linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH mm-new v4 5/6] mm: khugepaged: skip lazy-free folios at scanning

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Message-ID: <06c2e619-0e60-4e57-b2ea-37333b2f6f5d@kernel.org>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:50:34 +0100
From: "David Hildenbrand (Red Hat)" <david@...nel.org>
To: Vernon Yang <vernon2gm@...il.com>, akpm@...ux-foundation.org
Cc: lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com, ziy@...dia.com, dev.jain@....com,
 baohua@...nel.org, lance.yang@...ux.dev, linux-mm@...ck.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@...inos.cn>
Subject: Re: [PATCH mm-new v4 5/6] mm: khugepaged: skip lazy-free folios at
 scanning

On 1/11/26 13:19, Vernon Yang wrote:
> For example, create three task: hot1 -> cold -> hot2. After all three
> task are created, each allocate memory 128MB. the hot1/hot2 task
> continuously access 128 MB memory, while the cold task only accesses
> its memory briefly andthen call madvise(MADV_FREE). However, khugepaged
> still prioritizes scanning the cold task and only scans the hot2 task
> after completing the scan of the cold task.
> 
> So if the user has explicitly informed us via MADV_FREE that this memory
> will be freed, it is appropriate for khugepaged to skip it only, thereby
> avoiding unnecessary scan and collapse operations to reducing CPU
> wastage.
> 
> Here are the performance test results:
> (Throughput bigger is better, other smaller is better)
> 
> Testing on x86_64 machine:
> 
> | task hot2           | without patch | with patch    |  delta  |
> |---------------------|---------------|---------------|---------|
> | total accesses time |  3.14 sec     |  2.93 sec     | -6.69%  |
> | cycles per access   |  4.96         |  2.21         | -55.44% |
> | Throughput          |  104.38 M/sec |  111.89 M/sec | +7.19%  |
> | dTLB-load-misses    |  284814532    |  69597236     | -75.56% |
> 
> Testing on qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm:
> 
> | task hot2           | without patch | with patch    |  delta  |
> |---------------------|---------------|---------------|---------|
> | total accesses time |  3.35 sec     |  2.96 sec     | -11.64% |
> | cycles per access   |  7.29         |  2.07         | -71.60% |
> | Throughput          |  97.67 M/sec  |  110.77 M/sec | +13.41% |
> | dTLB-load-misses    |  241600871    |  3216108      | -98.67% |
> 
> Signed-off-by: Vernon Yang <yanglincheng@...inos.cn>
> ---
>   include/trace/events/huge_memory.h |  1 +
>   mm/khugepaged.c                    | 17 +++++++++++++++++
>   2 files changed, 18 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h b/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h
> index 3d1069c3f0c5..e3856f8ab9eb 100644
> --- a/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h
> +++ b/include/trace/events/huge_memory.h
> @@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
>   	EM( SCAN_PAGE_LRU,		"page_not_in_lru")		\
>   	EM( SCAN_PAGE_LOCK,		"page_locked")			\
>   	EM( SCAN_PAGE_ANON,		"page_not_anon")		\
> +	EM( SCAN_PAGE_LAZYFREE,		"page_lazyfree")		\
>   	EM( SCAN_PAGE_COMPOUND,		"page_compound")		\
>   	EM( SCAN_ANY_PROCESS,		"no_process_for_page")		\
>   	EM( SCAN_VMA_NULL,		"vma_null")			\
> diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
> index 6df2857d94c6..8a7008760566 100644
> --- a/mm/khugepaged.c
> +++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
> @@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ enum scan_result {
>   	SCAN_PAGE_LRU,
>   	SCAN_PAGE_LOCK,
>   	SCAN_PAGE_ANON,
> +	SCAN_PAGE_LAZYFREE,
>   	SCAN_PAGE_COMPOUND,
>   	SCAN_ANY_PROCESS,
>   	SCAN_VMA_NULL,
> @@ -1258,6 +1259,7 @@ static enum scan_result hpage_collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
>   	pmd_t *pmd;
>   	pte_t *pte, *_pte;
>   	int none_or_zero = 0, shared = 0, referenced = 0;
> +	int lazyfree = 0;
>   	enum scan_result result = SCAN_FAIL;
>   	struct page *page = NULL;
>   	struct folio *folio = NULL;
> @@ -1343,6 +1345,21 @@ static enum scan_result hpage_collapse_scan_pmd(struct mm_struct *mm,
>   		}
>   		folio = page_folio(page);
>   
> +		if (cc->is_khugepaged && !pte_dirty(pteval) &&
> +		    folio_is_lazyfree(folio)) {
> +			++lazyfree;
> +
> +			/*
> +			 * The lazyfree folios are reclaimed and become pte_none.
> +			 * Ensure they do not continue to be collapsed when
> +			 * skipped ahead.
> +			 */
> +			if ((lazyfree + none_or_zero) > khugepaged_max_ptes_none) {
> +				result = SCAN_PAGE_LAZYFREE;
> +				goto out_unmap;

I dislike adding another khugepaged_max_ptes_none check. Gah.


Can't we should just keep it simple and do

if (!pte_dirty(pteval) && folio_is_lazyfree(folio)) {
	result = SCAN_PAGE_LAZYFREE;
	goto out_unmap;
}

Reasoning: once they are none, we have a zero-filled page that e.g., the 
deferred shrinker can reclaim.

If you collapse with a lazyfree page, that content will never be none 
and the deferred shrinker cannot reclaim them.

So there is a real difference between them being none and them still 
being around.


We could also try turning them into none entries here, that is, test of 
we can discard them, to then just threat them like none entries.


Why don't we want to similarly handle this in 
__collapse_huge_page_isolate() ?

-- 
Cheers

David