[PATCHv7 RESEND 00/17] mm: Eliminate fake head pages from vmemmap optimization

Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta)
2026-02-27T19:43:11Z

This series removes "fake head pages" from the HugeTLB vmemmap
optimization (HVO) by changing how tail pages encode their relationship
to the head page.

It simplifies compound_head() and page_ref_add_unless(). Both are in the
hot path.

Background
==========

HVO reduces memory overhead by freeing vmemmap pages for HugeTLB pages
and remapping the freed virtual addresses to a single physical page.
Previously, all tail page vmemmap entries were remapped to the first
vmemmap page (containing the head struct page), creating "fake heads" -
tail pages that appear to have PG_head set when accessed through the
deduplicated vmemmap.

This required special handling in compound_head() to detect and work
around fake heads, adding complexity and overhead to a very hot path.

New Approach
============

For architectures/configs where sizeof(struct page) is a power of 2 (the
common case), this series changes how position of the head page is encoded
in the tail pages.

Instead of storing a pointer to the head page, the ->compound_info
(renamed from ->compound_head) now stores a mask.

The mask can be applied to any tail page's virtual address to compute
the head page address. Critically, all tail pages of the same order now
have identical compound_info values, regardless of which compound page
they belong to.

The key insight is that all tail pages of the same order now have
identical compound_info values, regardless of which compound page they
belong to.

In v7, these shared tail pages are allocated per-zone. This ensures
that zone information (stored in page->flags) is correct even for
shared tail pages, removing the need for the special-casing in
page_zonenum() proposed in earlier versions.

To support per-zone shared pages for boot-allocated gigantic pages,
the vmemmap population is deferred until zones are initialized. This
simplifies the logic significantly and allows the removal of
vmemmap_undo_hvo().

Benefits
========

1. Simplified compound_head(): No fake head detection needed, can be
implemented in a branchless manner.

2. Simplified page_ref_add_unless(): RCU protection removed since there's
no race with fake head remapping.

3. Cleaner architecture: The shared tail pages are truly read-only and
contain valid tail page metadata.

If sizeof(struct page) is not power-of-2, there are no functional changes.
HVO is not supported in this configuration.

I had hoped to see performance improvement, but my testing thus far has
shown either no change or only a slight improvement within the noise.

Series Organization
===================

Patch 1: Move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER definition to mmzone.h.
Patches 2-4: Refactoring of field names and interfaces.
Patches 5-6: Architecture alignment for LoongArch and RISC-V.
Patch 7: Mask-based compound_head() implementation.
Patch 8: Add memmap alignment checks.
Patch 9: Branchless compound_head() optimization.
Patch 10: Defer vmemmap population for bootmem hugepages.
Patch 11: Refactor vmemmap_walk.
Patch 12: x86 vDSO build fix.
Patch 13: Eliminate fake heads with per-zone shared tail pages.
Patches 14-16: Cleanup of fake head infrastructure.
Patch 17: Documentation update.
Patch 18: Use compound_head() in page_slab().

Changes in v7:
==============

- Move vmemmap_tails from per-node to per-zone. This ensures tail
pages have correct zone information.

- Defer vmemmap population for boot-allocated huge pages to
hugetlb_vmemmap_init_late(). This makes zone information available
during population and allows removing vmemmap_undo_hvo().

- Undefine CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE_OPTIMIZE_VMEMMAP for x86 vdso32 to
fix build issues.

- Remove the patch that modified page_zonenum(), as per-zone
shared pages make it unnecessary.

Changes in v6:
==============
- Simplify memmap alignment check in mm/sparse.c: use VM_BUG_ON()
(Muchun)

- Store struct page pointers in vmemmap_tails[] instead of PFNs.
(Muchun)

- Fix build error on powerpc due to negative NR_VMEMMAP_TAILS.

Changes in v5:
==============
- Rebased to mm-everything-2026-01-27-04-35

- Add arch-specific patches to align vmemmap to maximal folio size
for riscv and LoongArch architectures.

