linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH V4 mm-hotfixes 2/3] mm: introduce and use {pgd,p4d}_populate

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Message-ID: <aJnHvvb-lViNA5EQ@hyeyoo>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2025 19:36:46 +0900
From: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
To: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>
Cc: Dennis Zhou <dennis@...nel.org>, Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Andrey Ryabinin <ryabinin.a.a@...il.com>, x86@...nel.org,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>, Uladzislau Rezki <urezki@...il.com>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...two.org>,
        David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>,
        Andrey Konovalov <andreyknvl@...il.com>,
        Vincenzo Frascino <vincenzo.frascino@....com>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, kasan-dev@...glegroups.com,
        Mike Rapoport <rppt@...nel.org>, Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@...gle.com>,
        Alexander Potapenko <glider@...gle.com>,
        Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
        Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>, Thomas Huth <thuth@...hat.com>,
        John Hubbard <jhubbard@...dia.com>, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>,
        "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        "Kirill A. Shutemov" <kas@...nel.org>,
        Oscar Salvador <osalvador@...e.de>, Jane Chu <jane.chu@...cle.com>,
        Gwan-gyeong Mun <gwan-gyeong.mun@...el.com>,
        "Aneesh Kumar K . V" <aneesh.kumar@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@...tes.org>, Alistair Popple <apopple@...dia.com>,
        Joao Martins <joao.m.martins@...cle.com>, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
        stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH V4 mm-hotfixes 2/3] mm: introduce and use
 {pgd,p4d}_populate_kernel()

On Mon, Aug 11, 2025 at 10:10:58AM +0100, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 11, 2025 at 02:34:19PM +0900, Harry Yoo wrote:
> > Introduce and use {pgd,p4d}_populate_kernel() in core MM code when
> > populating PGD and P4D entries for the kernel address space.
> > These helpers ensure proper synchronization of page tables when
> > updating the kernel portion of top-level page tables.
> >
> > Until now, the kernel has relied on each architecture to handle
> > synchronization of top-level page tables in an ad-hoc manner.
> > For example, see commit 9b861528a801 ("x86-64, mem: Update all PGDs for
> > direct mapping and vmemmap mapping changes").
> >
> > However, this approach has proven fragile for following reasons:
> >
> >   1) It is easy to forget to perform the necessary page table
> >      synchronization when introducing new changes.
> >      For instance, commit 4917f55b4ef9 ("mm/sparse-vmemmap: improve memory
> >      savings for compound devmaps") overlooked the need to synchronize
> >      page tables for the vmemmap area.
> >
> >   2) It is also easy to overlook that the vmemmap and direct mapping areas
> >      must not be accessed before explicit page table synchronization.
> >      For example, commit 8d400913c231 ("x86/vmemmap: handle unpopulated
> >      sub-pmd ranges")) caused crashes by accessing the vmemmap area
> >      before calling sync_global_pgds().
> >
> > To address this, as suggested by Dave Hansen, introduce _kernel() variants
> > of the page table population helpers, which invoke architecture-specific
> > hooks to properly synchronize page tables. These are introduced in a new
> > header file, include/linux/pgalloc.h, so they can be called from common code.
> >
> > They reuse existing infrastructure for vmalloc and ioremap.
> > Synchronization requirements are determined by ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK,
> > and the actual synchronization is performed by arch_sync_kernel_mappings().
> >
> > This change currently targets only x86_64, so only PGD and P4D level
> > helpers are introduced. In theory, PUD and PMD level helpers can be added
> > later if needed by other architectures.
> >
> > Currently this is a no-op, since no architecture sets
> > PGTBL_{PGD,P4D}_MODIFIED in ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK.
> >
> > Cc: <stable@...r.kernel.org>
> > Fixes: 8d400913c231 ("x86/vmemmap: handle unpopulated sub-pmd ranges")
> > Suggested-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>
> > Signed-off-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
> > ---
> >  include/linux/pgalloc.h | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> Could we put this in the correct place in MAINTAINERS please?

Definitely yes!

Since this series will be backported to about five -stable kernels
(v5.13.x and later), I will add that as part of a follow-up series
that is not intended for backporting.

Does that sound okay?

> I think MEMORY MANAGEMENT - CORE is correct, given the below file is there.

Thanks for confirming that!

-- 
Cheers,
Harry / Hyeonggon