From: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
"Liam R . Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>,
Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>,
Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>,
David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>, Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>,
Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>, Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>, Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>,
Chris Li <chriscli@google.com>,
Barry Song <v-songbaohua@oppo.com>,
linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2 1/8] mm/rmap: improve anon_vma_clone(), unlink_anon_vmas() comments, add asserts
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2026 15:04:26 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <5f55507a877028add5fdf8f207f5e333c7a3fc85.1767711638.git.lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <cover.1767711638.git.lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Add kdoc comments and describe exactly what these functions are used for in
detail, pointing out importantly that the anon_vma_clone() !dst->anon_vma
&& src->anon_vma dance is ONLY for fork.
Both are confusing functions that will be refactored in a subsequent patch
but the first stage is establishing documentation and some invariants.
Add some basic CONFIG_DEBUG_VM asserts that help document expected state,
specifically:
anon_vma_clone()
- mmap write lock held.
- We do nothing if src VMA is not faulted.
- The destination VMA has no anon_vma_chain yet.
- We are always operating on the same active VMA (i.e. vma->anon_vma).
- If not forking, must operate on the same mm_struct.
unlink_anon_vmas()
- mmap lock held (write lock except when freeing page tables).
- That unfaulted VMAs are no-ops.
We are presented with a special case when anon_vma_clone() fails to
allocate memory, where we have a VMA with partially set up anon_vma state.
Since we hold the exclusive mmap write lock, and since we are cloning from
a source VMA which consequently can't also have its anon_vma state
modified, we know no anon_vma referenced can be empty.
This allows us to significantly simplify this case and just remove
anon_vma_chain objects associated with the VMA, so we add a specific
partial cleanup path for this scenario.
This also allows us to drop the hack of setting vma->anon_vma to NULL
before unlinking anon_vma state in this scenario.
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: Liam R. Howlett <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>
---
mm/rmap.c | 130 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
1 file changed, 104 insertions(+), 26 deletions(-)
diff --git a/mm/rmap.c b/mm/rmap.c
index c86f1135222b..54ccf884d90a 100644
--- a/mm/rmap.c
+++ b/mm/rmap.c
@@ -258,30 +258,62 @@ static inline void unlock_anon_vma_root(struct anon_vma *root)
up_write(&root->rwsem);
}
-/*
- * Attach the anon_vmas from src to dst.
- * Returns 0 on success, -ENOMEM on failure.
- *
- * anon_vma_clone() is called by vma_expand(), vma_merge(), __split_vma(),
- * copy_vma() and anon_vma_fork(). The first four want an exact copy of src,
- * while the last one, anon_vma_fork(), may try to reuse an existing anon_vma to
- * prevent endless growth of anon_vma. Since dst->anon_vma is set to NULL before
- * call, we can identify this case by checking (!dst->anon_vma &&
- * src->anon_vma).
- *
- * If (!dst->anon_vma && src->anon_vma) is true, this function tries to find
- * and reuse existing anon_vma which has no vmas and only one child anon_vma.
- * This prevents degradation of anon_vma hierarchy to endless linear chain in
- * case of constantly forking task. On the other hand, an anon_vma with more
- * than one child isn't reused even if there was no alive vma, thus rmap
- * walker has a good chance of avoiding scanning the whole hierarchy when it
- * searches where page is mapped.
+static void check_anon_vma_clone(struct vm_area_struct *dst,
+ struct vm_area_struct *src)
+{
+ /* The write lock must be held. */
+ mmap_assert_write_locked(src->vm_mm);
+ /* If not a fork (implied by dst->anon_vma) then must be on same mm. */
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(dst->anon_vma && dst->vm_mm != src->vm_mm);
+
+ /* If we have anything to do src->anon_vma must be provided. */
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(!src->anon_vma && !list_empty(&src->anon_vma_chain));
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(!src->anon_vma && dst->anon_vma);
+ /* We are establishing a new anon_vma_chain. */
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(!list_empty(&dst->anon_vma_chain));
+ /*
+ * On fork, dst->anon_vma is set NULL (temporarily). Otherwise, anon_vma
+ * must be the same across dst and src.
+ */
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(dst->anon_vma && dst->anon_vma != src->anon_vma);
+}
+
+static void cleanup_partial_anon_vmas(struct vm_area_struct *vma);
+
+/**
+ * anon_vma_clone - Establishes new anon_vma_chain objects in @dst linking to
+ * all of the anon_vma objects contained within @src anon_vma_chain's.
+ * @dst: The destination VMA with an empty anon_vma_chain.
+ * @src: The source VMA we wish to duplicate.
+ *
+ * This is the heart of the VMA side of the anon_vma implementation - we invoke
+ * this function whenever we need to set up a new VMA's anon_vma state.
+ *
+ * This is invoked for:
+ *
+ * - VMA Merge, but only when @dst is unfaulted and @src is faulted - meaning we
+ * clone @src into @dst.
+ * - VMA split.
+ * - VMA (m)remap.
