From: Kiryl Shutsemau <kas@kernel.org>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>,
David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>,
Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>,
Frank van der Linden <fvdl@google.com>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>,
Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>, Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>,
Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>,
Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>, Baoquan He <bhe@redhat.com>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>,
Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>,
Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
kernel-team@meta.com, linux-mm@kvack.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
Kiryl Shutsemau <kas@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCHv2 00/14]
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:09:31 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251218150949.721480-1-kas@kernel.org> (raw)
This series removes "fake head pages" from the HugeTLB vmemmap
optimization (HVO) by changing how tail pages encode their relationship
to the head page.
It simplifies compound_head() and page_ref_add_unless(). Both are in the
hot path.
Background
==========
HVO reduces memory overhead by freeing vmemmap pages for HugeTLB pages
and remapping the freed virtual addresses to a single physical page.
Previously, all tail page vmemmap entries were remapped to the first
vmemmap page (containing the head struct page), creating "fake heads" -
tail pages that appear to have PG_head set when accessed through the
deduplicated vmemmap.
This required special handling in compound_head() to detect and work
around fake heads, adding complexity and overhead to a very hot path.
New Approach
============
For architectures/configs where sizeof(struct page) is a power of 2 (the
common case), this series changes how position of the head page is encoded
in the tail pages.
Instead of storing a pointer to the head page, the ->compound_info
(renamed from ->compound_head) now stores a mask.
The mask can be applied to any tail page's virtual address to compute
the head page address. Critically, all tail pages of the same order now
have identical compound_info values, regardless of which compound page
they belong to.
The key insight is that all tail pages of the same order now have
identical compound_info values, regardless of which compound page they
belong to. This allows a single page of tail struct pages to be shared
across all huge pages of the same order on a NUMA node.
Benefits
========
1. Simplified compound_head(): No fake head detection needed, can be
implemented in a branchless manner.
2. Simplified page_ref_add_unless(): RCU protection removed since there's
no race with fake head remapping.
3. Cleaner architecture: The shared tail pages are truly read-only and
contain valid tail page metadata.
If sizeof(struct page) is not power-of-2, there are no functional changes.
HVO is not supported in this configuration.
I had hoped to see performance improvement, but my testing thus far has
shown either no change or only a slight improvement within the noise.
Series Organization
===================
Patches 1-2: Preparation - move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER, add alignment check
Patches 3-5: Refactoring - interface changes, field rename, code movement
Patch 6: Core change - new mask-based compound_head() encoding
Patch 7: Correctness fix - page_zonenum() must use head page
Patch 8: Refactor vmemmap_walk for new design
Patch 9: Eliminate fake heads with shared tail pages
Patches 10-13: Cleanup - remove fake head infrastructure
Patch 14: Documentation update
Changes in v2:
==============
- Handle boot-allocated huge pages correctly. (Frank)
- Changed from per-hstate vmemmap_tail to per-node vmemmap_tails[] array
in pglist_data. (Muchun)
- Added spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock) protection in vmemmap_get_tail() to fix
a race condition where two threads could both allocate tail pages.
The losing thread now properly frees its allocated page. (Usama)
- Add warning if memmap is not aligned to MAX_FOLIO_SIZE, which is
required for the mask approach. (Muchun)
- Make page_zonenum() use head page - correctness fix since shared
tail pages cannot have valid zone information. (Muchun)
- Added 'const' qualifier to head parameter in set_compound_head() and
prep_compound_tail(). (Usama)
- Updated commit messages.
Kiryl Shutsemau (14):
mm: Move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER definition to mmzone.h
mm/sparse: Check memmap alignment
mm: Change the interface of prep_compound_tail()
mm: Rename the 'compound_head' field in the 'struct page' to
'compound_info'
mm: Move set/clear_compound_head() next to compound_head()
mm: Rework compound_head() for power-of-2 sizeof(struct page)
mm: Make page_zonenum() use head page
mm/hugetlb: Refactor code around vmemmap_walk
mm/hugetlb: Remove fake head pages
mm: Drop fake head checks
hugetlb: Remove VMEMMAP_SYNCHRONIZE_RCU
mm/hugetlb: Remove hugetlb_optimize_vmemmap_key static key
mm: Remove the branch from compound_head()
hugetlb: Update vmemmap_dedup.rst
.../admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst | 2 +-
Documentation/mm/vmemmap_dedup.rst | 62 ++--
include/linux/mm.h | 31 --
include/linux/mm_types.h | 20 +-
include/linux/mmzone.h | 47 +++
include/linux/page-flags.h | 163 ++++-------
include/linux/page_ref.h | 8 +-
include/linux/types.h | 2 +-
kernel/vmcore_info.c | 2 +-
mm/hugetlb.c | 8 +-
mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c | 270 +++++++++---------
mm/internal.h | 12 +-
mm/mm_init.c | 2 +-
mm/page_alloc.c | 4 +-
mm/slab.h | 2 +-
mm/sparse-vmemmap.c | 44 ++-
mm/sparse.c | 3 +
mm/util.c | 16 +-
18 files changed, 345 insertions(+), 353 deletions(-)
--
2.51.2
next reply other threads:[~2025-12-18 15:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-18 15:09 Kiryl Shutsemau [this message]
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 01/14] mm: Move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER definition to mmzone.h Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 02/14] mm/sparse: Check memmap alignment Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 8:34 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 14:02 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 14:18 ` David Hildenbrand (Red Hat)
2025-12-22 14:52 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 14:59 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 14:55 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-23 9:38 ` David Hildenbrand (Red Hat)
2025-12-23 11:26 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-24 14:13 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 14:49 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 03/14] mm: Change the interface of prep_compound_tail() Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 2:55 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 04/14] mm: Rename the 'compound_head' field in the 'struct page' to 'compound_info' Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 3:00 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 05/14] mm: Move set/clear_compound_head() next to compound_head() Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 3:06 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 06/14] mm: Rework compound_head() for power-of-2 sizeof(struct page) Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 3:20 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 14:03 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-23 8:37 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 7:57 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 9:45 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 14:49 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 07/14] mm: Make page_zonenum() use head page Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 08/14] mm/hugetlb: Refactor code around vmemmap_walk Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 5:54 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-22 15:00 ` Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 15:11 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 09/14] mm/hugetlb: Remove fake head pages Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 10/14] mm: Drop fake head checks Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 5:56 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 11/14] hugetlb: Remove VMEMMAP_SYNCHRONIZE_RCU Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 6:00 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 12/14] mm/hugetlb: Remove hugetlb_optimize_vmemmap_key static key Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 6:03 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 13/14] mm: Remove the branch from compound_head() Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 6:30 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 15:09 ` [PATCHv2 14/14] hugetlb: Update vmemmap_dedup.rst Kiryl Shutsemau
2025-12-22 6:20 ` Muchun Song
2025-12-18 22:18 ` [PATCHv2 00/14] Eliminate fake head pages from vmemmap optimization Kiryl Shutsemau
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