Re: [PATCH v4 0/2] Optimize mremap() for large folios

[Lorenzo Stoakes]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 09:20:41AM +0530, Dev Jain wrote:
> Currently move_ptes() iterates through ptes one by one. If the underlying
> folio mapped by the ptes is large, we can process those ptes in a batch
> using folio_pte_batch(), thus clearing and setting the PTEs in one go.
> For arm64 specifically, this results in a 16x reduction in the number of
> ptep_get() calls (since on a contig block, ptep_get() on arm64 will iterate
> through all 16 entries to collect a/d bits), and we also elide extra TLBIs
> through get_and_clear_full_ptes, replacing ptep_get_and_clear.

Thanks this is good!

>
> Mapping 1M of memory with 64K folios, memsetting it, remapping it to
> src + 1M, and munmapping it 10,000 times, the average execution time
> reduces from 1.9 to 1.2 seconds, giving a 37% performance optimization,
> on Apple M3 (arm64). No regression is observed for small folios.

Hmm, I thought people were struggling to get M3 to work with Asahi? :) or is
this in a mac-based vm? I've not paid attention to recent developments.

>
> The patchset is based on mm-unstable (6ebffe676fcf).
>
> Test program for reference:
>
> #define _GNU_SOURCE
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> #include <unistd.h>
> #include <sys/mman.h>
> #include <string.h>
> #include <errno.h>
>
> #define SIZE (1UL << 20) // 1M
>
> int main(void) {
>     void *new_addr, *addr;
>
>     for (int i = 0; i < 10000; ++i) {
>         addr = mmap((void *)(1UL << 30), SIZE, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
>                     MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0);
>         if (addr == MAP_FAILED) {
>                 perror("mmap");
>                 return 1;
>         }
>         memset(addr, 0xAA, SIZE);
>
>         new_addr = mremap(addr, SIZE, SIZE, MREMAP_MAYMOVE | MREMAP_FIXED, addr + SIZE);
>         if (new_addr != (addr + SIZE)) {
>                 perror("mremap");
>                 return 1;
>         }
>         munmap(new_addr, SIZE);
>     }
>
> }
>

Thanks for including! Very useful.

> v3->v4:
>  - Remove comment above mremap_folio_pte_batch, improve patch description
>    differentiating between folio splitting and pagetable splitting
> v2->v3:
>  - Refactor mremap_folio_pte_batch, drop maybe_contiguous_pte_pfns, fix
>    indentation (Lorenzo), fix cover letter description (512K -> 1M)

It's nitty but these seem to be getting more and more abbreviated :) not a
massive big deal however ;)

>
> v1->v2:
>  - Expand patch descriptions, move pte declarations to a new line,
>    reduce indentation in patch 2 by introducing mremap_folio_pte_batch(),
>    fix loop iteration (Lorenzo)
>  - Merge patch 2 and 3 (Anshuman, Lorenzo)
>  - Fix maybe_contiguous_pte_pfns (Willy)
>
> Dev Jain (2):
>   mm: Call pointers to ptes as ptep
>   mm: Optimize mremap() by PTE batching
>
>  mm/mremap.c | 58 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------
>  1 file changed, 42 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
>
> --
> 2.30.2
>