linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v1 1/2] mm/hugetlb: fix hugetlb not supporting write-notify

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Date:   Mon, 8 Aug 2022 18:36:58 +0200
From:   David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
To:     Peter Xu <peterx@...hat.com>,
        Mike Kravetz <mike.kravetz@...cle.com>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Muchun Song <songmuchun@...edance.com>,
        Peter Feiner <pfeiner@...gle.com>,
        "Kirill A . Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@...ux.intel.com>,
        stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v1 1/2] mm/hugetlb: fix hugetlb not supporting
 write-notify

On 06.08.22 01:13, Peter Xu wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 05, 2022 at 01:48:35PM -0700, Mike Kravetz wrote:
>> On 08/05/22 20:57, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>> On 05.08.22 20:33, Mike Kravetz wrote:
>>>> On 08/05/22 20:25, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>>> On 05.08.22 20:23, Mike Kravetz wrote:
>>>>>> On 08/05/22 14:14, Peter Xu wrote:
>>>>>>> On Fri, Aug 05, 2022 at 01:03:28PM +0200, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>>>>>> diff --git a/mm/mmap.c b/mm/mmap.c
>>>>>>>> index 61e6135c54ef..462a6b0344ac 100644
>>>>>>>> --- a/mm/mmap.c
>>>>>>>> +++ b/mm/mmap.c
>>>>>>>> @@ -1683,6 +1683,13 @@ int vma_wants_writenotify(struct vm_area_struct *vma, pgprot_t vm_page_prot)
>>>>>>>>  	if ((vm_flags & (VM_WRITE|VM_SHARED)) != ((VM_WRITE|VM_SHARED)))
>>>>>>>>  		return 0;
>>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>> +	/*
>>>>>>>> +	 * Hugetlb does not require/support writenotify; especially, it does not
>>>>>>>> +	 * support softdirty tracking.
>>>>>>>> +	 */
>>>>>>>> +	if (is_vm_hugetlb_page(vma))
>>>>>>>> +		return 0;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm kind of confused here..  you seems to be fixing up soft-dirty for
>>>>>>> hugetlb but here it's explicitly forbidden.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Could you explain a bit more on why this patch is needed if (assume
>>>>>>> there'll be a working) patch 2 being provided?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No comments on the patch, but ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Since it required little thought, I ran the test program on next-20220802 and
>>>>>> was surprised that the issue did not recreate.  Even added a simple printk
>>>>>> to make sure we were getting into vma_wants_writenotify with a hugetlb vma.
>>>>>> We were.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ... does your config have CONFIG_MEM_SOFT_DIRTY enabled?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> No, Duh!
>>>>
>>>> FYI - Some time back, I started looking at adding soft dirty support for
>>>> hugetlb mappings.  I did not finish that work.  But, I seem to recall
>>>> places where code was operating on hugetlb mappings when perhaps it should
>>>> not.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps, it would also be good to just disable soft dirty for hugetlb at
>>>> the source?
>>>
>>> I thought about that as well. But I came to the conclusion that without
>>> patch #2, hugetlb VMAs cannot possibly support write-notify, so there is
>>> no need to bother in vma_wants_writenotify() at all.
>>>
>>> The "root" would be places where we clear VM_SOFTDIRTY. That should only
>>> be fs/proc/task_mmu.c:clear_refs_write() IIRC.
>>>
>>> So I don't particularly care, I consider this patch a bit cleaner and
>>> more generic, but I can adjust clear_refs_write() instead of there is a
>>> preference.
>>>
>>
>> After a closer look, I agree that this may be the simplest/cleanest way to
>> proceed.  I was going to suggest that you note hugetlb does not support
>> softdirty, but see you did in the comment.
>>
>> Acked-by: Mike Kravetz <mike.kravetz@...cle.com>
> 
> Filtering out hugetlbfs in vma_wants_writenotify() is still a bit hard to
> follow to me, since it's not clear why hugetlbfs never wants writenotify.

Well, because the write-fault handler as is cannot deal with
write-faults in shared mappings. It cannot possibly work or ever have
worked.

> 
> If it's only about soft-dirty, we could have added the hugetlbfs check into
> vma_soft_dirty_enabled(), then I think it'll achieve the same thing and
> much clearer - with the soft-dirty check constantly returning false for it,
> hugetlbfs shared vmas should have vma_wants_writenotify() naturally return
> 0 already.

I considered that an option, but went with this approach for simplicity
and because I don't see a need to check for hugetlb in other code paths
(especially, in the !hugetlb mprotect variant).

I mean, with patch #2 we can remove it anytime we do support softdirty
tracking -- or if there is need for write-notify we can move it into the
softdirty check only.

> 
> For the long term - shouldn't we just enable soft-dirty for hugetlbfs?  I
> remember Mike used to have that in todo.  Since we've got patch 2 already,
> I feel like that's really much close (is the only missing piece the clear
> refs write part? or maybe some more that I didn't notice).

My gut feeling is that there isn't too much missing to have it working.
Define a PTE bit, implement hugetlb variant of clearing, and set it when
setting the PTE dirty.

Thanks!

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb