linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 09/21] slab: add optimized sheaf refill from partial list

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Message-ID: <zo75mmcyxdzrefl7fo4vy2zqfpzcox4vrmjsk63qtzzmwigbzk@2hb52by2j7yy>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:32:37 +0800
From: Hao Li <hao.li@...ux.dev>
To: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>, Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@...e.com>, 
	Christoph Lameter <cl@...two.org>, David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>, 
	Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@...ux.dev>, Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, 
	Uladzislau Rezki <urezki@...il.com>, "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, 
	Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>, Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>, 
	Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>, linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
	linux-rt-devel@...ts.linux.dev, bpf@...r.kernel.org, kasan-dev@...glegroups.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 09/21] slab: add optimized sheaf refill from partial
 list

On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 10:41:37AM +0900, Harry Yoo wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 11:54:18AM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> > On 1/19/26 07:41, Harry Yoo wrote:
> > > On Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 03:40:29PM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> > >>  /*
> > >>   * Try to allocate a partial slab from a specific node.
> > >>   */
> > >> +static unsigned int alloc_from_new_slab(struct kmem_cache *s, struct slab *slab,
> > >> +		void **p, unsigned int count, bool allow_spin)
> > >> +{
> > >> +	unsigned int allocated = 0;
> > >> +	struct kmem_cache_node *n;
> > >> +	unsigned long flags;
> > >> +	void *object;
> > >> +
> > >> +	if (!allow_spin && (slab->objects - slab->inuse) > count) {
> > >> +
> > >> +		n = get_node(s, slab_nid(slab));
> > >> +
> > >> +		if (!spin_trylock_irqsave(&n->list_lock, flags)) {
> > >> +			/* Unlucky, discard newly allocated slab */
> > >> +			defer_deactivate_slab(slab, NULL);
> > >> +			return 0;
> > >> +		}
> > >> +	}
> > >> +
> > >> +	object = slab->freelist;
> > >> +	while (object && allocated < count) {
> > >> +		p[allocated] = object;
> > >> +		object = get_freepointer(s, object);
> > >> +		maybe_wipe_obj_freeptr(s, p[allocated]);
> > >> +
> > >> +		slab->inuse++;
> > >> +		allocated++;
> > >> +	}
> > >> +	slab->freelist = object;
> > >> +
> > >> +	if (slab->freelist) {
> > >> +
> > >> +		if (allow_spin) {
> > >> +			n = get_node(s, slab_nid(slab));
> > >> +			spin_lock_irqsave(&n->list_lock, flags);
> > >> +		}
> > >> +		add_partial(n, slab, DEACTIVATE_TO_HEAD);
> > >> +		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&n->list_lock, flags);
> > >> +	}
> > >> +
> > >> +	inc_slabs_node(s, slab_nid(slab), slab->objects);
> > > 
> > > Maybe add a comment explaining why inc_slabs_node() doesn't need to be
> > > called under n->list_lock?

I think this is a great observation.

> > 
> > Hm, we might not even be holding it. The old code also did the inc with no
> > comment. If anything could use one, it would be in
> > alloc_single_from_new_slab()? But that's outside the scope here.
> 
> Ok. Perhaps worth adding something like this later, but yeah it's outside
> the scope here.
> 
> diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
> index 698c0d940f06..c5a1e47dfe16 100644
> --- a/mm/slub.c
> +++ b/mm/slub.c
> @@ -1633,6 +1633,9 @@ static inline void inc_slabs_node(struct kmem_cache *s, int node, int objects)
>  {
>  	struct kmem_cache_node *n = get_node(s, node);
>  
> +	if (kmem_cache_debug(s))
> +		/* slab validation may generate false errors without the lock */
> +		lockdep_assert_held(&n->list_lock);
>  	atomic_long_inc(&n->nr_slabs);
>  	atomic_long_add(objects, &n->total_objects);
>  }

Yes. This makes sense to me.

Just to double-check - I noticed that inc_slabs_node() is also called by
early_kmem_cache_node_alloc(). Could this potentially lead to false positive
warnings for boot-time caches when debug flags are enabled?

-- 
Thanks,
Hao