[PATCH v2] Docs/mm: fix typos and grammar in page_tables.rst

[PATCH v2] Docs/mm: fix typos and grammar in page_tables.rst

[Min-Hsun Chang]

Correct several spelling and grammatical errors in the page tables
documentation. This includes:
- Fixing "a address" to "an address"
- Fixing "pfs" to "pfns"
- Correcting the possessive "Torvald's" to "Torvalds's"
- Fixing "instruction that want" to "instruction that wants"
- Fixing "code path" to "code paths"

Signed-off-by: Min-Hsun Chang <chmh0624@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst | 12 ++++++------
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst b/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst
index e7c69cc32493..126c87628250 100644
--- a/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst
+++ b/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ Physical memory address 0 will be *pfn 0* and the highest pfn will be
 the last page of physical memory the external address bus of the CPU can
 address.
 
-With a page granularity of 4KB and a address range of 32 bits, pfn 0 is at
+With a page granularity of 4KB and an address range of 32 bits, pfn 0 is at
 address 0x00000000, pfn 1 is at address 0x00001000, pfn 2 is at 0x00002000
-and so on until we reach pfn 0xfffff at 0xfffff000. With 16KB pages pfs are
+and so on until we reach pfn 0xfffff at 0xfffff000. With 16KB pages pfns are
 at 0x00004000, 0x00008000 ... 0xffffc000 and pfn goes from 0 to 0x3ffff.
 
 As you can see, with 4KB pages the page base address uses bits 12-31 of the
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ address, and this is why `PAGE_SHIFT` in this case is defined as 12 and
 Over time a deeper hierarchy has been developed in response to increasing memory
 sizes. When Linux was created, 4KB pages and a single page table called
 `swapper_pg_dir` with 1024 entries was used, covering 4MB which coincided with
-the fact that Torvald's first computer had 4MB of physical memory. Entries in
-this single table were referred to as *PTE*:s - page table entries.
+the fact that Torvalds's first computer had 4MB of physical memory. Entries in
+this single table were referred to as *PTEs* - page table entries.
 
 The software page table hierarchy reflects the fact that page table hardware has
 become hierarchical and that in turn is done to save page table memory and
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ threshold.
 Additionally, page faults may be also caused by code bugs or by maliciously
 crafted addresses that the CPU is instructed to access. A thread of a process
 could use instructions to address (non-shared) memory which does not belong to
-its own address space, or could try to execute an instruction that want to write
+its own address space, or could try to execute an instruction that wants to write
 to a read-only location.
 
 If the above-mentioned conditions happen in user-space, the kernel sends a
@@ -277,5 +277,5 @@ To conclude this high altitude view of how Linux handles page faults, let's
 add that the page faults handler can be disabled and enabled respectively with
 `pagefault_disable()` and `pagefault_enable()`.
 
-Several code path make use of the latter two functions because they need to
+Several code paths make use of the latter two functions because they need to
 disable traps into the page faults handler, mostly to prevent deadlocks.
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH v2] Docs/mm: fix typos and grammar in page_tables.rst

[Matthew Wilcox]

On Mon, Feb 09, 2026 at 10:56:03PM +0800, Min-Hsun Chang wrote:
> Correct several spelling and grammatical errors in the page tables
> documentation. This includes:
> - Fixing "a address" to "an address"
> - Fixing "pfs" to "pfns"
> - Correcting the possessive "Torvald's" to "Torvalds's"
> - Fixing "instruction that want" to "instruction that wants"
> - Fixing "code path" to "code paths"

It'd be polite to cc the original author.  Added.

(also see one question below)

