Re: [PATCH v4 2/2] mm: Init page count in reserve_bootmem_region when MEMINIT_EARLY

[David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>]

On 02.10.23 10:47, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 02, 2023 at 03:03:56PM +0800, Yajun Deng wrote:
>>
>> On 2023/10/2 02:59, Mike Rapoport wrote:
>>> On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 06:27:25PM +0800, Yajun Deng wrote:
>>>> On 2023/9/29 18:02, Mike Rapoport wrote:
>>>>>>>> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
>>>>>>>> index 06be8821d833..b868caabe8dc 100644
>>>>>>>> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
>>>>>>>> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
>>>>>>>> @@ -1285,18 +1285,22 @@ void __free_pages_core(struct page *page, unsigned int order)
>>>>>>>>      	unsigned int loop;
>>>>>>>>      	/*
>>>>>>>> -	 * When initializing the memmap, __init_single_page() sets the refcount
>>>>>>>> -	 * of all pages to 1 ("allocated"/"not free"). We have to set the
>>>>>>>> -	 * refcount of all involved pages to 0.
>>>>>>>> +	 * When initializing the memmap, memmap_init_range sets the refcount
>>>>>>>> +	 * of all pages to 1 ("reserved" and "free") in hotplug context. We
>>>>>>>> +	 * have to set the refcount of all involved pages to 0. Otherwise,
>>>>>>>> +	 * we don't do it, as reserve_bootmem_region only set the refcount on
>>>>>>>> +	 * reserve region ("reserved") in early context.
>>>>>>>>      	 */
>>>>>>> Again, why hotplug and early init should be different?
>>>>>> I will add a comment that describes it will save boot time.
>>>>> But why do we need initialize struct pages differently at boot time vs
>>>>> memory hotplug?
>>>>> Is there a reason memory hotplug cannot have page count set to 0 just like
>>>>> for pages reserved at boot time?
>>>> This patch just save boot time in MEMINIT_EARLY. If someone finds out that
>>>> it can save time in
>>>>
>>>> MEMINIT_HOTPLUG, I think it can be done in another patch later. I just
>>>> keeping it in the same.
>>> But it's not the same. It becomes slower after your patch and the code that
>>> frees the pages for MEMINIT_EARLY and MEMINIT_HOTPLUG becomes non-uniform
>>> for no apparent reason.
>>
>> __free_pages_core will also be called by others, such as:
>> deferred_free_range, do_collection and memblock_free_late.
>>
>> We couldn't remove  'if (page_count(page))' even if we set page count to 0
>> when MEMINIT_HOTPLUG.
> 
> That 'if' breaks the invariant that __free_pages_core is always called for
> pages with initialized page count. Adding it may lead to subtle bugs and
> random memory corruption so we don't want to add it at the first place.

As long as we have to special-case memory hotplug, we know that we are 
always coming via generic_online_page() in that case. We could either 
move some logic over there, or let __free_pages_core() know what it 
should do.

-- 
Cheers,

David / dhildenb