Re: [PATCH 0/2] fix MADV_COLLAPSE issue if THP settings are disabled

[Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>]

On 29/05/2025 09:23, Baolin Wang wrote:
> As we discussed in the previous thread [1], the MADV_COLLAPSE will ignore
> the system-wide anon/shmem THP sysfs settings, which means that even though
> we have disabled the anon/shmem THP configuration, MADV_COLLAPSE will still
> attempt to collapse into a anon/shmem THP. This violates the rule we have
> agreed upon: never means never. This patch set will address this issue.

This is a drive-by comment from me without having the previous context, but...

Surely MADV_COLLAPSE *should* ignore the THP sysfs settings? It's a deliberate
user-initiated, synchonous request to use huge pages for a range of memory.
There is nothing *transparent* about it, it just happens to be implemented using
the same logic that THP uses.

I always thought this was a deliberate design decision.

Thanks,
Ryan

> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/1f00fdc3-a3a3-464b-8565-4c1b23d34f8d@linux.alibaba.com/
> 
> Baolin Wang (2):
>   mm: huge_memory: disallow hugepages if the system-wide THP sysfs
>     settings are disabled
>   mm: shmem: disallow hugepages if the system-wide shmem THP sysfs
>     settings are disabled
> 
>  include/linux/huge_mm.h | 23 +++++++++++++++++++----
>  mm/huge_memory.c        |  2 +-
>  mm/shmem.c              | 12 ++++++------
>  3 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
>