linux-kernel - [PATCH V1 1/2] docs/mm: explain when and why rmap locks need to be taken during mremap()

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Message-ID: <20250826065848.346066-1-harry.yoo@oracle.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:58:47 +0900
From: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>,
        "Liam R . Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>,
        Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>,
        David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>, Kees Cook <kees@...nel.org>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>, Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@...ux.dev>,
        Mike Rapoport <rppt@...nel.org>, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>, Jann Horn <jannh@...gle.com>,
        Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@...e.de>, Rik van Riel <riel@...riel.com>,
        linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
Subject: [PATCH V1 1/2] docs/mm: explain when and why rmap locks need to be taken during mremap()

While move_ptes() has a comment explaining why rmap locks are needed,
Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst does not. Without being aware of that
comment, I spent hours figuring out how things could go wrong and why,
in some cases, rmap locks can be safely skipped.

Add a more comprehensive explanation to the documentation to save time
for others.

Signed-off-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
---
 Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst b/Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst
index be49e2a269e4..ee7c0dba339e 100644
--- a/Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/mm/process_addrs.rst
@@ -744,6 +744,38 @@ You can observe this in the :c:func:`!mremap` implementation in the functions
 :c:func:`!take_rmap_locks` and :c:func:`!drop_rmap_locks` which perform the rmap
 side of lock acquisition, invoked ultimately by :c:func:`!move_page_tables`.
 
+.. note:: If :c:func:`!mremap()` -> :c:func:`!move_ptes()` does not take rmap
+          locks, :c:func:`!rmap_walk()` may miss a pte for the folio.
+
+          The problematic sequence is as follows:
+
+          1. :c:func:`!rmap_walk()` checks the destination VMA, finds no pte,
+             and releases the page table lock.
+          2. :c:func:`!move_ptes()` moves the page tables from the source to the
+             destination.
+          3. :c:func:`!rmap_walk()` checks the source VMA, finds no pte, and
+             thus rmap walk misses it.
+
+          Taking rmap locks in :c:func:`!move_ptes()` ensures that
+          :c:func:`!rmap_walk()` sees the pte in either the source or
+          destination VMA.
+
+          There are two cases where rmap locks can be skipped:
+
+          1. If the source VMA is guaranteed to be visited before the
+             destination VMA during rmap walk, :c:func:`!rmap_walk()` will
+             encounter the pte in one of the two VMAs. VMAs associated with
+             an anon_vma are organized in an interval tree, so the src->dst
+             order is guaranteed when the source VMA's vm_pgoff precedes
+             the destination VMA's vm_pgoff.
+
+          2. When :c:func:`!exec()` relocates a temporary stack VMA via
+             :c:func:`!relocate_vma_down()`, there is no separate destination
+             VMA. Instead, the source VMA is marked as a temporary stack and
+             relocated. In this case, the folios belonging to the VMA cannot be
+             migrated until the relocation is complete, avoiding the need to
+             acquire rmap locks for performance reasons.
+
 VMA lock internals
 ------------------
 
-- 
2.43.0