Re: [PATCH] mm: Add more comments for MADV_FREE

From: David Rientjes
Date: Wed Mar 11 2020 - 01:08:59 EST


On Wed, 11 Mar 2020, Huang, Ying wrote:

> diff --git a/include/linux/mm_inline.h b/include/linux/mm_inline.h
> index 6f2fef7b0784..01144dd02a5f 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mm_inline.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mm_inline.h
> @@ -9,10 +9,11 @@
> * page_is_file_cache - should the page be on a file LRU or anon LRU?
> * @page: the page to test
> *
> - * Returns 1 if @page is page cache page backed by a regular filesystem,
> - * or 0 if @page is anonymous, tmpfs or otherwise ram or swap backed.
> - * Used by functions that manipulate the LRU lists, to sort a page
> - * onto the right LRU list.
> + * Returns 1 if @page is page cache page backed by a regular filesystem or
> + * anonymous page lazily freed (e.g. via MADV_FREE). Returns 0 if @page is
> + * normal anonymous page, tmpfs or otherwise ram or swap backed. Used by
> + * functions that manipulate the LRU lists, to sort a page onto the right LRU
> + * list.

The function name is misleading: anonymous pages that can be lazily freed
are not file cache. This returns 1 because of the question it is asking:
anonymous lazily freeable pages should be on the file lru, not the anon
lru. So before adjusting the comment I'd suggest renaming the function to
something like page_is_file_lru().

The rest looks fine.