From: Ridong <ridong.chen@linux.dev>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Cc: Kairui Song <kasong@tencent.com>, Qi Zheng <qi.zheng@linux.dev>,
Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>,
Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>,
Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com>,
Yuanchu Xie <yuanchu@google.com>, Wei Xu <weixugc@google.com>,
David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>,
Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>,
Zhongkun He <hezhongkun.hzk@bytedance.com>,
Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>,
Davidlohr Bueso <dave@stgolabs.net>,
Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Ridong Chen <ridong.chen@linux.dev>,
Ridong Chen <chenridong@xiaomi.com>
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] mm/vmscan: fix anon-only reclaim evicting file pages when swappiness=max
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:32:58 +0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260717113300.214717-2-ridong.chen@linux.dev> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260717113300.214717-1-ridong.chen@linux.dev>
From: Ridong Chen <chenridong@xiaomi.com>
As Qi mentioned [1], when swappiness=max (SWAPPINESS_ANON_ONLY) is set,
the reclaim logic is expected to reclaim anonymous pages exclusively.
However, due to the current ordering of checks in get_scan_count(),
file pages may still be evicted if can_reclaim_anon_pages() returns
false, which contradicts the semantics of SWAPPINESS_ANON_ONLY.
Reproducer in a cgroup holding 64M of file cache, with no swap configured:
Before (file cache is wrongly evicted):
# cat memory.stat
anon 196608
file 67178496
pgscan_proactive 0
# echo "64M swappiness=max" > memory.reclaim
# cat memory.stat
anon 208896
file 4096 <- page cache evicted
pgsteal_proactive 16400
pgscan_proactive 16400
After (file cache is left intact):
# cat memory.stat
anon 200704
file 67178496
pgscan_proactive 0
# echo "64M swappiness=max" > memory.reclaim
-bash: echo: write error: Resource temporarily unavailable
# cat memory.stat
anon 208896
file 67178496 <- page cache untouched
pgsteal_proactive 0
pgscan_proactive 0
Fix this by bailing out early when SWAPPINESS_ANON_ONLY is set and no
anonymous pages are reclaimable, before falling back to file reclaim.
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/cgroups/7ddf3eee-5fe2-45f7-8614-c8936a039e04@linux.dev/
Fixes: 68a1436bde00 ("mm: add swappiness=max arg to memory.reclaim for only anon reclaim")
Suggested-by: Qi Zheng <qi.zheng@linux.dev>
Signed-off-by: Ridong Chen <chenridong@xiaomi.com>
---
mm/vmscan.c | 18 +++++++++++-------
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 4357a44ee876..098adc599720 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -2492,6 +2492,17 @@ static void get_scan_count(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc,
enum scan_balance scan_balance;
enum lru_list lru;
+ /* Proactive reclaim initiated by userspace for anonymous memory only */
+ if (swappiness == SWAPPINESS_ANON_ONLY) {
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(!sc->proactive);
+ if (!can_reclaim_anon_pages(memcg, pgdat->node_id, sc)) {
+ memset(nr, 0, sizeof(*nr) * NR_LRU_LISTS);
+ return;
+ }
+ scan_balance = SCAN_ANON;
+ goto out;
+ }
+
/* If we have no swap space, do not bother scanning anon folios. */
if (!sc->may_swap || !can_reclaim_anon_pages(memcg, pgdat->node_id, sc)) {
scan_balance = SCAN_FILE;
@@ -2510,13 +2521,6 @@ static void get_scan_count(struct lruvec *lruvec, struct scan_control *sc,
goto out;
}
- /* Proactive reclaim initiated by userspace for anonymous memory only */
- if (swappiness == SWAPPINESS_ANON_ONLY) {
- WARN_ON_ONCE(!sc->proactive);
- scan_balance = SCAN_ANON;
- goto out;
- }
-
/*
* Do not apply any pressure balancing cleverness when the
* system is close to OOM, scan both anon and file equally
--
2.34.1
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-07-17 11:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 13+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-07-17 11:32 [PATCH 0/3] mm/vmscan: fix swappiness=max and clean up per-node proactive reclaim Ridong
2026-07-17 11:32 ` Ridong [this message]
2026-07-17 12:04 ` [PATCH 1/3] mm/vmscan: fix anon-only reclaim evicting file pages when swappiness=max Johannes Weiner
2026-07-17 12:57 ` Muchun Song
2026-07-17 16:37 ` Shakeel Butt
2026-07-17 11:32 ` [PATCH 2/3] mm: vmscan: propagate real error code from per-node proactive reclaim Ridong
2026-07-17 12:16 ` Johannes Weiner
2026-07-17 13:00 ` Muchun Song
2026-07-17 16:38 ` Shakeel Butt
2026-07-17 11:33 ` [PATCH 3/3] mm: vmscan: drop unused gfp_mask parameter from __node_reclaim() Ridong
2026-07-17 12:17 ` Johannes Weiner
2026-07-17 13:02 ` Muchun Song
2026-07-17 16:39 ` Shakeel Butt
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