Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] mm: khugepaged: set VM_NOHUGEPAGE flag when MADV_COLD/MADV_FREE

[Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>]

On 29/12/25 1:50 pm, Barry Song wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 6:52 PM Vernon Yang <vernon2gm@gmail.com> wrote:
>> For example, create three task: hot1 -> cold -> hot2. After all three
>> task are created, each allocate memory 128MB. the hot1/hot2 task
>> continuously access 128 MB memory, while the cold task only accesses
>> its memory briefly andthen call madvise(MADV_COLD). However, khugepaged
>> still prioritizes scanning the cold task and only scans the hot2 task
>> after completing the scan of the cold task.
>>
>> So if the user has explicitly informed us via MADV_COLD/FREE that this
>> memory is cold or will be freed, it is appropriate for khugepaged to
>> skip it only, thereby avoiding unnecessary scan and collapse operations
>> to reducing CPU wastage.
>>
>> Here are the performance test results:
>> (Throughput bigger is better, other smaller is better)
>>
>> Testing on x86_64 machine:
>>
>> | task hot2           | without patch | with patch    |  delta  |
>> |---------------------|---------------|---------------|---------|
>> | total accesses time |  3.14 sec     |  2.93 sec     | -6.69%  |
>> | cycles per access   |  4.96         |  2.21         | -55.44% |
>> | Throughput          |  104.38 M/sec |  111.89 M/sec | +7.19%  |
>> | dTLB-load-misses    |  284814532    |  69597236     | -75.56% |
>>
>> Testing on qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm:
>>
>> | task hot2           | without patch | with patch    |  delta  |
>> |---------------------|---------------|---------------|---------|
>> | total accesses time |  3.35 sec     |  2.96 sec     | -11.64% |
>> | cycles per access   |  7.29         |  2.07         | -71.60% |
>> | Throughput          |  97.67 M/sec  |  110.77 M/sec | +13.41% |
>> | dTLB-load-misses    |  241600871    |  3216108      | -98.67% |
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@kylinos.cn>
>> ---
>>  mm/madvise.c | 17 ++++++++++++-----
>>  1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c
>> index b617b1be0f53..3a48d725a3fc 100644
>> --- a/mm/madvise.c
>> +++ b/mm/madvise.c
>> @@ -1360,11 +1360,8 @@ static int madvise_vma_behavior(struct madvise_behavior *madv_behavior)
>>                 return madvise_remove(madv_behavior);
>>         case MADV_WILLNEED:
>>                 return madvise_willneed(madv_behavior);
>> -       case MADV_COLD:
>> -               return madvise_cold(madv_behavior);
>>         case MADV_PAGEOUT:
>>                 return madvise_pageout(madv_behavior);
>> -       case MADV_FREE:
>>         case MADV_DONTNEED:
>>         case MADV_DONTNEED_LOCKED:
>>                 return madvise_dontneed_free(madv_behavior);
>> @@ -1378,6 +1375,18 @@ static int madvise_vma_behavior(struct madvise_behavior *madv_behavior)
>>
>>         /* The below behaviours update VMAs via madvise_update_vma(). */
>>
>> +       case MADV_COLD:
>> +               error = madvise_cold(madv_behavior);
>> +               if (error)
>> +                       goto out;
>> +               new_flags = (new_flags & ~VM_HUGEPAGE) | VM_NOHUGEPAGE;
>> +               break;
>> +       case MADV_FREE:
>> +               error = madvise_dontneed_free(madv_behavior);
>> +               if (error)
>> +                       goto out;
>> +               new_flags = (new_flags & ~VM_HUGEPAGE) | VM_NOHUGEPAGE;
>> +               break;
> I am not convinced this is the right patch for MADV_FREE. Userspace
> heaps may call MADV_FREE on free(), which does not mean they no longer
> want huge pages; it only indicates that the old contents are no longer
> needed. New allocations may still occur in the same region.

+1. Userspace allocators do MADV_DONTNEED/MADV_FREE to prevent overhead
of actually unmapping the memory via munmap.
 

>
> The same concern applies to MADV_COLD. MADV_COLD may only indicate
> that the VMA is cold at the moment and for the near future, but it
> can become hot again. For example, MADV_COLD may be issued when an
> app moves to the background, but the memory can become hot again
> once the app returns to the foreground.
>
> In short, MADV_FREE and MADV_COLD only indicate that the memory is cold
> or may be freed for a period of time; they are not permanent states.
> Changing the VMA flags implies that the VMA is permanently free or
> cold, which is not true in either case.
>
> Your patch also prevents potential per-VMA lock optimizations.
>
> However, if the intent is to treat folios hinted by MADV_FREE or
> MADV_COLD as candidates not to be collapsed, I agree that this makes sense.
>
> For MADV_FREE, could we simply skip the lazy-free folios instead?
> For MADV_COLD, I am not sure how we can determine which folios
> have actually been madvised as cold.
>
> Thanks
> Barry