Re: [PATCH 1/4] mm: Introduce vm_uffd_ops API

From: Mike Rapoport
Date: Sun Jun 22 2025 - 03:28:25 EST


Hi Peter,

On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 03:03:39PM -0400, Peter Xu wrote:
> Introduce a generic userfaultfd API for vm_operations_struct, so that one
> vma, especially when as a module, can support userfaults without modifying
> the core files. More importantly, when the module can be compiled out of
> the kernel.
>
> So, instead of having core mm referencing modules that may not ever exist,
> we need to have modules opt-in on core mm hooks instead.
>
> After this API applied, if a module wants to support userfaultfd, the
> module should only need to touch its own file and properly define
> vm_uffd_ops, instead of changing anything in core mm.
>
> Note that such API will not work for anonymous. Core mm will process
> anonymous memory separately for userfault operations like before.
>
> This patch only introduces the API alone so that we can start to move
> existing users over but without breaking them.
>
> Currently the uffd_copy() API is almost designed to be the simplistic with
> minimum mm changes to move over to the API.
>
> Signed-off-by: Peter Xu <peterx@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> include/linux/mm.h | 71 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> include/linux/userfaultfd_k.h | 12 ------
> 2 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/include/linux/mm.h b/include/linux/mm.h
> index 98a606908307..8dfd83f01d3d 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mm.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mm.h
> @@ -576,6 +576,70 @@ struct vm_fault {
> */
> };
>
> +#ifdef CONFIG_USERFAULTFD
> +/* A combined operation mode + behavior flags. */
> +typedef unsigned int __bitwise uffd_flags_t;
> +
> +enum mfill_atomic_mode {
> + MFILL_ATOMIC_COPY,
> + MFILL_ATOMIC_ZEROPAGE,
> + MFILL_ATOMIC_CONTINUE,
> + MFILL_ATOMIC_POISON,
> + NR_MFILL_ATOMIC_MODES,
> +};
> +
> +/* VMA userfaultfd operations */
> +typedef struct {
> + /**
> + * @uffd_features: features supported in bitmask.
> + *
> + * When the ops is defined, the driver must set non-zero features
> + * to be a subset (or all) of: VM_UFFD_MISSING|WP|MINOR.
> + */
> + unsigned long uffd_features;
> + /**
> + * @uffd_ioctls: ioctls supported in bitmask.
> + *
> + * Userfaultfd ioctls supported by the module. Below will always
> + * be supported by default whenever a module provides vm_uffd_ops:
> + *
> + * _UFFDIO_API, _UFFDIO_REGISTER, _UFFDIO_UNREGISTER, _UFFDIO_WAKE
> + *
> + * The module needs to provide all the rest optionally supported
> + * ioctls. For example, when VM_UFFD_MISSING was supported,
> + * _UFFDIO_COPY must be supported as ioctl, while _UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE
> + * is optional.
> + */
> + unsigned long uffd_ioctls;
> + /**
> + * uffd_get_folio: Handler to resolve UFFDIO_CONTINUE request.
> + *
> + * @inode: the inode for folio lookup
> + * @pgoff: the pgoff of the folio
> + * @folio: returned folio pointer
> + *
> + * Return: zero if succeeded, negative for errors.
> + */
> + int (*uffd_get_folio)(struct inode *inode, pgoff_t pgoff,
> + struct folio **folio);
> + /**
> + * uffd_copy: Handler to resolve UFFDIO_COPY|ZEROPAGE request.
> + *
> + * @dst_pmd: target pmd to resolve page fault
> + * @dst_vma: target vma
> + * @dst_addr: target virtual address
> + * @src_addr: source address to copy from
> + * @flags: userfaultfd request flags
> + * @foliop: previously allocated folio
> + *
> + * Return: zero if succeeded, negative for errors.
> + */
> + int (*uffd_copy)(pmd_t *dst_pmd, struct vm_area_struct *dst_vma,
> + unsigned long dst_addr, unsigned long src_addr,
> + uffd_flags_t flags, struct folio **foliop);
> +} vm_uffd_ops;
> +#endif

Can't we define vm_uffd_ops in userfaultfd_k.h?

A forward declaration in mm.h should suffice and modules that want to use
uffd can include userfaultfd_k.h.

> +
> /*
> * These are the virtual MM functions - opening of an area, closing and
> * unmapping it (needed to keep files on disk up-to-date etc), pointer
> @@ -653,6 +717,13 @@ struct vm_operations_struct {
> */
> struct page *(*find_special_page)(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
> unsigned long addr);
> +#ifdef CONFIG_USERFAULTFD
> + /*
> + * Userfaultfd related ops. Modules need to define this to support
> + * userfaultfd.
> + */
> + const vm_uffd_ops *userfaultfd_ops;
> +#endif
> };
>
> #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA_BALANCING
> diff --git a/include/linux/userfaultfd_k.h b/include/linux/userfaultfd_k.h
> index ccad58602846..e79c724b3b95 100644
> --- a/include/linux/userfaultfd_k.h
> +++ b/include/linux/userfaultfd_k.h
> @@ -80,18 +80,6 @@ struct userfaultfd_ctx {
>
> extern vm_fault_t handle_userfault(struct vm_fault *vmf, unsigned long reason);
>
> -/* A combined operation mode + behavior flags. */
> -typedef unsigned int __bitwise uffd_flags_t;
> -
> -/* Mutually exclusive modes of operation. */
> -enum mfill_atomic_mode {
> - MFILL_ATOMIC_COPY,
> - MFILL_ATOMIC_ZEROPAGE,
> - MFILL_ATOMIC_CONTINUE,
> - MFILL_ATOMIC_POISON,
> - NR_MFILL_ATOMIC_MODES,
> -};
> -
> #define MFILL_ATOMIC_MODE_BITS (const_ilog2(NR_MFILL_ATOMIC_MODES - 1) + 1)
> #define MFILL_ATOMIC_BIT(nr) BIT(MFILL_ATOMIC_MODE_BITS + (nr))
> #define MFILL_ATOMIC_FLAG(nr) ((__force uffd_flags_t) MFILL_ATOMIC_BIT(nr))
> --
> 2.49.0
>

--
Sincerely yours,
Mike.