+ * - Fork of faulted VMA.
+ *
+ * In all cases other than fork this is simply a duplication. Fork additionally
+ * adds a new active anon_vma.
+ *
+ * ONLY in the case of fork do we try to 'reuse' existing anon_vma's in an
+ * anon_vma hierarchy, reusing anon_vma's which have no VMA associated with them
+ * but do have a single child. This is to avoid waste of memory when repeatedly
+ * forking.
+ *
+ * Returns: 0 on success, -ENOMEM on failure.
*/
int anon_vma_clone(struct vm_area_struct *dst, struct vm_area_struct *src)
{
struct anon_vma_chain *avc, *pavc;
struct anon_vma *root = NULL;
+ check_anon_vma_clone(dst, src);
+
list_for_each_entry_reverse(pavc, &src->anon_vma_chain, same_vma) {
struct anon_vma *anon_vma;
@@ -315,14 +347,7 @@ int anon_vma_clone(struct vm_area_struct *dst, struct vm_area_struct *src)
return 0;
enomem_failure:
- /*
- * dst->anon_vma is dropped here otherwise its num_active_vmas can
- * be incorrectly decremented in unlink_anon_vmas().
- * We can safely do this because callers of anon_vma_clone() don't care
- * about dst->anon_vma if anon_vma_clone() failed.
- */
- dst->anon_vma = NULL;
- unlink_anon_vmas(dst);
+ cleanup_partial_anon_vmas(dst);
return -ENOMEM;
}
@@ -393,11 +418,64 @@ int anon_vma_fork(struct vm_area_struct *vma, struct vm_area_struct *pvma)
return -ENOMEM;
}
+/*
+ * In the unfortunate case of anon_vma_clone() failing to allocate memory we
+ * have to clean things up.
+ *
+ * On clone we hold the exclusive mmap write lock, so we can't race
+ * unlink_anon_vmas(). Since we're cloning, we know we can't have empty
+ * anon_vma's, since existing anon_vma's are what we're cloning from.
+ *
+ * So this function needs only traverse the anon_vma_chain and free each
+ * allocated anon_vma_chain.
+ */
+static void cleanup_partial_anon_vmas(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
+{
+ struct anon_vma_chain *avc, *next;
+ bool locked = false;
+
+ /*
+ * We exclude everybody else from being able to modify anon_vma's
+ * underneath us.
+ */
+ mmap_assert_locked(vma->vm_mm);
+
+ list_for_each_entry_safe(avc, next, &vma->anon_vma_chain, same_vma) {
+ struct anon_vma *anon_vma = avc->anon_vma;
+
+ /* All anon_vma's share the same root. */
+ if (!locked) {
+ anon_vma_lock_write(anon_vma);
+ locked = true;
+ }
+
+ anon_vma_interval_tree_remove(avc, &anon_vma->rb_root);
+ list_del(&avc->same_vma);
+ anon_vma_chain_free(avc);
+ }
+}
+
+/**
+ * unlink_anon_vmas() - remove all links between a VMA and anon_vma's, freeing
+ * anon_vma_chain objects.
+ * @vma: The VMA whose links to anon_vma objects is to be severed.
+ *
+ * As part of the process anon_vma_chain's are freed,
+ * anon_vma->num_children,num_active_vmas is updated as required and, if the
+ * relevant anon_vma references no further VMAs, its reference count is
+ * decremented.
+ */
void unlink_anon_vmas(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
{
struct anon_vma_chain *avc, *next;
struct anon_vma *root = NULL;
+ /* Always hold mmap lock, read-lock on unmap possibly. */
+ mmap_assert_locked(vma->vm_mm);
+
+ /* Unfaulted is a no-op. */
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(!vma->anon_vma && !list_empty(&vma->anon_vma_chain));
+
/*
* Unlink each anon_vma chained to the VMA. This list is ordered
* from newest to oldest, ensuring the root anon_vma gets freed last.
--
2.52.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-06 15:13 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-01-06 15:04 [PATCH v2 0/8] mm: clean up anon_vma implementation Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 15:04 ` Lorenzo Stoakes [this message]
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 2/8] mm/rmap: skip unfaulted VMAs on anon_vma clone, unlink Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 18:34 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 3/8] mm/rmap: remove unnecessary root lock dance in anon_vma clone, unmap Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 18:42 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 4/8] mm/rmap: remove anon_vma_merge() function Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 18:42 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 5/8] mm/rmap: make anon_vma functions internal Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 18:54 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 6/8] mm/mmap_lock: add vma_is_attached() helper Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 18:56 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 7/8] mm/rmap: allocate anon_vma_chain objects unlocked when possible Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 19:02 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-08 18:51 ` Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 15:04 ` [PATCH v2 8/8] mm/rmap: separate out fork-only logic on anon_vma_clone() Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-06 19:27 ` Liam R. Howlett
2026-01-08 17:58 ` Lorenzo Stoakes
2026-01-08 18:52 ` Lorenzo Stoakes
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