On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 09:45:34PM +0200, David Hildenbrand wrote:
...
Let's ask the real questions: who checks PGTBL_PTE_MODIFIED?
I see
if (mask & ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK)
arch_sync_kernel_mappings(start, start + size);
And then
arch/arm/include/asm/page.h:#define ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK PGTBL_PMD_MODIFIED
arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-2level_types.h:#define ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK PGTBL_PMD_MODIFIED
arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-3level_types.h:#define ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK PGTBL_PMD_MODIFIED
Which makes me wonder why we need PGTBL_PTE_MODIFIED at all? Is there some other check I am missing?
(same question regarding everything excepy PGTBL_PMD_MODIFIED, because that actually seems to be used)
AFAICT it was thought as architecture-specific:
/*
* Architectures can set this mask to a combination of PGTBL_P?D_MODIFIED values
* and let generic vmalloc and ioremap code know when arch_sync_kernel_mappings()
* needs to be called.
*/
#ifndef ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK
#define ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK 0
#endif
Not sure if that needs to be addressed at all.