Re: [PATCH v10 0/4] mm/vmalloc: free unused pages on vrealloc() shrink

Shivam Kalra
2026-04-14T08:39:48Z

On 04/04/26 14:06, Shivam Kalra via B4 Relay wrote:
> This series implements the TODO in vrealloc() to unmap and free unused
> pages when shrinking across a page boundary.
>
> Problem:
> When vrealloc() shrinks an allocation, it updates bookkeeping
> (requested_size, KASAN shadow) but does not free the underlying physical
> pages. This wastes memory for the lifetime of the allocation.
>
> Solution:
> - Patch 1: Extracts a vm_area_free_pages(vm, start_idx, end_idx) helper
> from vfree() that frees a range of pages with memcg and nr_vmalloc_pages
> accounting. Freed page pointers are set to NULL to prevent stale
> references.
> - Patch 2: Update the grow-in-place check in vrealloc() to compare the
> requested size against the actual physical page count (vm->nr_pages)
> rather than the virtual area sizes. This is a prerequisite for shrinking.
> - Patch 3: Uses the helper to free tail pages when vrealloc() shrinks
> across a page boundary.
> - Patch 4: Adds a vrealloc test case to lib/test_vmalloc that exercises
> grow-realloc, shrink-across-boundary, shrink-within-page, and
> grow-in-place paths.
>
> The virtual address reservation is kept intact to preserve the range
> for potential future grow-in-place support.
> A concrete user is the Rust binder driver's KVVec::shrink_to [1], which
> performs explicit vrealloc() shrinks for memory reclamation.
>
> Tested:
> - KASAN KUnit (vmalloc_oob passes)
> - lib/test_vmalloc stress tests (3/3, 1M iterations each)
> - checkpatch, sparse, W=1, allmodconfig, coccicheck clean
>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260216-binder-shrink-vec-v3-v6-0-ece8e8593e53@zohomail.in/
>
> Suggested-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
> Signed-off-by: Shivam Kalra <shivamkalra98@zohomail.in>
> ---
> Changes in v10:
> - Reorder vm->nr_pages to the beginning (Alice Ryhl)
> - Link to v9: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260401-vmalloc-shrink-v9-0-bf58dfb997d8@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v9:
> - Remove READ_ONCE, WRITE_ONCE and drop commit
> about show_numa_info. (Uladzislau Rezki)
> - Update the commit message in Patch 2. (Alice Ryhl)
> - Remove zero newly exposed memory commit.
> - Link to v8: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260327-vmalloc-shrink-v8-0-cc6b57059ed7@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v8:
> - Strip the KASAN tag from the pointer before addr_to_node()
> to avoid acquiring the wrong node lock (Sashiko).
> - Rebase to latest mm-new.
> - Link to v7: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260324-vmalloc-shrink-v7-0-c0e62b8e5d83@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v7:
> - Fix NULL pointer dereference in shrink path (Sashiko)
> - Acquire vn->busy.lock when updating vm->nr_pages to synchronize
> with concurrent readers (Uladzislau Rezki)
> - Use READ_ONCE in vmalloc_dump_obj (Sashiko)
> - Skip shrink path on GFP_NIO or GFP_NOFS. (Sashiko)
> - Fix Overflow issue for large allocations. (Sashiko)
> - Use vrealloc instead of vmalloc in vrealloc test.
> - Link to v6: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260321-vmalloc-shrink-v6-0-062ca7b7ceb2@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v6:
> - Fix VM_USERMAP crash by explicitly bypassing early in the shrink path if the flag is set.(Sashiko)
> - Fix Kmemleak scanner panic by calling kmemleak_free_part() to update tracking on shrink.(Sashiko)
> - Fix /proc/vmallocinfo race condition by protecting vm->nr_pages access with
> READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() for concurrent readers.(Sashiko)
> - Fix stale data leak on grow-after-shrink by enforcing mandatory zeroing of the newly exposed memory.(Sashiko)
> - Fix memory leaks in vrealloc_test() by using a temporary pointer to preserve and
> free the original allocation upon failure.(Sashiko)
> - Rename vmalloc_free_pages parameters from start/end to start_idx/end_idx for better clarity.(Uladzislau Rezki)
> - Link to v5: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260317-vmalloc-shrink-v5-0-bbfbf54c5265@zohomail.in
> - Link to Sashiko: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260317-vmalloc-shrink-v5-0-bbfbf54c5265%40zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v5:
> - Skip vrealloc shrink for VM_FLUSH_RESET_PERMS (Uladzislau Rezki)
> - Link to v4: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260314-vmalloc-shrink-v4-0-c1e2e0bb5455@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v4:
> - Rename vmalloc_free_pages() to vm_area_free_pages() to align with
> vm_area_alloc_pages() (Uladzislau Rezki)
> - NULL out freed vm->pages[] entries to prevent stale pointers (Alice Ryhl)
> - Remove redundant if (vm->nr_pages) guard in vfree() (Uladzislau Rezki)
> - Add vrealloc test case to lib/test_vmalloc (new patch 3/3)
> - Link to v3: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260309-vmalloc-shrink-v3-0-5590fd8de2eb@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v3:
> - Restore the comment.
> - Rebase to the latest mm-new
> - Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260304-vmalloc-shrink-v2-0-28c291d60100@zohomail.in
>
> Changes in v2:
> - Updated the base-commit to mm-new
> - Fix conflicts after rebase
> - Ran `clang-format` on the changes made
> - Use a single `kasan_vrealloc` (Alice Ryhl)
> - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260302-vmalloc-shrink-v1-0-46deff465b7e@zohomail.in
>
> ---
> Shivam Kalra (4):
> mm/vmalloc: extract vm_area_free_pages() helper from vfree()
> mm/vmalloc: use physical page count for vrealloc() grow-in-place check
> mm/vmalloc: free unused pages on vrealloc() shrink
> lib/test_vmalloc: add vrealloc test case
>
> lib/test_vmalloc.c | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> mm/vmalloc.c | 111 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
> 2 files changed, 154 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)
> ---
> base-commit: b47b4fa4c232ee36aae58630e9d6520e35d33f3a
> change-id: 20260302-vmalloc-shrink-04b2fa688a14
>
> Best regards,
Hey Ulad, Andrew
A gentle thread bump. Will we include this in this merge window?
Let me know if you have any suggestions, I will resolve them
asap.