From: Brendan Jackman <jackmanb@google.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>,
"Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>,
Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>,
Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>,
Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>,
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>,
Clark Williams <clrkwllms@kernel.org>,
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
linux-rt-devel@lists.linux.dev,
Brendan Jackman <jackmanb@google.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2] mm: clarify GFP_ATOMIC/GFP_NOWAIT doc-comment
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2025 11:32:18 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251219-b4-gfp_atomic-comment-v2-1-4c4ce274c2b6@google.com> (raw)
The current description of contexts where it's invalid to make
GFP_ATOMIC and GFP_NOWAIT calls is rather vague.
Replace this with a direct description of the actual contexts of concern
and refer to the RT docs where this is explained more discursively.
While rejigging this prose, also move the documentation of GFP_NOWAIT to
the GFP_NOWAIT section.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/d912480a-5229-4efe-9336-b31acded30f5@suse.cz/
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) <david@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Brendan Jackman <jackmanb@google.com>
---
Changes in v2:
- Specified section in docs reference
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/DF0J58HOVLL4.2E16Q87D2UXRW@google.com/
---
include/linux/gfp_types.h | 7 +++++--
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/gfp_types.h b/include/linux/gfp_types.h
index 3de43b12209ee79f84e7c9c919729303338433ff..814bb2892f99b829fde9b6dce1a317b3f29d01dc 100644
--- a/include/linux/gfp_types.h
+++ b/include/linux/gfp_types.h
@@ -309,8 +309,10 @@ enum {
*
* %GFP_ATOMIC users can not sleep and need the allocation to succeed. A lower
* watermark is applied to allow access to "atomic reserves".
- * The current implementation doesn't support NMI and few other strict
- * non-preemptive contexts (e.g. raw_spin_lock). The same applies to %GFP_NOWAIT.
+ * The current implementation doesn't support NMI, nor contexts that disable
+ * preemption under PREEMPT_RT. This includes raw_spin_lock() and plain
+ * preempt_disable() - see "Memory allocation" in
+ * Documentation/core-api/real-time/differences.rst for more info.
*
* %GFP_KERNEL is typical for kernel-internal allocations. The caller requires
* %ZONE_NORMAL or a lower zone for direct access but can direct reclaim.
@@ -321,6 +323,7 @@ enum {
* %GFP_NOWAIT is for kernel allocations that should not stall for direct
* reclaim, start physical IO or use any filesystem callback. It is very
* likely to fail to allocate memory, even for very small allocations.
+ * The same restrictions on calling contexts apply as for %GFP_ATOMIC.
*
* %GFP_NOIO will use direct reclaim to discard clean pages or slab pages
* that do not require the starting of any physical IO.
---
base-commit: fc2af7a8060126c3a99fc1dfd7c5abd71a4dc81d
change-id: 20251219-b4-gfp_atomic-comment-3e5950152139
Best regards,
--
Brendan Jackman <jackmanb@google.com>
next reply other threads:[~2025-12-19 11:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-19 11:32 Brendan Jackman [this message]
2025-12-20 7:23 ` Mike Rapoport
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