[PATCH v5 0/5] support batch checking of references and unmapping for large folios

[PATCH v5 0/5] support batch checking of references and unmapping for large folios

[Baolin Wang]

Currently, folio_referenced_one() always checks the young flag for each PTE
sequentially, which is inefficient for large folios. This inefficiency is
especially noticeable when reclaiming clean file-backed large folios, where
folio_referenced() is observed as a significant performance hotspot.

Moreover, on Arm architecture, which supports contiguous PTEs, there is already
an optimization to clear the young flags for PTEs within a contiguous range.
However, this is not sufficient. We can extend this to perform batched operations
for the entire large folio (which might exceed the contiguous range: CONT_PTE_SIZE).

Similar to folio_referenced_one(), we can also apply batched unmapping for large
file folios to optimize the performance of file folio reclamation. By supporting
batched checking of the young flags, flushing TLB entries, and unmapping, I can
observed a significant performance improvements in my performance tests for file
folios reclamation. Please check the performance data in the commit message of
each patch.

Run stress-ng and mm selftests, no issues were found.

Patch 1: Add a new generic batched PTE helper that supports batched checks of
the references for large folios.
Patch 2 - 3: Preparation patches.
patch 4: Implement the Arm64 arch-specific clear_flush_young_ptes().
Patch 5: Support batched unmapping for file large folios.

Changes from v4:
 - Fix passing the incorrect 'CONT_PTES' for non-batched APIs.
 - Rename ptep_clear_flush_young_notify() to clear_flush_young_ptes_notify() (per Ryan).
 - Fix some coding style issues (per Ryan).
 - Add reviewed tag from Ryan. Thanks.

Changes from v3:
 - Fix using an incorrect parameter in ptep_clear_flush_young_notify()
   (per Liam).

Changes from v2:
 - Rearrange the patch set (per Ryan).
 - Add pte_cont() check in clear_flush_young_ptes() (per Ryan).
 - Add a helper to do contpte block alignment (per Ryan).
 - Fix some coding style issues (per Lorenzo and Ryan).
 - Add more comments and update the commit message (per Lorenzo and Ryan).
 - Add acked tag from Barry. Thanks. 

Changes from v1:
 - Add a new patch to support batched unmapping for file large folios.
 - Update the cover letter

Baolin Wang (5):
  mm: rmap: support batched checks of the references for large folios
  arm64: mm: factor out the address and ptep alignment into a new helper
  arm64: mm: support batch clearing of the young flag for large folios
  arm64: mm: implement the architecture-specific
    clear_flush_young_ptes()
  mm: rmap: support batched unmapping for file large folios

 arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h | 23 ++++++++----
 arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c          | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++------------
 include/linux/mmu_notifier.h     |  9 ++---
 include/linux/pgtable.h          | 31 ++++++++++++++++
 mm/rmap.c                        | 38 ++++++++++++++++----
 5 files changed, 125 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-)

-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH v5 1/5] mm: rmap: support batched checks of the references for large folios

[Baolin Wang]

Currently, folio_referenced_one() always checks the young flag for each PTE
sequentially, which is inefficient for large folios. This inefficiency is
especially noticeable when reclaiming clean file-backed large folios, where
folio_referenced() is observed as a significant performance hotspot.

Moreover, on Arm64 architecture, which supports contiguous PTEs, there is already
an optimization to clear the young flags for PTEs within a contiguous range.
However, this is not sufficient. We can extend this to perform batched operations
for the entire large folio (which might exceed the contiguous range: CONT_PTE_SIZE).

Introduce a new API: clear_flush_young_ptes() to facilitate batched checking
of the young flags and flushing TLB entries, thereby improving performance
during large folio reclamation. And it will be overridden by the architecture
that implements a more efficient batch operation in the following patches.

While we are at it, rename ptep_clear_flush_young_notify() to
clear_flush_young_ptes_notify() to indicate that this is a batch operation.

