_4wo7BiJWSKb1K_WyAai30KmfckMQ3-mCJPXZ892CtXpyQ@mail.gmail.com/

>
> So we won't split the large folio that is in the swapcache and it will
> continue consuming "more memory" than intended until fully evicted.
>
> >
> > To me, it seems safer to split or do some other similar optimization if we find a
> > large folio has partial map and unmap.
>
> I'm hoping that we can avoid any new direct users of _nr_pages_mapped if
> possible.
>

Is _nr_pages_mapped < nr_pages a reasonable case to split as we
have known the folio has at least some subpages zapped?

> If we find that the folio is on the deferred split list, we might as
> well just split it right away, before swapping it out. That might be a
> reasonable optimization for the case you describe.

i tried to change Ryan's code as below

@@ -1905,11 +1922,12 @@ static unsigned int shrink_folio_list(struct
list_head *folio_list,
* PMD map right away. Chances are some
* or all of the tail pages can be freed
* without IO.
+ * Similarly, split PTE-mapped folios if
+ * they have been already
deferred_split.
*/
- if (folio_test_pmd_mappable(folio) &&
- !folio_entire_mapcount(folio) &&
- split_folio_to_list(folio,
- folio_list))
+ if
(((folio_test_pmd_mappable(folio) && !folio_entire_mapcount(folio)) ||
+
(!folio_test_pmd_mappable(folio) &&
!list_empty(&folio->_deferred_list)))
+ &&
split_folio_to_list(folio, folio_list))
goto activate_locked;
}
if (!add_to_swap(folio)) {

It seems to work as expected. only one I/O is left for a large folio
with 16 PTEs
but 15 of them have been zapped before.

>
> --
> Cheers,
>
> David / dhildenb
>

Thanks
Barry