Re: [PATCH v11 04/16] mm/gup: drop secretmem optimization from gup_fast_folio_allowed

David Hildenbrand (Arm)
2026-03-23T18:32:15Z

On 3/17/26 15:11, Kalyazin, Nikita wrote:
> From: Patrick Roy <patrick.roy@linux.dev>
>
> This drops an optimization in gup_fast_folio_allowed() where
> secretmem_mapping() was only called if CONFIG_SECRETMEM=y. secretmem is
> enabled by default since commit b758fe6df50d ("mm/secretmem: make it on
> by default"), so the secretmem check did not actually end up elided in
> most cases anymore anyway.
>
> This is in preparation of the generalization of handling mappings where
> direct map entries of folios are set to not present. Currently,
> mappings that match this description are secretmem mappings
> (memfd_secret()). Later, some guest_memfd configurations will also fall
> into this category.
>
> Signed-off-by: Patrick Roy <patrick.roy@linux.dev>
> Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) <david@kernel.org>
> Signed-off-by: Nikita Kalyazin <kalyazin@amazon.com>
> ---
> mm/gup.c | 11 +----------
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 10 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/gup.c b/mm/gup.c
> index 8e7dc2c6ee73..5856d35be385 100644
> --- a/mm/gup.c
> +++ b/mm/gup.c
> @@ -2739,7 +2739,6 @@ static bool gup_fast_folio_allowed(struct folio *folio, unsigned int flags)
> {
> bool reject_file_backed = false;
> struct address_space *mapping;
> - bool check_secretmem = false;
> unsigned long mapping_flags;
>
> /*
> @@ -2751,14 +2750,6 @@ static bool gup_fast_folio_allowed(struct folio *folio, unsigned int flags)
> reject_file_backed = true;
>
> /* We hold a folio reference, so we can safely access folio fields. */
> -
> - /* secretmem folios are always order-0 folios. */
> - if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SECRETMEM) && !folio_test_large(folio))
> - check_secretmem = true;
> -
> - if (!reject_file_backed && !check_secretmem)
> - return true;
> -

The AI review says that this will force all small folios through the
mapping check (which we obviously need later :) ).

It brings up two cases where page->mapping is not set up:

1) ZONE_DEVICE pages (like Device DAX and PCI P2PDMA)

2) large shmem folios in the swap cache

2) doesn't make sense, because the folio cannot be mapped in user space
when that happens.

I am also skeptical about 1), especially as large folios are also
supported for device dax and would be problematic here.
__dev_dax_pte_fault() clearly sets folio->mapping through dax_set_mapping().

If 1) is ever a case we could allow them by checking for
folio_is_zone_device(). But I am not sure if that is really required.
Sounds weird.

--
Cheers,

David