Message-ID: <20250901160903.2801339-1-usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Date: Mon,  1 Sep 2025 17:09:03 +0100
From: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@...il.com>
To: alx@...nel.org
Cc: linux-man@...r.kernel.org,
	david@...hat.com,
	lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com,
	hannes@...xchg.org,
	baohua@...nel.org,
	shakeel.butt@...ux.dev,
	ziy@...dia.com,
	laoar.shao@...il.com,
	baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com,
	Liam.Howlett@...cle.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	kernel-team@...a.com,
	Usama Arif <usamaarif642@...il.com>
Subject: [PATCH] PR_*ET_THP_DISABLE.2const: document addition of PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED

PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED extended PR_SET_THP_DISABLE to only provide
THPs when advised. IOW, it allows individual processes to opt-out of THP =
"always" into THP = "madvise", without affecting other workloads on the
system. The series has been merged in [1].

This patch documents the changes introduced due to the addition of
PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED flag:
- PR_GET_THP_DISABLE returns a value whose bits indicate how THP-disable
  is configured for the calling thread (with or without
  PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED).
- PR_SET_THP_DISABLE now uses arg3 to specify whether to disable THP
  completely for the process, or disable except madvise
  (PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED).

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250815135549.130506-1-usamaarif642@gmail.com/

Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@...il.com>
---
 man/man2/madvise.2                      |  4 +-
 man/man2const/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE.2const | 18 ++++++---
 man/man2const/PR_SET_THP_DISABLE.2const | 52 +++++++++++++++++++++----
 3 files changed, 61 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/man/man2/madvise.2 b/man/man2/madvise.2
index 10cc21fa4..6a5290f67 100644
--- a/man/man2/madvise.2
+++ b/man/man2/madvise.2
@@ -373,7 +373,9 @@ nor can it be stack memory or backed by a DAX-enabled device
 (unless the DAX device is hot-plugged as System RAM).
 The process must also not have
 .B PR_SET_THP_DISABLE
-set (see
+set without the
+.B PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED
+flag (see
 .BR prctl (2)).
 .IP
 The
diff --git a/man/man2const/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE.2const b/man/man2const/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE.2const
index 38ff3b370..df239700f 100644
--- a/man/man2const/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE.2const
+++ b/man/man2const/PR_GET_THP_DISABLE.2const
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 .SH NAME
 PR_GET_THP_DISABLE
 \-
-get the state of the "THP disable" flag for the calling thread
+get the state of the "THP disable" flags for the calling thread
 .SH LIBRARY
 Standard C library
 .RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
@@ -18,13 +18,21 @@ Standard C library
 .B int prctl(PR_GET_THP_DISABLE, 0L, 0L, 0L, 0L);
 .fi
 .SH DESCRIPTION
-Return the current setting of
-the "THP disable" flag for the calling thread:
-either 1, if the flag is set, or 0, if it is not.
+Returns a value whose bits indicate how THP-disable is configured
+for the calling thread.
+The returned value is interpreted as follows:
+.P
+.nf
+.B "Bits"
+.B " 1 0  Value  Description"
+ 0 0    0    No THP-disable behaviour specified.
+ 0 1    1    THP is entirely disabled for this process.
+ 1 1    3    THP-except-advised mode is set for this process.
+.fi
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success,
 .BR PR_GET_THP_DISABLE ,
-returns the boolean value described above.
+returns the value described above.
 On error, \-1 is returned, and
 .I errno
 is set to indicate the error.
diff --git a/man/man2const/PR_SET_THP_DISABLE.2const b/man/man2const/PR_SET_THP_DISABLE.2const
index 564e005d4..9f0f17702 100644
--- a/man/man2const/PR_SET_THP_DISABLE.2const
+++ b/man/man2const/PR_SET_THP_DISABLE.2const
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 .SH NAME
 PR_SET_THP_DISABLE
 \-
-set the state of the "THP disable" flag for the calling thread
+set the state of the "THP disable" flags for the calling thread
 .SH LIBRARY
 Standard C library
 .RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
@@ -15,24 +15,62 @@ Standard C library
 .BR "#include <linux/prctl.h>" "  /* Definition of " PR_* " constants */"
 .B #include <sys/prctl.h>
 .P
-.BI "int prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, long " flag ", 0L, 0L, 0L);"
+.BI "int prctl(PR_SET_THP_DISABLE, long " thp_disable ", unsigned long " flags ", 0L, 0L);"
 .fi
 .SH DESCRIPTION
-Set the state of the "THP disable" flag for the calling thread.
+Set the state of the "THP disable" flags for the calling thread.
 If
-.I flag
-has a nonzero value, the flag is set, otherwise it is cleared.
+.I thp_disable
+has a nonzero value, the THP disable flag is set according to the value of
+.I flags,
+otherwise it is cleared.
 .P
-Setting this flag provides a method
+This
+.BR prctl (2)
+provides a method
 for disabling transparent huge pages
 for jobs where the code cannot be modified,
 and using a malloc hook with
 .BR madvise (2)
 is not an option (i.e., statically allocated data).
-The setting of the "THP disable" flag is inherited by a child created via
+The setting of the "THP disable" flags is inherited by a child created via
 .BR fork (2)
 and is preserved across
 .BR execve (2).
+.P
+The behavior depends on the value of
+.IR flags:
+.TP
+.B 0
+The
+.BR prctl (2)
+call will disable THPs completely for the process,
+irrespective of global THP controls or
+.BR MADV_COLLAPSE .
+.TP
+.B PR_THP_DISABLE_EXCEPT_ADVISED
+The
+.BR prctl (2)
+call will disable THPs for the process except when the usage of THPs is
+advised.
+Consequently, THPs will only be used when:
+.RS
+.IP \[bu] 2
+Global THP controls are set to "always" or "madvise" and
+.BR madvise (...,
+.BR MADV_HUGEPAGE )
+or
+.BR madvise (...,
+.BR MADV_COLLAPSE )
+is used.
+.IP \[bu]
+Global THP controls are set to "never" and
+.BR madvise (...,
+.BR MADV_COLLAPSE )
+is used.
+This is the same behavior as if THPs would not be disabled on
+a process level.
+.RE
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success,
 0 is returned.
-- 
2.47.3

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