Re: [PATCH RFC] mm: madvise: use walk_page_range_vma() for madvise_free_single_vma()

From: David Hildenbrand
Date: Tue Jun 03 2025 - 08:15:33 EST


On 03.06.25 11:41, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
On Tue, Jun 03, 2025 at 08:47:04PM +1200, Barry Song wrote:
On Tue, Jun 3, 2025 at 6:11 PM Dev Jain <dev.jain@xxxxxxx> wrote:


On 03/06/25 7:01 am, Barry Song wrote:
From: Barry Song <v-songbaohua@xxxxxxxx>

We've already found the VMA before calling madvise_free_single_vma(),
so calling walk_page_range() and doing find_vma() again seems
unnecessary. It also prevents potential optimizations for MADV_FREE
to use a per-VMA lock.

Cc: "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Lokesh Gidra <lokeshgidra@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Tangquan Zheng <zhengtangquan@xxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Barry Song <v-songbaohua@xxxxxxxx>
---
mm/madvise.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c
index d408ffa404b3..c6a28a2d3ff8 100644
--- a/mm/madvise.c
+++ b/mm/madvise.c
@@ -826,7 +826,7 @@ static int madvise_free_single_vma(struct madvise_behavior *madv_behavior,

mmu_notifier_invalidate_range_start(&range);
tlb_start_vma(tlb, vma);
- walk_page_range(vma->vm_mm, range.start, range.end,
+ walk_page_range_vma(vma, range.start, range.end,
&madvise_free_walk_ops, tlb);
tlb_end_vma(tlb, vma);
mmu_notifier_invalidate_range_end(&range);

Can similar optimizations be made in madvise_willneed(), madvise_cold_page_range(), etc?

Yes, I think the same code flow applies to madvise_willneed,
madvise_cold_page_range, and similar functions, though my current
interest is more on madvise_free.

Let me prepare a v2 that includes those as well.

FWIW Dev makes a great point here and I agree wholeheartedly, let's fix all such
cases...

As an aside, I wonder if we previously didn't do this because we hadn't
previously exposed the walk_page_range_vma() API or something?

IIRC, yes:

commit e07cda5f232fac4de0925d8a4c92e51e41fa2f6e
Author: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri Oct 21 12:11:39 2022 +0200

mm/pagewalk: add walk_page_range_vma()
Let's add walk_page_range_vma(), which is similar to walk_page_vma(),
however, is only interested in a subset of the VMA range.
To be used in KSM code to stop using follow_page() next.


--
Cheers,

David / dhildenb