Message-ID: <20251026203611.1608903-7-surenb@google.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2025 13:36:09 -0700
From: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>
To: akpm@...ux-foundation.org
Cc: david@...hat.com, lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com, Liam.Howlett@...cle.com, 
	vbabka@...e.cz, alexandru.elisei@....com, peterx@...hat.com, sj@...nel.org, 
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	linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
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	iommu@...ts.linux.dev
Subject: [PATCH v2 6/8] add cleancache documentation

Document cleancache, its APIs and sysfs interface.

Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>
---
 .../admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst       | 51 ++++++++++++++
 Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst        |  1 +
 Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst               | 68 +++++++++++++++++++
 Documentation/mm/index.rst                    |  1 +
 MAINTAINERS                                   |  2 +
 5 files changed, 123 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst
 create mode 100644 Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..503f17008046
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+==========================
+Cleancache Sysfs Interface
+==========================
+
+If CONFIG_CLEANCACHE_SYSFS is enabled, monitoring of cleancache performance
+can be done via sysfs in the ``/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache`` directory.
+The effectiveness of cleancache can be measured (across all filesystems)
+with provided stats.
+Global stats are published directly under ``/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache`` and
+include:
+
+``stored``
+       number of successful cleancache folio stores.
+
+``skipped``
+       number of folios skipped during cleancache store operation.
+
+``restored``
+       number of successful cleancache folio restore operations.
+
+``missed``
+       number of failed cleancache folio restore operations.
+
+``reclaimed``
+       number of folios reclaimed from the cleancache due to insufficient
+       memory.
+
+``recalled``
+       number of times cleancache folio content was discarded as a result
+       of the cleancache backend taking the folio back.
+
+``invalidated``
+       number of times cleancache folio content was discarded as a result
+       of invalidation.
+
+``cached``
+       number of folios currently cached in the cleancache.
+
+Per-pool stats are published under ``/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache/<pool name>``
+where "pool name" is the name pool was registered under. These stats
+include:
+
+``size``
+       number of folios donated to this pool.
+
+``cached``
+       number of folios currently cached in the pool.
+
+``recalled``
+       number of times cleancache folio content was discarded as a result
+       of the cleancache backend taking the folio back from the pool.
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst
index ebc83ca20fdc..e22336e5c9d2 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ the Linux memory management.
    :maxdepth: 1
 
    concepts
+   cleancache_sysfs
    cma_debugfs
    damon/index
    hugetlbpage
diff --git a/Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst b/Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..bd4ee7df2125
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+==========
+Cleancache
+==========
+
+Motivation
+==========
+
+Cleancache is a feature to utilize unused reserved memory for extending
+page cache.
+
+Cleancache can be thought of as a folio-granularity victim cache for clean
+file-backed pages that the kernel's pageframe replacement algorithm would
+like to keep around, but can't since there isn't enough memory. When the
+memory reclaim mechanism "evicts" a folio, it stores the data contained
+in the folio into cleancache memory which is not directly accessible or
+addressable by the kernel and is of unknown and possibly time-varying
+size.
+
+Later, when a filesystem wishes to access a folio in a file on disk, it
+first checks cleancache to see if it already contains required data; if
+it does, the folio data is copied into the kernel and a disk access is
+avoided.
+
+The memory cleancache uses is donated by other system components, which
+reserve memory not directly addressable by the kernel. By donating this
+memory to cleancache, the memory owner enables its utilization while it
+is not used. Memory donation is done using cleancache backend API and any
+donated memory can be taken back at any time by its donor with no delay
+and with guaranteed success. Since cleancache uses this memory only to
+store clean file-backed data, it can be dropped at any time and therefore
+the donor's request to take back the memory can always be satisfied.
+
+Implementation Overview
+=======================
+
+Cleancache "backend" registers itself with cleancache "frontend" and gets
+a unique pool_id, which it can use in all later API calls to identify the
+pool of folios it donates.
+Once registered, backend can call cleancache_backend_put_folio() or
+cleancache_backend_put_folios() to donate memory to cleancache. Note that
+cleancache currently supports only 0-order folios and will not accept
+larger-order ones. Once the backend needs that memory back, it can get it
+by calling cleancache_backend_get_folio(). Only the original backend can
+take the folio it donated from the cleancache.
+
+Kernel uses cleancache by first calling cleancache_add_fs() to register
+each file system and then using a combination of cleancache_store_folio(),
+cleancache_restore_folio(), cleancache_invalidate_{folio|inode} to store,
+restore and invalidate folio content.
+cleancache_{start|end}_inode_walk() are used to walk over folios inside
+an inode and cleancache_restore_from_inode() is used to restore folios
+during such walks.
+
+From kernel's point of view folios which are copied into cleancache have
+an indefinite lifetime which is completely unknowable by the kernel and so
+may or may not still be in cleancache at any later time. Thus, as its name
+implies, cleancache is not suitable for dirty folios. Cleancache has
+complete discretion over what folios to preserve and what folios to discard
+and when.
+
+Cleancache Performance Metrics
+==============================
+
+Cleancache performance can be measured and monitored using metrics provided
+via sysfs interface under ``/sys/kernel/mm/cleancache`` directory. The
+interface is described in Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst.
diff --git a/Documentation/mm/index.rst b/Documentation/mm/index.rst
index ba6a8872849b..7997879e0695 100644
--- a/Documentation/mm/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/mm/index.rst
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ documentation, or deleted if it has served its purpose.
    allocation-profiling
    arch_pgtable_helpers
    balance
+   cleancache
    damon/index
    free_page_reporting
    hmm
diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index eb35973e10c8..3aabed281b71 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -6058,6 +6058,8 @@ M:	Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>
 M:	Minchan Kim <minchan@...gle.com>
 L:	linux-mm@...ck.org
 S:	Maintained
+F:	Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cleancache_sysfs.rst
+F:	Documentation/mm/cleancache.rst
 F:	include/linux/cleancache.h
 F:	mm/cleancache.c
 F:	mm/cleancache_sysfs.c
-- 
2.51.1.851.g4ebd6896fd-goog

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