Re: [PATCH v2] mm/page_alloc: Add lockdep assertion for pageblock type change

Brendan Jackman
2025-03-03T16:00:15Z

On Mon, Mar 03, 2025 at 03:06:54PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> On 03.03.25 14:55, Brendan Jackman wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 03, 2025 at 02:11:23PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> > > On 03.03.25 13:13, Brendan Jackman wrote:
> > > > Since the migratetype hygiene patches [0], the locking here is
> > > > a bit more formalised.
> > > >
> > > > For other stuff, it's pretty obvious that it would be protected by the
> > > > zone lock. But it didn't seem totally self-evident that it should
> > > > protect the pageblock type. So it seems particularly helpful to have it
> > > > written in the code.
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > > +
> > > > u64 max_mem_size = U64_MAX;
> > > > /* add this memory to iomem resource */
> > > > diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> > > > index 579789600a3c7bfb7b0d847d51af702a9d4b139a..1ed21179676d05c66f77f9dbebf88e36bbe402e9 100644
> > > > --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> > > > +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> > > > @@ -417,6 +417,10 @@ void set_pfnblock_flags_mask(struct page *page, unsigned long flags,
> > > > void set_pageblock_migratetype(struct page *page, int migratetype)
> > > > {
> > > > + lockdep_assert_once(system_state == SYSTEM_BOOTING ||
> > > > + in_mem_hotplug() ||
> > > > + lockdep_is_held(&page_zone(page)->lock));
> > > > +
> > >
> > > I assume the call chain on the memory hotplug path is mostly
> > >
> > > move_pfn_range_to_zone()->memmap_init_range()->set_pageblock_migratetype()
> > >
> > > either when onlining a memory block, or from pagemap_range() while holding
> > > the hotplug lock.
> > >
> > > But there is also the memmap_init_zone_device()->memmap_init_compound()->__init_zone_device_page()->set_pageblock_migratetype()
> > > one, called from pagemap_range() *without* holding the hotplug lock, and you
> > > assertion would be missing that.
> > >
> > > I'm not too happy about that assertion in general.
> >
> > Hmm, thanks for pointing that out.
> >
> > I guess if we really wanted the assertion the approach would be to
> > replace in_mem_hotplug() with some more fine-grained logic about the
> > state of the pageblock? But that seems like it would require rework
> > that isn't really justified.
>
> I was wondering if we could just grab the zone lock while initializing, then
> assert that we either hold that or are in boot.

Would that be because you want to avoid creating in_mem_hotplug()? Or
is it more about just simplifying the synchronization in general?

FWIW I don't think the in_mem_hotplug() is really that bad in the
assertion, it feels natural to me that memory hotplug would be an
exception to the locking rules in the same way that startup would be.

> In move_pfn_range_to_zone() it should likely not cause too much harm, and we
> could just grab it around all zone modification stuff.
>
> memmap_init_zone_device() might take longer and be more problematic.
>
> But I am not sure why memmap_init_zone_device() would have to set the
> migratetype at all? Because migratetype is a buddy concept, and
> ZONE_DEVICE does not interact with the buddy to that degree.
>
> The comment in __init_zone_device_page states:
>
> "Mark the block movable so that blocks are reserved for movable at
> startup. This will force kernel allocations to reserve their blocks
> rather than leaking throughout the address space during boot when
> many long-lived kernel allocations are made."

Uh, yeah I was pretty mystified by that. It would certainly be nice if
we can just get rid of this modification path.

> But that just dates back to 966cf44f637e where we copy-pasted that code.
>
> So I wonder if we could just
>
> diff --git a/mm/mm_init.c b/mm/mm_init.c
> index 57933683ed0d1..b95f545846e6e 100644
> --- a/mm/mm_init.c
> +++ b/mm/mm_init.c
> @@ -1002,19 +1002,11 @@ static void __ref __init_zone_device_page(struct page *page, unsigned long pfn,
> page->zone_device_data = NULL;
> /*
> - * Mark the block movable so that blocks are reserved for
> - * movable at startup. This will force kernel allocations
> - * to reserve their blocks rather than leaking throughout
> - * the address space during boot when many long-lived
> - * kernel allocations are made.
> - *
> - * Please note that MEMINIT_HOTPLUG path doesn't clear memmap
> - * because this is done early in section_activate()
> + * Note that we leave pageblock migratetypes uninitialized, because
> + * they don't apply to ZONE_DEVICE.
> */
> - if (pageblock_aligned(pfn)) {
> - set_pageblock_migratetype(page, MIGRATE_MOVABLE);
> + if (pageblock_aligned(pfn))
> cond_resched();
> - }
> /*
> * ZONE_DEVICE pages other than MEMORY_TYPE_GENERIC are released

memory-model.rst says:

> Since the
> page reference count never drops below 1 the page is never tracked as
> free memory and the page's `struct list_head lru` space is repurposed
> for back referencing to the host device / driver that mapped the memory.

And this code seems to assume that the whole pageblock is part of the
ZONE_DEVICE dance, it would certainly make sense to me...