Re: [RFC PATCH v2 2/4] madvise: Use notify-able API to clear and flush page table entries

[Yu Zhao <yuzhao@google.com>]

On Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 3:41 AM Yin Fengwei <fengwei.yin@intel.com> wrote:
>
> Currently, in function madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(), the
> young bit of pte/pmd is cleared notify subscripter.
>
> Using notify-able API to make sure the subscripter is signaled about
> the young bit clearing.
>
> Signed-off-by: Yin Fengwei <fengwei.yin@intel.com>
> ---
>  mm/madvise.c | 18 ++----------------
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c
> index f12933ebcc24..b236e201a738 100644
> --- a/mm/madvise.c
> +++ b/mm/madvise.c
> @@ -403,14 +403,7 @@ static int madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(pmd_t *pmd,
>                         return 0;
>                 }
>
> -               if (pmd_young(orig_pmd)) {
> -                       pmdp_invalidate(vma, addr, pmd);
> -                       orig_pmd = pmd_mkold(orig_pmd);
> -
> -                       set_pmd_at(mm, addr, pmd, orig_pmd);
> -                       tlb_remove_pmd_tlb_entry(tlb, pmd, addr);
> -               }
> -
> +               pmdp_clear_flush_young_notify(vma, addr, pmd);
>                 folio_clear_referenced(folio);
>                 folio_test_clear_young(folio);
>                 if (folio_test_active(folio))
> @@ -496,14 +489,7 @@ static int madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range(pmd_t *pmd,
>
>                 VM_BUG_ON_FOLIO(folio_test_large(folio), folio);
>
> -               if (pte_young(ptent)) {
> -                       ptent = ptep_get_and_clear_full(mm, addr, pte,
> -                                                       tlb->fullmm);
> -                       ptent = pte_mkold(ptent);
> -                       set_pte_at(mm, addr, pte, ptent);
> -                       tlb_remove_tlb_entry(tlb, pte, addr);
> -               }
> -
> +               ptep_clear_flush_young_notify(vma, addr, pte);

These two places are tricky.

I agree there is a problem here, i.e., we are not consulting the mmu
notifier. In fact, we do pageout on VMs on ChromeOS, and it's been a
known problem to me for a while (not a high priority one).

tlb_remove_tlb_entry() is batched flush, ptep_clear_flush_young() is
not. But, on x86, we might see a performance improvement since
ptep_clear_flush_young() doesn't flush TLB at all. On ARM, there might
be regressions though.

I'd go with ptep_clear_young_notify(), but IIRC, Minchan mentioned he
prefers flush. So I'll let him chime in.

If we do end up with ptep_clear_young_notify(), please remove
mmu_gather -- it should have been done in this patch.