Re: [PATCH 05/13] mm/munlock: replace clear_page_mlock() by final clearance

Vlastimil Babka
2022-02-11T11:42:15Z

On 2/6/22 22:38, Hugh Dickins wrote:
> Placing munlock_vma_page() at the end of page_remove_rmap() shifts most
> of the munlocking to clear_page_mlock(), since PageMlocked is typically
> still set when mapcount has fallen to 0. That is not what we want: we
> want /proc/vmstat's unevictable_pgs_cleared to remain as a useful check
> on the integrity of of the mlock/munlock protocol - small numbers are
> not surprising, but big numbers mean the protocol is not working.
>
> That could be easily fixed by placing munlock_vma_page() at the start of
> page_remove_rmap(); but later in the series we shall want to batch the
> munlocking, and that too would tend to leave PageMlocked still set at
> the point when it is checked.
>
> So delete clear_page_mlock() now: leave it instead to release_pages()
> (and __page_cache_release()) to do this backstop clearing of Mlocked,
> when page refcount has fallen to 0. If a pinned page occasionally gets
> counted as Mlocked and Unevictable until it is unpinned, that's okay.
>
> A slightly regrettable side-effect of this change is that, since
> release_pages() and __page_cache_release() may be called at interrupt
> time, those places which update NR_MLOCK with interrupts enabled
> had better use mod_zone_page_state() than __mod_zone_page_state()
> (but holding the lruvec lock always has interrupts disabled).
>
> This change, forcing Mlocked off when refcount 0 instead of earlier
> when mapcount 0, is not fundamental: it can be reversed if performance
> or something else is found to suffer; but this is the easiest way to
> separate the stats - let's not complicate that without good reason.
>
> Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>

Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>