linux-kernel - [PATCH] mm: Improve documentation of page

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:05:15 +0000
From:	Mel Gorman <mgorman@...e.de>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>, Xishi Qiu <qiuxishi@...wei.com>,
	Laura Abbott <lauraa@...eaurora.org>, riel@...hat.com,
	aquini@...hat.com, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH] mm: Improve documentation of page_order v2

Developers occasionally try and optimise PFN scanners by using page_order
but miss that in general it requires zone->lock. This has happened twice for
compaction.c and rejected both times.  This patch clarifies the documentation
of page_order and adds a note to compaction.c why page_order is not used.

[lauraa@...eaurora.org: Corrected a page_zone(page)->lock reference]
Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@...e.de>
Acked-by: Rafael Aquini <aquini@...hat.com>
Acked-by: Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>
---
 mm/compaction.c | 5 ++++-
 mm/internal.h   | 8 +++++---
 2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/compaction.c b/mm/compaction.c
index f58bcd0..f91d26b 100644
--- a/mm/compaction.c
+++ b/mm/compaction.c
@@ -522,7 +522,10 @@ isolate_migratepages_range(struct zone *zone, struct compact_control *cc,
 		if (!isolation_suitable(cc, page))
 			goto next_pageblock;
 
-		/* Skip if free */
+		/*
+		 * Skip if free. page_order cannot be used without zone->lock
+		 * as nothing prevents parallel allocations or buddy merging.
+		 */
 		if (PageBuddy(page))
 			continue;
 
diff --git a/mm/internal.h b/mm/internal.h
index 684f7aa..09cd8be 100644
--- a/mm/internal.h
+++ b/mm/internal.h
@@ -144,9 +144,11 @@ isolate_migratepages_range(struct zone *zone, struct compact_control *cc,
 #endif
 
 /*
- * function for dealing with page's order in buddy system.
- * zone->lock is already acquired when we use these.
- * So, we don't need atomic page->flags operations here.
+ * This functions returns the order of a free page in the buddy system. In
+ * general, page_zone(page)->lock must be held by the caller to prevent the
+ * page being allocated in parallel and returning garbage as the order. If the
+ * caller does not hold page_zone(page)->lock, they must guarantee that the
+ * page cannot be allocated or merged in parallel.
  */
 static inline unsigned long page_order(struct page *page)
 {

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/