linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH] mm/page_alloc: Add PCP list for THP CMA

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Message-ID: <8A3D2D44-DCE9-48FC-A684-C43006B3912F@nvidia.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2025 15:00:27 -0400
From: Zi Yan <ziy@...dia.com>
To: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
Cc: Juan Yescas <jyescas@...gle.com>, akash.tyagi@...iatek.com,
 Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
 angelogioacchino.delregno@...labora.com, hannes@...xchg.org,
 Brendan Jackman <jackmanb@...gle.com>, linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mediatek@...ts.infradead.org,
 Linux Memory Management List <linux-mm@...ck.org>, matthias.bgg@...il.com,
 Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>, Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>,
 Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>, wsd_upstream@...iatek.com,
 Kalesh Singh <kaleshsingh@...gle.com>, "T.J. Mercier" <tjmercier@...gle.com>,
 Isaac Manjarres <isaacmanjarres@...gle.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] mm/page_alloc: Add PCP list for THP CMA

On 4 Aug 2025, at 14:49, David Hildenbrand wrote:

> On 04.08.25 20:20, Juan Yescas wrote:
>> Hi David/Zi,
>>
>> Is there any reason why the MIGRATE_CMA pages are not in the PCP lists?
>>
>> There are many devices that need fast allocation of MIGRATE_CMA pages,
>> and they have to get them from the buddy allocator, which is a bit
>> slower in comparison to the PCP lists.
>>
>> We also have cases where the MIGRATE_CMA memory requirements are big.
>> For example, GPUs need MIGRATE_CMA memory in the ranges of 30MiB to 500MiBs.
>> These cases would benefit if we have THPs for CMAs.
>>
>> Could we add the support for MIGRATE_CMA pages on the PCP and THP lists?
>
> Remember how CMA memory is used:
>
> The owner allocates it through cma_alloc() and friends, where the CMA allocator will try allocating *specific physical memory regions* using alloc_contig_range(). It doesn't just go ahead and pick a random CMA page from the buddy (or PCP) lists. Doesn't work (just imagine having different CMA areas etc).

Yeah, unless some code is relying on gfp_to_alloc_flags_cma() to get ALLOC_CMA
to try to get CMA pages from buddy.

>
> Anybody else is free to use CMA pages for MOVABLE allocations. So we treat them as being MOVABLE on the PCP.
>
> Having a separate CMA PCP list doesn't solve or speedup anything, really.

It can be slower when small CMA pages are on PCP lists and large CMA pages
cannot be allocated, one needs to drain PCP lists. This assumes the code is
trying to get CMA pages from buddy, which is not how CMA memory is designed
to be used like David mentioned above.

>
> I still have no clue what this patch here tried to solve: it doesn't make any sense.

Best Regards,
Yan, Zi