linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] page_pool: add a comment explaining the fragment counter usage

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Message-Id: <20230214104316.2254814-1-ilias.apalodimas@linaro.org>
Date:   Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:43:16 +0200
From:   Ilias Apalodimas <ilias.apalodimas@...aro.org>
To:     netdev@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     alexander.duyck@...il.com,
        Ilias Apalodimas <ilias.apalodimas@...aro.org>,
        Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@...nel.org>,
        "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>,
        Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
        Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2] page_pool: add a comment explaining the fragment counter usage

When reading the page_pool code the first impression is that keeping
two separate counters, one being the page refcnt and the other being
fragment pp_frag_count, is counter-intuitive.

However without that fragment counter we don't know when to reliably
destroy or sync the outstanding DMA mappings.  So let's add a comment
explaining this part.

Signed-off-by: Ilias Apalodimas <ilias.apalodimas@...aro.org>
---
Changes since v1:
- Update the comment withe the correct description for pp_frag_count
 include/net/page_pool.h | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/net/page_pool.h b/include/net/page_pool.h
index 34bf531ffc8d..277e215cfb58 100644
--- a/include/net/page_pool.h
+++ b/include/net/page_pool.h
@@ -277,6 +277,16 @@ void page_pool_put_defragged_page(struct page_pool *pool, struct page *page,
 				  unsigned int dma_sync_size,
 				  bool allow_direct);

+/* pp_frag_count represents the number of writers who can update the page
+ * either by updating skb->data or via DMA mappings for the device.
+ * We can't rely on the page refcnt, as we don't know who might be
+ * holding page references and we can't reliably destroy or sync DMA mappings
+ * of the fragments.
+ *
+ * When pp_frag_count reaches 0 we can either recycle the page, if the page
+ * refcnt is 1, or return it back to the memory allocator and destroy any
+ * mappings we have.
+ */
 static inline void page_pool_fragment_page(struct page *page, long nr)
 {
 	atomic_long_set(&page->pp_frag_count, nr);
--
2.38.1