linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 4/9] mm/page_alloc: optimize code layout for __alloc_pages

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Message-ID: <20210325124032.GR3697@techsingularity.net>
Date:   Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:40:32 +0000
From:   Mel Gorman <mgorman@...hsingularity.net>
To:     Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
Cc:     Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@...cle.com>,
        Jesper Dangaard Brouer <brouer@...hat.com>,
        Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
        Alexander Duyck <alexander.duyck@...il.com>,
        Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
        Ilias Apalodimas <ilias.apalodimas@...aro.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux-Net <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux-MM <linux-mm@...ck.org>,
        Linux-NFS <linux-nfs@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/9] mm/page_alloc: optimize code layout for
 __alloc_pages_bulk

On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 12:12:17PM +0000, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 11:42:23AM +0000, Mel Gorman wrote:
> >  
> > -	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(nr_pages <= 0))
> > +	if (unlikely(nr_pages <= 0))
> >  		return 0;
> 
> If we made nr_pages unsigned, we wouldn't need this check at all (ok,
> we'd still need to figure out what to do with 0).  But then, if a user
> inadvertently passes in -ENOMEM, we'll try to allocate 4 billion pages.

This is exactly why nr_pages is signed. An error in accounting by the
caller potentially puts the system under severe memory pressure. This
*should* only be a problem when a new caller of the API is being
implemented. The warning goes away in a later patch for reasons explained
in the changelog.

> So maybe we should check it.  Gah, API design is hard.

Yep.

-- 
Mel Gorman
SUSE Labs