- Strengthen the memmap alignment check in mm/sparse.c: use BUG()
for CONFIG_DEBUG_VM, WARN() otherwise. (Muchun)

- Use cmpxchg() instead of hugetlb_lock to update vmemmap_tails
array. (Muchun)

- Update page_slab().

Changes in v4:
==============
- Fix build issues due to linux/mmzone.h <-> linux/pgtable.h
dependency loop by avoiding including linux/pgtable.h into
linux/mmzone.h

- Rework vmemmap_remap_alloc() interface. (Muchun)

- Use &folio->page instead of folio address for optimization
target. (Muchun)

Changes in v3:
==============
- Fixed error recovery path in vmemmap_remap_free() to pass correct start
address for TLB flush. (Muchun)

- Wrapped the mask-based compound_info encoding within CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP
check via compound_info_has_mask(). For other memory models, alignment
guarantees are harder to verify. (Muchun)

- Updated vmemmap_dedup.rst documentation wording: changed "vmemmap_tail
shared for the struct hstate" to "A single, per-node page frame shared
among all hugepages of the same size". (Muchun)

- Fixed build error with MAX_FOLIO_ORDER expanding to undefined PUD_ORDER
in certain configurations. (kernel test robot)

Changes in v2:
==============

- Handle boot-allocated huge pages correctly. (Frank)

- Changed from per-hstate vmemmap_tail to per-node vmemmap_tails[] array
in pglist_data. (Muchun)

- Added spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock) protection in vmemmap_get_tail() to fix
a race condition where two threads could both allocate tail pages.
The losing thread now properly frees its allocated page. (Usama)

- Add warning if memmap is not aligned to MAX_FOLIO_SIZE, which is
required for the mask approach. (Muchun)

- Make page_zonenum() use head page - correctness fix since shared
tail pages cannot have valid zone information. (Muchun)

- Added 'const' qualifier to head parameter in set_compound_head() and
prep_compound_tail(). (Usama)

- Updated commit messages.

Kiryl Shutsemau (16):
mm: Move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER definition to mmzone.h
mm: Change the interface of prep_compound_tail()
mm: Rename the 'compound_head' field in the 'struct page' to
'compound_info'
mm: Move set/clear_compound_head() next to compound_head()
riscv/mm: Align vmemmap to maximal folio size
LoongArch/mm: Align vmemmap to maximal folio size
mm: Rework compound_head() for power-of-2 sizeof(struct page)
mm/sparse: Check memmap alignment for compound_info_has_mask()
mm/hugetlb: Refactor code around vmemmap_walk
mm/hugetlb: Remove fake head pages
mm: Drop fake head checks
hugetlb: Remove VMEMMAP_SYNCHRONIZE_RCU
mm/hugetlb: Remove hugetlb_optimize_vmemmap_key static key
mm: Remove the branch from compound_head()
hugetlb: Update vmemmap_dedup.rst
mm/slab: Use compound_head() in page_slab()

Kiryl Shutsemau (Meta) (2):
mm/hugetlb: Defer vmemmap population for bootmem hugepages
x86/vdso: Undefine CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE_OPTIMIZE_VMEMMAP for vdso32

.../admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst | 2 +-
Documentation/mm/vmemmap_dedup.rst | 62 ++-
arch/loongarch/include/asm/pgtable.h | 3 +-
arch/riscv/mm/init.c | 3 +-
arch/x86/entry/vdso/vdso32/fake_32bit_build.h | 1 +
include/linux/mm.h | 36 +-
include/linux/mm_types.h | 20 +-
include/linux/mmzone.h | 57 +++
include/linux/page-flags.h | 166 ++++----
include/linux/page_ref.h | 8 +-
include/linux/types.h | 2 +-
kernel/vmcore_info.c | 2 +-
mm/hugetlb.c | 8 +-
mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c | 362 +++++++++---------
mm/internal.h | 18 +-
mm/mm_init.c | 2 +-
mm/page_alloc.c | 4 +-
mm/slab.h | 8 +-
mm/sparse-vmemmap.c | 110 +++---
mm/sparse.c | 5 +
mm/util.c | 16 +-
21 files changed, 448 insertions(+), 447 deletions(-)

--
2.51.2