[PATCH 4/8] mm: thp: optimize compound_trans_huge

[Andrea Arcangeli]

Currently we don't clobber page_tail->first_page during
split_huge_page, so compound_trans_head can be set to compound_head
without adverse effects, and this mostly optimizes away a smp_rmb.

It looks worthwhile to keep around the implementation that doesn't
relay on page_tail->first_page not to be clobbered, because it would
be necessary if we'll decide to enforce page->private to zero at all
times whenever PG_private is not set, also for anonymous pages. For
anonymous pages enforcing such an invariant doesn't matter as
anonymous pages don't use page->private so we can get away with this
microoptimization.

Signed-off-by: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 include/linux/huge_mm.h | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/huge_mm.h b/include/linux/huge_mm.h
index 91672e2..db51201 100644
--- a/include/linux/huge_mm.h
+++ b/include/linux/huge_mm.h
@@ -157,6 +157,26 @@ static inline int hpage_nr_pages(struct page *page)
 		return HPAGE_PMD_NR;
 	return 1;
 }
+/*
+ * compound_trans_head() should be used instead of compound_head(),
+ * whenever the "page" passed as parameter could be the tail of a
+ * transparent hugepage that could be undergoing a
+ * __split_huge_page_refcount(). The page structure layout often
+ * changes across releases and it makes extensive use of unions. So if
+ * the page structure layout will change in a way that
+ * page->first_page gets clobbered by __split_huge_page_refcount, the
+ * implementation making use of smp_rmb() will be required.
+ *
+ * Currently we define compound_trans_head as compound_head, because
+ * page->private is in the same union with page->first_page, and
+ * page->private isn't clobbered. However this also means we're
+ * currently leaving dirt into the page->private field of anonymous
+ * pages resulting from a THP split, instead of setting page->private
+ * to zero like for every other page that has PG_private not set. But
+ * anonymous pages don't use page->private so this is not a problem.
+ */
+#if 0
+/* This will be needed if page->private will be clobbered in split_huge_page */
 static inline struct page *compound_trans_head(struct page *page)
 {
 	if (PageTail(page)) {
@@ -174,6 +194,9 @@ static inline struct page *compound_trans_head(struct page *page)
 	}
 	return page;
 }
+#else
+#define compound_trans_head(page) compound_head(page)
+#endif
 
 extern int do_huge_pmd_numa_page(struct mm_struct *mm, struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 				unsigned long addr, pmd_t pmd, pmd_t *pmdp);
--
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