Reviewed-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
---
 include/linux/mmu_notifier.h |  9 +++++----
 include/linux/pgtable.h      | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 mm/rmap.c                    | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 3 files changed, 64 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h b/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h
index d1094c2d5fb6..07a2bbaf86e9 100644
--- a/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h
+++ b/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h
@@ -515,16 +515,17 @@ static inline void mmu_notifier_range_init_owner(
 	range->owner = owner;
 }
 
-#define ptep_clear_flush_young_notify(__vma, __address, __ptep)		\
+#define clear_flush_young_ptes_notify(__vma, __address, __ptep, __nr)	\
 ({									\
 	int __young;							\
 	struct vm_area_struct *___vma = __vma;				\
 	unsigned long ___address = __address;				\
-	__young = ptep_clear_flush_young(___vma, ___address, __ptep);	\
+	unsigned int ___nr = __nr;					\
+	__young = clear_flush_young_ptes(___vma, ___address, __ptep, ___nr);	\
 	__young |= mmu_notifier_clear_flush_young(___vma->vm_mm,	\
 						  ___address,		\
 						  ___address +		\
-							PAGE_SIZE);	\
+						  ___nr * PAGE_SIZE);	\
 	__young;							\
 })
 
@@ -650,7 +651,7 @@ static inline void mmu_notifier_subscriptions_destroy(struct mm_struct *mm)
 
 #define mmu_notifier_range_update_to_read_only(r) false
 
-#define ptep_clear_flush_young_notify ptep_clear_flush_young
+#define clear_flush_young_ptes_notify clear_flush_young_ptes
 #define pmdp_clear_flush_young_notify pmdp_clear_flush_young
 #define ptep_clear_young_notify ptep_test_and_clear_young
 #define pmdp_clear_young_notify pmdp_test_and_clear_young
diff --git a/include/linux/pgtable.h b/include/linux/pgtable.h
index 2f0dd3a4ace1..eb8aacba3698 100644
--- a/include/linux/pgtable.h
+++ b/include/linux/pgtable.h
@@ -1087,6 +1087,37 @@ static inline void wrprotect_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
 }
 #endif
 
+#ifndef clear_flush_young_ptes
+/**
+ * clear_flush_young_ptes - Clear the access bit and perform a TLB flush for PTEs
+ *			    that map consecutive pages of the same folio.
+ * @vma: The virtual memory area the pages are mapped into.
+ * @addr: Address the first page is mapped at.
+ * @ptep: Page table pointer for the first entry.
+ * @nr: Number of entries to clear access bit.
+ *
+ * May be overridden by the architecture; otherwise, implemented as a simple
+ * loop over ptep_clear_flush_young().
+ *
+ * Note that PTE bits in the PTE range besides the PFN can differ. For example,
+ * some PTEs might be write-protected.
+ *
+ * Context: The caller holds the page table lock.  The PTEs map consecutive
+ * pages that belong to the same folio.  The PTEs are all in the same PMD.
+ */
+static inline int clear_flush_young_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+					 unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep,
+					 unsigned int nr)
+{
+	int i, young = 0;
+
+	for (i = 0; i < nr; ++i, ++ptep, addr += PAGE_SIZE)
+		young |= ptep_clear_flush_young(vma, addr, ptep);
+
+	return young;
+}
+#endif
+
 /*
  * On some architectures hardware does not set page access bit when accessing
  * memory page, it is responsibility of software setting this bit. It brings
diff --git a/mm/rmap.c b/mm/rmap.c
index e805ddc5a27b..985ab0b085ba 100644
--- a/mm/rmap.c
+++ b/mm/rmap.c
@@ -828,9 +828,11 @@ static bool folio_referenced_one(struct folio *folio,
 	struct folio_referenced_arg *pra = arg;
 	DEFINE_FOLIO_VMA_WALK(pvmw, folio, vma, address, 0);
 	int ptes = 0, referenced = 0;
+	unsigned int nr;
 
 	while (page_vma_mapped_walk(&pvmw)) {
 		address = pvmw.address;
+		nr = 1;
 
