Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] mm/page_alloc: Optimize __free_contig_frozen_range()

[Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>]

On 16 Mar 2026, at 7:31, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:

> Apply the same batch-freeing optimization from free_contig_range() to the
> frozen page path. The previous __free_contig_frozen_range() freed each
> order-0 page individually via free_frozen_pages(), which is slow for the
> same reason the old free_contig_range() was: each page goes to the
> order-0 pcp list rather than being coalesced into higher-order blocks.
>
> Rewrite __free_contig_frozen_range() to call free_pages_prepare() for
> each order-0 page, then batch the prepared pages into the largest
> possible power-of-2 aligned chunks via free_prepared_contig_range().
> If free_pages_prepare() fails (e.g. HWPoison, bad page) the page is
> deliberately not freed; it should not be returned to the allocator.
>
> I've tested CMA through debugfs. The test allocates 16384 pages per
> allocation for several iterations. There is 3.5x improvement.
>
> Before: 1406 usec per iteration
> After:   402 usec per iteration
>
> Before:
>
>     70.89%     0.69%  cma              [kernel.kallsyms]      [.] free_contig_frozen_range
>             |
>             |--70.20%--free_contig_frozen_range
>             |          |
>             |          |--46.41%--__free_frozen_pages
>             |          |          |
>             |          |           --36.18%--free_frozen_page_commit
>             |          |                     |
>             |          |                      --29.63%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
>             |          |
>             |          |--8.76%--_raw_spin_trylock
>             |          |
>             |          |--7.03%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
>             |          |
>             |          |--4.57%--_raw_spin_unlock
>             |          |
>             |          |--1.96%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
>             |          |
>             |           --1.15%--free_frozen_page_commit
>             |
>              --0.69%--el0t_64_sync
>
> After:
>
>     23.57%     0.00%  cma              [kernel.kallsyms]      [.] free_contig_frozen_range
>             |
>             ---free_contig_frozen_range
>                |
>                |--20.45%--__free_contig_frozen_range
>                |          |
>                |          |--17.77%--free_pages_prepare
>                |          |
>                |           --0.72%--free_prepared_contig_range
>                |                     |
>                |                      --0.55%--__free_frozen_pages
>                |
>                 --3.12%--free_pages_prepare
>
> Suggested-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
> ---
>  mm/page_alloc.c | 18 ++++++++++++++++--
>  1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
LGTM.

Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>

Best Regards,
Yan, Zi