[PATCH] mm:fix duplicate accounting of free pages in should_reclaim_retry()

From: liuqiqi
Date: Tue Aug 12 2025 - 03:03:06 EST


From: liuqiqi <liuqiqi@xxxxxxxxxx>

In the zone_reclaimable_pages() function, if the page counts for
NR_ZONE_INACTIVE_FILE, NR_ZONE_ACTIVE_FILE, NR_ZONE_INACTIVE_ANON,
and NR_ZONE_ACTIVE_ANON are all zero,
the function returns the number of free pages as the result.

In this case, when should_reclaim_retry() calculates reclaimable pages,
it will inadvertently double-count the free pages in its accounting.

static inline bool
should_reclaim_retry(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned order,
struct alloc_context *ac, int alloc_flags,
bool did_some_progress, int *no_progress_loops)
{
...
available = reclaimable = zone_reclaimable_pages(zone);
available += zone_page_state_snapshot(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES);

Signed-off-by: liuqiqi <liuqiqi@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/vmscan.c | 11 ++---------
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 34410d24dc15..a9aaefdba7a2 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -393,14 +393,7 @@ unsigned long zone_reclaimable_pages(struct zone *zone)
if (can_reclaim_anon_pages(NULL, zone_to_nid(zone), NULL))
nr += zone_page_state_snapshot(zone, NR_ZONE_INACTIVE_ANON) +
zone_page_state_snapshot(zone, NR_ZONE_ACTIVE_ANON);
- /*
- * If there are no reclaimable file-backed or anonymous pages,
- * ensure zones with sufficient free pages are not skipped.
- * This prevents zones like DMA32 from being ignored in reclaim
- * scenarios where they can still help alleviate memory pressure.
- */
- if (nr == 0)
- nr = zone_page_state_snapshot(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES);
+
return nr;
}

@@ -6417,7 +6410,7 @@ static bool allow_direct_reclaim(pg_data_t *pgdat)
return true;

for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, pgdat, i, ZONE_NORMAL) {
- if (!zone_reclaimable_pages(zone))
+ if (!zone_reclaimable_pages(zone) && zone_page_state_snapshot(zone, NR_FREE_PAGES))
continue;

pfmemalloc_reserve += min_wmark_pages(zone);
--
2.25.1