From: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
david@redhat.com, linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, corbet@lwn.net, rppt@kernel.org,
surenb@google.com, mhocko@suse.com, hannes@cmpxchg.org,
baohua@kernel.org, shakeel.butt@linux.dev, riel@surriel.com,
ziy@nvidia.com, laoar.shao@gmail.com, dev.jain@arm.com,
baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com, npache@redhat.com,
lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com, Liam.Howlett@oracle.com,
ryan.roberts@arm.com, vbabka@suse.cz, jannh@google.com,
Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
sj@kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, kernel-team@meta.com,
Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH v5 4/7] docs: transhuge: document process level THP controls
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2025 14:54:56 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250815135549.130506-5-usamaarif642@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20250815135549.130506-1-usamaarif642@gmail.com>
This includes the PR_SET_THP_DISABLE/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE pair of
prctl calls as well the newly introduced PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED
flag for the PR_SET_THP_DISABLE prctl call.
Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
---
Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 36 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst
index 370fba1134606..a16a04841b960 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst
@@ -225,6 +225,42 @@ to "always" or "madvise"), and it'll be automatically shutdown when
PMD-sized THP is disabled (when both the per-size anon control and the
top-level control are "never")
+process THP controls
+--------------------
+
+A process can control its own THP behaviour using the ``PR_SET_THP_DISABLE``
+and ``PR_GET_THP_DISABLE`` pair of prctl(2) calls. The THP behaviour set using
+``PR_SET_THP_DISABLE`` is inherited across fork(2) and execve(2). These calls
+support the following arguments::
+
+ prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, 1, 0, 0, 0):
+ This will disable THPs completely for the process, irrespective
+ of global THP controls or madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE) being used.
+
+ prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, 1, PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED, 0, 0):
+ This will disable THPs for the process except when the usage of THPs is
+ advised. Consequently, THPs will only be used when:
+ - Global THP controls are set to "always" or "madvise" and
+ madvise(..., MADV_HUGEPAGE) or madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE) is used.
+ - Global THP controls are set to "never" and madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE)
+ is used. This is the same behavior as if THPs would not be disabled on
+ a process level.
+ Note that MADV_COLLAPSE is currently always rejected if
+ madvise(..., MADV_NOHUGEPAGE) is set on an area.
+
+ prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, 0, 0, 0, 0):
+ This will re-enable THPs for the process, as if they were never disabled.
+ Whether THPs will actually be used depends on global THP controls and
+ madvise() calls.
+
+ prctl(PR_GET_THP_DISABLE, 0, 0, 0, 0):
+ This returns a value whose bits indicate how THP-disable is configured:
+ Bits
+ 1 0 Value Description
+ |0|0| 0 No THP-disable behaviour specified.
+ |0|1| 1 THP is entirely disabled for this process.
+ |1|1| 3 THP-except-advised mode is set for this process.
+
Khugepaged controls
-------------------
--
2.47.3
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-08-15 13:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-08-15 13:54 [PATCH v5 0/7] prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to only provide THPs when advised Usama Arif
2025-08-15 13:54 ` [PATCH v5 1/7] prctl: extend PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to optionally exclude VM_HUGEPAGE Usama Arif
2025-08-15 13:54 ` [PATCH v5 2/7] mm/huge_memory: convert "tva_flags" to "enum tva_type" Usama Arif
2025-08-15 13:54 ` [PATCH v5 3/7] mm/huge_memory: respect MADV_COLLAPSE with PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED Usama Arif
2025-08-15 13:54 ` Usama Arif [this message]
2025-08-15 13:54 ` [PATCH v5 5/7] selftest/mm: Extract sz2ord function into vm_util.h Usama Arif
2025-08-16 6:15 ` Andrew Morton
2025-08-16 6:24 ` David Hildenbrand
2025-08-15 13:54 ` [PATCH v5 6/7] selftests: prctl: introduce tests for disabling THPs completely Usama Arif
2025-08-18 9:36 ` David Hildenbrand
2025-08-18 10:43 ` Usama Arif
2025-08-18 10:41 ` Usama Arif
2025-09-05 17:43 ` Mark Brown
2025-09-05 17:55 ` Zi Yan
2025-09-05 18:02 ` Mark Brown
2025-09-05 19:40 ` Usama Arif
2025-09-05 19:44 ` Usama Arif
2025-09-08 15:38 ` Mark Brown
2025-09-08 15:40 ` Usama Arif
2025-08-15 13:54 ` [PATCH v5 7/7] selftests: prctl: introduce tests for disabling THPs except for madvise Usama Arif
2025-08-18 10:42 ` Usama Arif
2025-08-18 13:06 ` David Hildenbrand
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