Reviewed-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>

> Signed-off-by: Min-Hsun Chang <chmh0624@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst | 12 ++++++------
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst b/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst
> index e7c69cc32493..126c87628250 100644
> --- a/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst
> @@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ Physical memory address 0 will be *pfn 0* and the highest pfn will be
>  the last page of physical memory the external address bus of the CPU can
>  address.
>  
> -With a page granularity of 4KB and a address range of 32 bits, pfn 0 is at
> +With a page granularity of 4KB and an address range of 32 bits, pfn 0 is at
>  address 0x00000000, pfn 1 is at address 0x00001000, pfn 2 is at 0x00002000
> -and so on until we reach pfn 0xfffff at 0xfffff000. With 16KB pages pfs are
> +and so on until we reach pfn 0xfffff at 0xfffff000. With 16KB pages pfns are
>  at 0x00004000, 0x00008000 ... 0xffffc000 and pfn goes from 0 to 0x3ffff.
>  
>  As you can see, with 4KB pages the page base address uses bits 12-31 of the
> @@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ address, and this is why `PAGE_SHIFT` in this case is defined as 12 and
>  Over time a deeper hierarchy has been developed in response to increasing memory
>  sizes. When Linux was created, 4KB pages and a single page table called
>  `swapper_pg_dir` with 1024 entries was used, covering 4MB which coincided with
> -the fact that Torvald's first computer had 4MB of physical memory. Entries in
> -this single table were referred to as *PTE*:s - page table entries.
> +the fact that Torvalds's first computer had 4MB of physical memory. Entries in
> +this single table were referred to as *PTEs* - page table entries.

I'm unsure about this change of "*PTE*:s" to "*PTEs*".  Is that special
rst syntax to keep PTE highlighted without highlighting the 's'?

>  The software page table hierarchy reflects the fact that page table hardware has
>  become hierarchical and that in turn is done to save page table memory and
> @@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ threshold.
>  Additionally, page faults may be also caused by code bugs or by maliciously
>  crafted addresses that the CPU is instructed to access. A thread of a process
>  could use instructions to address (non-shared) memory which does not belong to
> -its own address space, or could try to execute an instruction that want to write
> +its own address space, or could try to execute an instruction that wants to write
>  to a read-only location.
>  
>  If the above-mentioned conditions happen in user-space, the kernel sends a
> @@ -277,5 +277,5 @@ To conclude this high altitude view of how Linux handles page faults, let's
>  add that the page faults handler can be disabled and enabled respectively with
>  `pagefault_disable()` and `pagefault_enable()`.
>  
> -Several code path make use of the latter two functions because they need to
> +Several code paths make use of the latter two functions because they need to
>  disable traps into the page faults handler, mostly to prevent deadlocks.
> -- 
> 2.50.1
> 
> 

Re: [PATCH v2] Docs/mm: fix typos and grammar in page_tables.rst

[Jonathan Corbet]

Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org> writes:

>> -the fact that Torvald's first computer had 4MB of physical memory. Entries in
>> -this single table were referred to as *PTE*:s - page table entries.
>> +the fact that Torvalds's first computer had 4MB of physical memory. Entries in
>> +this single table were referred to as *PTEs* - page table entries.
>
> I'm unsure about this change of "*PTE*:s" to "*PTEs*".  Is that special
> rst syntax to keep PTE highlighted without highlighting the 's'?

No, it was just a typo - look how the current version is rendered on
https://docs.kernel.org/mm/page_tables.html.

Thanks,

jon

Re: [PATCH v2] Docs/mm: fix typos and grammar in page_tables.rst

[Linus Walleij]

On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 3:56 PM Min-Hsun Chang <chmh0624@gmail.com> wrote:

> Correct several spelling and grammatical errors in the page tables
> documentation. This includes:
> - Fixing "a address" to "an address"
> - Fixing "pfs" to "pfns"
> - Correcting the possessive "Torvald's" to "Torvalds's"
> - Fixing "instruction that want" to "instruction that wants"
> - Fixing "code path" to "code paths"
>
> Signed-off-by: Min-Hsun Chang <chmh0624@gmail.com>

Reviewed-by: Linus Walleij <linusw@kernel.org>

Yours,
Linus Walleij

Re: [PATCH v2] Docs/mm: fix typos and grammar in page_tables.rst

[Jonathan Corbet]

Min-Hsun Chang <chmh0624@gmail.com> writes:

> Correct several spelling and grammatical errors in the page tables
> documentation. This includes:
> - Fixing "a address" to "an address"
> - Fixing "pfs" to "pfns"
> - Correcting the possessive "Torvald's" to "Torvalds's"
> - Fixing "instruction that want" to "instruction that wants"
> - Fixing "code path" to "code paths"
>
> Signed-off-by: Min-Hsun Chang <chmh0624@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/mm/page_tables.rst | 12 ++++++------
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

Applied, thanks.

jon