 		if (vma->vm_flags & VM_LOCKED) {
 			ptes++;
@@ -875,9 +877,24 @@ static bool folio_referenced_one(struct folio *folio,
 			if (lru_gen_look_around(&pvmw))
 				referenced++;
 		} else if (pvmw.pte) {
-			if (ptep_clear_flush_young_notify(vma, address,
-						pvmw.pte))
+			if (folio_test_large(folio)) {
+				unsigned long end_addr =
+					pmd_addr_end(address, vma->vm_end);
+				unsigned int max_nr =
+					(end_addr - address) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
+				pte_t pteval = ptep_get(pvmw.pte);
+
+				nr = folio_pte_batch(folio, pvmw.pte,
+						     pteval, max_nr);
+			}
+
+			ptes += nr;
+			if (clear_flush_young_ptes_notify(vma, address,
+						pvmw.pte, nr))
 				referenced++;
+			/* Skip the batched PTEs */
+			pvmw.pte += nr - 1;
+			pvmw.address += (nr - 1) * PAGE_SIZE;
 		} else if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE)) {
 			if (pmdp_clear_flush_young_notify(vma, address,
 						pvmw.pmd))
@@ -887,7 +904,15 @@ static bool folio_referenced_one(struct folio *folio,
 			WARN_ON_ONCE(1);
 		}
 
-		pra->mapcount--;
+		pra->mapcount -= nr;
+		/*
+		 * If we are sure that we batched the entire folio,
+		 * we can just optimize and stop right here.
+		 */
+		if (ptes == pvmw.nr_pages) {
+			page_vma_mapped_walk_done(&pvmw);
+			break;
+		}
 	}
 
 	if (referenced)
-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH v5 2/5] arm64: mm: factor out the address and ptep alignment into a new helper

[Baolin Wang]

Factor out the contpte block's address and ptep alignment into a new helper,
and will be reused in the following patch.

No functional changes.

Reviewed-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
---
 arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c b/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
index 589bcf878938..e4ddeb46f25d 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
@@ -26,6 +26,26 @@ static inline pte_t *contpte_align_down(pte_t *ptep)
 	return PTR_ALIGN_DOWN(ptep, sizeof(*ptep) * CONT_PTES);
 }
 
+static inline pte_t *contpte_align_addr_ptep(unsigned long *start,
+					     unsigned long *end, pte_t *ptep,
+					     unsigned int nr)
+{
+	/*
+	 * Note: caller must ensure these nr PTEs are consecutive (present)
+	 * PTEs that map consecutive pages of the same large folio within a
+	 * single VMA and a single page table.
+	 */
+	if (pte_cont(__ptep_get(ptep + nr - 1)))
+		*end = ALIGN(*end, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
+
+	if (pte_cont(__ptep_get(ptep))) {
+		*start = ALIGN_DOWN(*start, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
+		ptep = contpte_align_down(ptep);
+	}
+
+	return ptep;
+}
+
 static void contpte_try_unfold_partial(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
 					pte_t *ptep, unsigned int nr)
 {
@@ -569,14 +589,7 @@ void contpte_clear_young_dirty_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	unsigned long start = addr;
 	unsigned long end = start + nr * PAGE_SIZE;
 
-	if (pte_cont(__ptep_get(ptep + nr - 1)))
-		end = ALIGN(end, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
-
-	if (pte_cont(__ptep_get(ptep))) {
-		start = ALIGN_DOWN(start, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
-		ptep = contpte_align_down(ptep);
-	}
-
+	ptep = contpte_align_addr_ptep(&start, &end, ptep, nr);
 	__clear_young_dirty_ptes(vma, start, ptep, (end - start) / PAGE_SIZE, flags);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(contpte_clear_young_dirty_ptes);
-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH v5 3/5] arm64: mm: support batch clearing of the young flag for large folios

[Baolin Wang]

Currently, contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young() and contpte_ptep_clear_flush_young()
only clear the young flag and flush TLBs for PTEs within the contiguous range.
To support batch PTE operations for other sized large folios in the following
patches, adding a new parameter to specify the number of PTEs that map consecutive
pages of the same large folio in a single VMA and a single page table.

While we are at it, rename the functions to maintain consistency with other
contpte_*() functions.

