Re: [RFC PATCH v6 3/5] mm: Hot page tracking and promotion - pghot

Donet Tom
2026-04-30T07:07:17Z

Hi Bharata

On 4/27/26 10:54 AM, Bharata B Rao wrote:
> On 24-Apr-26 6:27 PM, Donet Tom wrote:
>>> +int pghot_record_access(unsigned long pfn, int nid, int src, unsigned long now)
>>> +{
>>> +    struct mem_section *ms;
>>> +    struct folio *folio;
>>> +    phi_t *phi, *hot_map;
>>> +    struct page *page;
>>> +
>>> +    if (!kmigrated_started)
>>> +        return 0;
>>> +
>>> +    if (!pghot_nid_valid(nid))
>>> +        return -EINVAL;
>>> +
>>> +    switch (src) {
>>> +    case PGHOT_HINTFAULTS:
>>> +        if (!static_branch_unlikely(&pghot_src_hintfaults))
>>> +            return 0;
>>> +        count_vm_event(PGHOT_RECORDED_HINTFAULTS);
>>> +        break;
>>> +    case PGHOT_HWHINTS:
>>> +        if (!static_branch_unlikely(&pghot_src_hwhints))
>>> +            return 0;
>>> +        count_vm_event(PGHOT_RECORDED_HWHINTS);
>>> +        break;
>>> +    default:
>>> +        return -EINVAL;
>>> +    }
>>> +
>>> +    /*
>>> +     * Record only accesses from lower tiers.
>>> +     */
>>> +    if (node_is_toptier(pfn_to_nid(pfn)))
>>> +        return 0;
>>
>> Just a thought—could we check this at the beginning of the function, before the
>> switch case?
> I am accumulating two stats here: How many hot page intimations pghot obtained
> that are attributable to different sources
>
> and
>
> out of them, how many turned out to be actionable
>

Understood. Thanks for the clarification.

>
>>
>>> +
>>> +    /*
>>> +     * Reject the non-migratable pages right away.
>>> +     */
>>> +    page = pfn_to_online_page(pfn);
>>> +    if (!page || is_zone_device_page(page))
>>> +        return 0;
>>> +
>>> +    folio = page_folio(page);
>>> +    if (!folio_try_get(folio))
>>> +        return 0;
>>> +
>>> +    if (unlikely(page_folio(page) != folio))
>>> +        goto out;
>>> +
>>> +    if (!folio_test_lru(folio))
>>> +        goto out;
>>> +
>>> +    /* Get the hotness slot corresponding to the 1st PFN of the folio */
>>> +    pfn = folio_pfn(folio);
>>> +    ms = __pfn_to_section(pfn);
>>> +    if (!ms || !ms->hot_map)
>>> +        goto out;
>>> +
>>> +    hot_map = (phi_t *)(((unsigned long)(ms->hot_map)) &
>>> ~PGHOT_SECTION_HOT_MASK);
>>> +    phi = &hot_map[pfn % PAGES_PER_SECTION];
>>> +
>>> +    count_vm_event(PGHOT_RECORDED_ACCESSES);
> which is this ^
>
>>> +static void kmigrated_do_work(pg_data_t *pgdat)
>>> +{
>>> +    unsigned long section_nr, s_begin, start_pfn;
>>> +    struct mem_section *ms;
>>> +    int nid;
>>> +
>>> +    clear_bit(PGDAT_KMIGRATED_ACTIVATE, &pgdat->flags);
>>> +    s_begin = next_present_section_nr(-1);
>>> +    for_each_present_section_nr(s_begin, section_nr) {
>>> +        start_pfn = section_nr_to_pfn(section_nr);
>>
>> I may be missing something, but in pghot_setup_hot_map() and kmigrated_do_work()
>> we seem to iterate over all memory sections. On large memory systems, could this
>> become a bottleneck right?
>>
>> Since hot_map is allocated only for lower-tier memory and the hotness
>> information is primarily used there, would it make sense to skip scanning
>> higher-tier sections?
>>
>> for_each_online_node(nid) {
>>         if (node_is_toptier(nid))
>>             continue;
>>
>>         start_pfn = node_start_pfn(nid);
>>         end_pfn = node_end_pfn(nid);
>>
>>         s_begin = pfn_to_section_nr(start_pfn);
>>         for_each_present_section_nr(s_begin, section_nr) {
>>     }
>> }
>>
>> Would this approach be reasonable, or am I overlooking something?
> I didn't just yet optimize the walk. Since there is one kmigrated thread per
> lower tier, this routine already is aware of which node to scan. We can limit
> the section walk to that node instead. Something like this:
>
> static void kmigrated_do_work(pg_data_t *pgdat)
> {
> unsigned long section_nr, s_begin, start_pfn, end_pfn;
> struct mem_section *ms;
> int nid = pgdat->node_id;
>
> start_pfn = SECTION_ALIGN_DOWN(node_start_pfn(nid));
> end_pfn = SECTION_ALIGN_UP(start_pfn + node_end_pfn(nid));
>
> for (pfn = start_pfn; pfn < end_pfn; pfn += PAGES_PER_SECTION) {
> section_nr = pfn_to_section_nr(pfn);
>
> if (!present_section_nr(section_nr))
> continue;
>
> ms = __nr_to_section(section_nr);
>
> ...
>
> kmigrated_walk_zone(pfn, pfn + PAGES_PER_SECTION, nid);
> }
> }

Thanks. This looks good to me.

>
>>> +static int pghot_online_sec_hotmap(unsigned long start_pfn,
>>> +                   unsigned long nr_pages)
>>> +{
>>> +    int nid = pfn_to_nid(start_pfn);
>>> +    unsigned long start, end, pfn;
>>> +    struct mem_section *ms;
>>> +    int fail = 0;
>>> +
>>> +    start = SECTION_ALIGN_DOWN(start_pfn);
>>> +    end = SECTION_ALIGN_UP(start_pfn + nr_pages);
>>> +
>>> +    for (pfn = start; !fail && pfn < end; pfn += PAGES_PER_SECTION) {
>>> +        ms = __pfn_to_section(pfn);
>>> +        if (!ms || ms->hot_map)
>>> +            continue;
>>> +
>>> +        fail = pghot_alloc_hot_map(ms, nid);
>> I may be missing something, but after pghot_alloc_hot_map fails, we continue the
>> loop. Would it make sense to break and go to the cleanup logic instead?
> There is a !fail check in the for-loop due to which we break when alloc fails.

My bad, I missed it.

-Donet

> Regards,
> Bharata.
>