Re: [PATCH v9 0/5] Migrate on fault for device pages

Mika Penttilä
2026-05-05T07:18:20Z

On 5/5/26 10:09, Alistair Popple wrote:

> Thanks for doing this work Mika. I've been meaning to take a look at this series
> for a while. I'm currently at LSFMM but will try and take a look this week or
> next as it sounds quite useful.
>
> - Alistair

Thanks Alistair and no problem, appreciate your insights whenever you have time.

--Mika

>
> On 2026-05-05 at 15:16 +1000, mpenttil@redhat.com wrote...
>> From: Mika Penttilä <mpenttil@redhat.com>
>>
>> Currently, the way device page faulting and migration works
>> is not optimal, if you want to do both fault handling and
>> migration at once.
>>
>> Being able to migrate not present pages (or pages mapped with incorrect
>> permissions, eg. COW) to the GPU requires doing either of the
>> following sequences:
>>
>> 1. hmm_range_fault() - fault in non-present pages with correct permissions, etc.
>> 2. migrate_vma_*() - migrate the pages
>>
>> Or:
>>
>> 1. migrate_vma_*() - migrate present pages
>> 2. If non-present pages detected by migrate_vma_*():
>> a) call hmm_range_fault() to fault pages in
>> b) call migrate_vma_*() again to migrate now present pages
>>
>> The problem with the first sequence is that you always have to do two
>> page walks even when most of the time the pages are present or zero page
>> mappings so the common case takes a performance hit.
>>
>> The second sequence is better for the common case, but far worse if
>> pages aren't present because now you have to walk the page tables three
>> times (once to find the page is not present, once so hmm_range_fault()
>> can find a non-present page to fault in and once again to setup the
>> migration). It is also tricky to code correctly. One page table walk
>> could costs over 1000 cpu cycles on X86-64, which is a significant hit.
>>
>> We should be able to walk the page table once, faulting
>> pages in as required and replacing them with migration entries if
>> requested.
>>
>> Add a new flag to HMM APIs, HMM_PFN_REQ_MIGRATE,
>> which tells to prepare for migration also during fault handling.
>> Also, for the migrate_vma_setup() call paths, a flag, MIGRATE_VMA_FAULT,
>> is added to tell to add fault handling to migrate.
>>
>> One extra benefit of migrating with hmm_range_fault() path
>> is the migrate_vma.vma gets populated, so no need to
>> retrieve that separataly.
>>
>> Tested in X86-64 VM with HMM test device, passing the selftests.
>> For performance, the migrate throughput tests from the selftests
>> show similar numbers (within error margin) as unmodified kernel.
>> Tested also rebased on the
>> "Remove device private pages from physical address space" series:
>> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260130111050.53670-1-jniethe@nvidia.com/
>> plus a small patch to adjust with no problems.
>>
>> Changes v8-v9
>> - rebase on drm-tip
>> - fixed uaf around migrate_vma_split_folio() usage
>> - added missing pmd unlock
>>
>> Changes v7-v8
>> - rebase on 7.0
>> - fixed subject in two patches
>> - enhanced commit messages
>> - squashed patch 6 into patch 4 to fix kernel test robot warning
>> - readded dropped Cc block from cover letter
>> - fixed white space
>>
>> Changes v6-v7
>> - rebase on 7.0.0-rc6
>> - added documentation and comments
>> - denote to be migrated zero page as HMM_PFN_MIGRATE alone
>> - got rid of HMM_PFN_INOUT_FLAGS movement in patch 2
>> - picked up Acked-By from David for patch 1
>>
>> Changes v5-v6
>> - rebase on 7.0.0-rc4
>> - use range based TLB flushing while unmapping ptes
>> - gate migration behind HMM_PFN_REQ_MIGRATE for fault and
>> migrate paths
>> - always infer migration flags from migrate->flags only
>>
>> Changes v4-v5
>> - rebase on 6.19
>> - fixed David's email address
>> - fixed link issue without CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE
>> - refactored into smaller commits
>> - added more comments to code
>>
>> Changes v3-v4:
>> - rebase on 6.19-rc8
>> - fixed issues found by kernel test robot with random configs
>> - fixed typos
>>
>> Changes v2-v3:
>> - rebase on 6.19-rc7
>> - fixed issues found by kernel test robot
>> - fixed smatch issues reported by Dan Carpenter <dan.carpenter@linaro.org>
>> - fixes to lock handling (pmd/pte) on errors
>> - added assertions for pmd/pte lock states
>> - other issues discovered by Matthew, thanks!
>>
>> Changes v1-v2:
>> - rebase on 6.19-rc6
>> - fixed issues found by kernel test robot
>> - fixed locking (pmd/ptl) to cover handle_ and prepare_ regions
>> parts if migrating
>> - other issues discovered by Matthew, thanks!
>>
>> Changes RFC-v1:
>> - rebase on 6.19-rc5
>> - adjust for the device THP
>> - changes from feedback
>>
>> Revisions:
>> - RFC https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20250814072045.3637192-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260114091923.3950465-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260119112502.645059-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v3: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260126111939.1332983-2-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v4: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260202112622.2104213-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v5: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260211081301.2940672-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v6: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260316062407.3354636-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v7: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260330115611.347988-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>> - v8: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260414041226.1539439-1-mpenttil@redhat.com/
>>
>> Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@nvidia.com>
>> Cc: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
>> Cc: Alistair Popple <apopple@nvidia.com>
>> Cc: Balbir Singh <balbirs@nvidia.com>
>> Cc: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
>> Cc: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@intel.com>
>> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
>> Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
>> Cc: "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>
>> Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
>> Cc: Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
>> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
>>
>> Mika Penttilä (5):
>> mm/Kconfig: changes for migrate on fault for device pages
>> mm: Add helper to convert HMM pfn to migrate pfn
>> mm/hmm: do the plumbing for HMM to participate in migration
>> mm: setup device page migration in HMM pagewalk
>> lib/test_hmm:: add a new testcase for the migrate on fault
>>
>> include/linux/hmm.h | 19 +-
>> include/linux/migrate.h | 26 +-
>> lib/test_hmm.c | 101 ++-
>> lib/test_hmm_uapi.h | 19 +-
>> mm/Kconfig | 2 +
>> mm/hmm.c | 835 +++++++++++++++++++++++--
>> mm/migrate_device.c | 583 +++--------------
>> tools/testing/selftests/mm/hmm-tests.c | 54 ++
>> 8 files changed, 1066 insertions(+), 573 deletions(-)
>>
>> drm-tip
>> base-commit: 94d56a898a2db27f841b17f6966a81ba502fe63c
>> --
>> 2.50.0
>>