[RFC PATCH 10/34] x86: mm: carve out the generic compile-time folded pgtable case in effective_prot()

[Dave Hansen]

On 7/13/26 07:41, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
> Essentially, we have to teach x86 code to ignore levels that are folded (e.g.,
> pgd, p4d) and start collecting effective prots from the actual first non-folded
> level.

I guess that's what the series really comes down to.

The model is moving from (using 3-level PAE as an example):

 PGD => ...folding => PMD => PTE

to

 ...folding => PUD => PMD => PTE

Right?

That's actually not the worst thing in the world, but it is a pretty big
change. It moves the software model away from how the hardware works.
It's a bit more grand than I thought from glancing at the cover letter.