Re: CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE_OPTIMIZE_VMEMMAP is broken, was Re: [RFC PATCH 0/6] Deep talk about folio vmap

Muchun Song
2025-04-04T10:08:49Z

> On Apr 4, 2025, at 17:38, Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On Apr 4, 2025, at 17:01, Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> wrote:
>>
>> After the btrfs compressed bio discussion I think the hugetlb changes that
>> skip the tail pages are fundamentally unsafe in the current kernel.
>>
>> That is because the bio_vec representation assumes tail pages do exist, so
>> as soon as you are doing direct I/O that generates a bvec starting beyond
>> the present head page things will blow up. Other users of bio_vecs might
>> do the same, but the way the block bio_vecs are generated are very suspect
>> to that. So we'll first need to sort that out and a few other things
>> before we can even think of enabling such a feature.
>>
>
> I would like to express my gratitude to Christoph for including me in the
> thread. I have carefully read the cover letter in [1], which indicates
> that an issue has arisen due to the improper use of `vmap_pfn()`. I'm
> wondering if we could consider using `vmap()` instead. In the HVO scenario,
> the tail struct pages do **exist**, but they are read-only. I've examined
> the code of `vmap()`, and it appears that it only reads the struct page.
> Therefore, it seems feasible for us to use `vmap()` (I am not a expert in
> udmabuf.). Right?

I believe my stance is correct. I've also reviewed another thread in [2].
Allow me to clarify and correct the viewpoints you presented. You stated:
"
So by HVO, it also not backed by pages, only contains folio head, each
tail pfn's page struct go away.
"
This statement is entirely inaccurate. The tail pages do not cease to exist;
rather, they are read-only. For your specific use-case, please use `vmap()`
to resolve the issue at hand. If you wish to gain a comprehensive understanding
of the fundamentals of HVO, I kindly suggest a thorough review of the document
in [3].

[2] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/5229b24f-1984-4225-ae03-8b952de56e3b@vivo.com/#t
[3] Documentation/mm/vmemmap_dedup.rst

>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20250327092922.536-1-link@vivo.com/T/#m055b34978cf882fd44d2d08d929b50292d8502b4
>
> Thanks,
> Muchun.
>