Signed-off-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
---
 arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h | 12 ++++++------
 arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c          | 33 ++++++++++++++++++--------------
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
index 445e18e92221..5e9ff16146c3 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
@@ -1648,10 +1648,10 @@ extern void contpte_clear_full_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
 extern pte_t contpte_get_and_clear_full_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm,
 				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep,
 				unsigned int nr, int full);
-extern int contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
-				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep);
-extern int contpte_ptep_clear_flush_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
-				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep);
+int contpte_test_and_clear_young_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep, unsigned int nr);
+int contpte_clear_flush_young_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep, unsigned int nr);
 extern void contpte_wrprotect_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
 				pte_t *ptep, unsigned int nr);
 extern int contpte_ptep_set_access_flags(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
@@ -1823,7 +1823,7 @@ static inline int ptep_test_and_clear_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	if (likely(!pte_valid_cont(orig_pte)))
 		return __ptep_test_and_clear_young(vma, addr, ptep);
 
-	return contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young(vma, addr, ptep);
+	return contpte_test_and_clear_young_ptes(vma, addr, ptep, 1);
 }
 
 #define __HAVE_ARCH_PTEP_CLEAR_YOUNG_FLUSH
@@ -1835,7 +1835,7 @@ static inline int ptep_clear_flush_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	if (likely(!pte_valid_cont(orig_pte)))
 		return __ptep_clear_flush_young(vma, addr, ptep);
 
-	return contpte_ptep_clear_flush_young(vma, addr, ptep);
+	return contpte_clear_flush_young_ptes(vma, addr, ptep, 1);
 }
 
 #define wrprotect_ptes wrprotect_ptes
diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c b/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
index e4ddeb46f25d..b929a455103f 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/contpte.c
@@ -508,8 +508,9 @@ pte_t contpte_get_and_clear_full_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm,
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(contpte_get_and_clear_full_ptes);
 
-int contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
-					unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep)
+int contpte_test_and_clear_young_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+					unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep,
+					unsigned int nr)
 {
 	/*
 	 * ptep_clear_flush_young() technically requires us to clear the access
@@ -518,41 +519,45 @@ int contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	 * contig range when the range is covered by a single folio, we can get
 	 * away with clearing young for the whole contig range here, so we avoid
 	 * having to unfold.
+	 *
+	 * The 'nr' means consecutive (present) PTEs that map consecutive pages
+	 * of the same large folio in a single VMA and a single page table.
 	 */
 
+	unsigned long end = addr + nr * PAGE_SIZE;
 	int young = 0;
-	int i;
 
-	ptep = contpte_align_down(ptep);
-	addr = ALIGN_DOWN(addr, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
-
-	for (i = 0; i < CONT_PTES; i++, ptep++, addr += PAGE_SIZE)
+	ptep = contpte_align_addr_ptep(&addr, &end, ptep, nr);
+	for (; addr != end; ptep++, addr += PAGE_SIZE)
 		young |= __ptep_test_and_clear_young(vma, addr, ptep);
 
 	return young;
 }
-EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(contpte_test_and_clear_young_ptes);
 
-int contpte_ptep_clear_flush_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
-					unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep)
+int contpte_clear_flush_young_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep,
+				unsigned int nr)
 {
 	int young;
 
-	young = contpte_ptep_test_and_clear_young(vma, addr, ptep);
+	young = contpte_test_and_clear_young_ptes(vma, addr, ptep, nr);
 
 	if (young) {
+		unsigned long end = addr + nr * PAGE_SIZE;
+
+		contpte_align_addr_ptep(&addr, &end, ptep, nr);
 		/*
 		 * See comment in __ptep_clear_flush_young(); same rationale for
 		 * eliding the trailing DSB applies here.
 		 */
-		addr = ALIGN_DOWN(addr, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
-		__flush_tlb_range_nosync(vma->vm_mm, addr, addr + CONT_PTE_SIZE,
+		__flush_tlb_range_nosync(vma->vm_mm, addr, end,
 					 PAGE_SIZE, true, 3);
 	}
 
 	return young;
 }
-EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(contpte_ptep_clear_flush_young);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(contpte_clear_flush_young_ptes);
 
 void contpte_wrprotect_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr,
 					pte_t *ptep, unsigned int nr)
-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH v5 4/5] arm64: mm: implement the architecture-specific clear_flush_young_ptes()

[Baolin Wang]

Implement the Arm64 architecture-specific clear_flush_young_ptes() to enable
batched checking of young flags and TLB flushing, improving performance during
large folio reclamation.

