linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/9] mm/migrate.c: Always allow device private pages to migrate

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Date:   Tue, 9 Feb 2021 09:39:32 -0400
From:   Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@...pe.ca>
To:     Alistair Popple <apopple@...dia.com>
Cc:     linux-mm@...ck.org, nouveau@...ts.freedesktop.org,
        bskeggs@...hat.com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        kvm-ppc@...r.kernel.org, dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org,
        jhubbard@...dia.com, rcampbell@...dia.com, jglisse@...hat.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/9] mm/migrate.c: Always allow device private pages to
 migrate

On Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 12:07:14PM +1100, Alistair Popple wrote:
> Device private pages are used to represent device memory that is not
> directly accessible from the CPU. Extra references to a device private
> page are only used to ensure the struct page itself remains valid whilst
> waiting for migration entries. Therefore extra references should not
> prevent device private page migration as this can lead to failures to
> migrate pages back to the CPU which are fatal to the user process.

This should identify the extra references in expected_count, just
disabling this protection seems unsafe, ZONE_DEVICE is not so special
that the refcount means nothing

Is this a side effect of the extra refcounts that Ralph was trying to
get rid of? I'd rather see that work finished :)

Jason