[PATCH] mm/page_alloc: only set ALLOC_HIGHATOMIC for __GPF_HIGH allocations

From: Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo
Date: Thu Aug 14 2025 - 13:27:30 EST


Commit 524c48072e56 ("mm/page_alloc: rename ALLOC_HIGH to
ALLOC_MIN_RESERVE") is the start of a series that explains how __GFP_HIGH,
which implies ALLOC_MIN_RESERVE, is going to be used instead of
__GFP_ATOMIC for high atomic reserves.

Commit eb2e2b425c69 ("mm/page_alloc: explicitly record high-order atomic
allocations in alloc_flags") introduced ALLOC_HIGHATOMIC for such
allocations of order higher than 0. It still used __GFP_ATOMIC, though.

Then, commit 1ebbb21811b7 ("mm/page_alloc: explicitly define how __GFP_HIGH
non-blocking allocations accesses reserves") just turned that check for
!__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM, ignoring that high atomic reserves were expected to
test for __GFP_HIGH.

This leads to high atomic reserves being added for high-order GFP_NOWAIT
allocations and others that clear __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM, which is
unexpected. Later, those reserves lead to 0-order allocations going to the
slow path and starting reclaim.

>From /proc/pagetypeinfo, without the patch:

Node 0, zone DMA, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Node 0, zone DMA32, type HighAtomic 1 8 10 9 7 3 0 0 0 0 0
Node 0, zone Normal, type HighAtomic 64 20 12 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

With the patch:

Node 0, zone DMA, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Node 0, zone DMA32, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Node 0, zone Normal, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Fixes: 1ebbb21811b7 ("mm/page_alloc: explicitly define how __GFP_HIGH non-blocking allocations accesses reserves")
Signed-off-by: Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo <cascardo@xxxxxxxxxx>
Tested-by: Helen Koike <koike@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: NeilBrown <neilb@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Thierry Reding <thierry.reding@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>
---
mm/page_alloc.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 2ef3c07266b3..bf52e3bef626 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -4219,7 +4219,7 @@ gfp_to_alloc_flags(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order)
if (!(gfp_mask & __GFP_NOMEMALLOC)) {
alloc_flags |= ALLOC_NON_BLOCK;

- if (order > 0)
+ if (order > 0 && (alloc_flags & ALLOC_MIN_RESERVE))
alloc_flags |= ALLOC_HIGHATOMIC;
}

--
2.47.2