Performance testing:
Allocate 10G clean file-backed folios by mmap() in a memory cgroup, and try to
reclaim 8G file-backed folios via the memory.reclaim interface. I can observe
33% performance improvement on my Arm64 32-core server (and 10%+ improvement
on my X86 machine). Meanwhile, the hotspot folio_check_references() dropped
from approximately 35% to around 5%.

W/o patchset:
real	0m1.518s
user	0m0.000s
sys	0m1.518s

W/ patchset:
real	0m1.018s
user	0m0.000s
sys	0m1.018s

Reviewed-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
---
 arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
index 5e9ff16146c3..aa8f642f1260 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/pgtable.h
@@ -1838,6 +1838,17 @@ static inline int ptep_clear_flush_young(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 	return contpte_clear_flush_young_ptes(vma, addr, ptep, 1);
 }
 
+#define clear_flush_young_ptes clear_flush_young_ptes
+static inline int clear_flush_young_ptes(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
+					 unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep,
+					 unsigned int nr)
+{
+	if (likely(nr == 1 && !pte_cont(__ptep_get(ptep))))
+		return __ptep_clear_flush_young(vma, addr, ptep);
+
+	return contpte_clear_flush_young_ptes(vma, addr, ptep, nr);
+}
+
 #define wrprotect_ptes wrprotect_ptes
 static __always_inline void wrprotect_ptes(struct mm_struct *mm,
 				unsigned long addr, pte_t *ptep, unsigned int nr)
-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH v5 5/5] mm: rmap: support batched unmapping for file large folios

[Baolin Wang]

Similar to folio_referenced_one(), we can apply batched unmapping for file
large folios to optimize the performance of file folios reclamation.

Barry previously implemented batched unmapping for lazyfree anonymous large
folios[1] and did not further optimize anonymous large folios or file-backed
large folios at that stage. As for file-backed large folios, the batched
unmapping support is relatively straightforward, as we only need to clear
the consecutive (present) PTE entries for file-backed large folios.

Performance testing:
Allocate 10G clean file-backed folios by mmap() in a memory cgroup, and try to
reclaim 8G file-backed folios via the memory.reclaim interface. I can observe
75% performance improvement on my Arm64 32-core server (and 50%+ improvement
on my X86 machine) with this patch.

W/o patch:
real    0m1.018s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m1.018s

W/ patch:
real	0m0.249s
user	0m0.000s
sys	0m0.249s

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250214093015.51024-4-21cnbao@gmail.com/T/#u
Reviewed-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Acked-by: Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
---
 mm/rmap.c | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/rmap.c b/mm/rmap.c
index 985ab0b085ba..e1d16003c514 100644
--- a/mm/rmap.c
+++ b/mm/rmap.c
@@ -1863,9 +1863,10 @@ static inline unsigned int folio_unmap_pte_batch(struct folio *folio,
 	end_addr = pmd_addr_end(addr, vma->vm_end);
 	max_nr = (end_addr - addr) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
 
-	/* We only support lazyfree batching for now ... */
-	if (!folio_test_anon(folio) || folio_test_swapbacked(folio))
+	/* We only support lazyfree or file folios batching for now ... */
+	if (folio_test_anon(folio) && folio_test_swapbacked(folio))
 		return 1;
+
 	if (pte_unused(pte))
 		return 1;
 
@@ -2231,7 +2232,7 @@ static bool try_to_unmap_one(struct folio *folio, struct vm_area_struct *vma,
 			 *
 			 * See Documentation/mm/mmu_notifier.rst
 			 */
-			dec_mm_counter(mm, mm_counter_file(folio));
+			add_mm_counter(mm, mm_counter_file(folio), -nr_pages);
 		}
 discard:
 		if (unlikely(folio_test_hugetlb(folio))) {
-- 
2.47.3