[PATCH 1/2] mm: Retry migration earlier upon refcount mismatch

[Dev Jain]

On 8/12/24 13:01, Huang, Ying wrote:
> Dev Jain <dev.jain at arm.com> writes:
>
>> On 8/12/24 11:45, Huang, Ying wrote:
>>> Dev Jain <dev.jain at arm.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> On 8/12/24 11:04, Huang, Ying wrote:
>>>>> Hi, Dev,
>>>>>
>>>>> Dev Jain <dev.jain at arm.com> writes:
>>>>>
>>>>>> As already being done in __migrate_folio(), wherein we backoff if the
>>>>>> folio refcount is wrong, make this check during the unmapping phase, upon
>>>>>> the failure of which, the original state of the PTEs will be restored and
>>>>>> the folio lock will be dropped via migrate_folio_undo_src(), any racing
>>>>>> thread will make progress and migration will be retried.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Dev Jain <dev.jain at arm.com>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>     mm/migrate.c | 9 +++++++++
>>>>>>     1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> diff --git a/mm/migrate.c b/mm/migrate.c
>>>>>> index e7296c0fb5d5..477acf996951 100644
>>>>>> --- a/mm/migrate.c
>>>>>> +++ b/mm/migrate.c
>>>>>> @@ -1250,6 +1250,15 @@ static int migrate_folio_unmap(new_folio_t get_new_folio,
>>>>>>     	}
>>>>>>       	if (!folio_mapped(src)) {
>>>>>> +		/*
>>>>>> +		 * Someone may have changed the refcount and maybe sleeping
>>>>>> +		 * on the folio lock. In case of refcount mismatch, bail out,
>>>>>> +		 * let the system make progress and retry.
>>>>>> +		 */
>>>>>> +		struct address_space *mapping = folio_mapping(src);
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +		if (folio_ref_count(src) != folio_expected_refs(mapping, src))
>>>>>> +			goto out;
>>>>>>     		__migrate_folio_record(dst, old_page_state, anon_vma);
>>>>>>     		return MIGRATEPAGE_UNMAP;
>>>>>>     	}
>>>>> Do you have some test results for this?  For example, after applying the
>>>>> patch, the migration success rate increased XX%, etc.
>>>> I'll get back to you on this.
>>>>
>>>>> My understanding for this issue is that the migration success rate can
>>>>> increase if we undo all changes before retrying.  This is the current
>>>>> behavior for sync migration, but not for async migration.  If so, we can
>>>>> use migrate_pages_sync() for async migration too to increase success
>>>>> rate?  Of course, we need to change the function name and comments.
>>>> As per my understanding, this is not the current behaviour for sync
>>>> migration. After successful unmapping, we fail in migrate_folio_move()
>>>> with -EAGAIN, we do not call undo src+dst (rendering the loop around
>>>> migrate_folio_move() futile), we do not push the failed folio onto the
>>>> ret_folios list, therefore, in _sync(), _batch() is never tried again.
>>> In migrate_pages_sync(), migrate_pages_batch(,MIGRATE_ASYNC) will be
>>> called first, if failed, the folio will be restored to the original
>>> state (unlocked).  Then migrate_pages_batch(,_SYNC*) is called again.
>>> So, we unlock once.  If it's necessary, we can unlock more times via
>>> another level of loop.
>> Yes, that's my point. We need to undo src+dst and retry.
> For sync migration, we undo src+dst and retry now, but only once.  You
> have shown that more retrying increases success rate.
>
>> We will have
>> to decide where we want this retrying to be; do we want to change the
>> return value, end up in the while loop wrapped around _sync(), and retry
>> there by adding another level of loop, or do we want to make use of the
>> existing retry loops, one of which is wrapped around _unmap(); the latter
>> is my approach. The utility I see for the former approach is that, in case
>> of a large number of page migrations (which should usually be the case),
>> we are giving more time for the folio to get retried. The latter does not
>> give much time and discards the folio if it did not succeed under 7 times.
> Because it's a race, I guess that most folios will be migrated
> successfully in the first pass.
>
> My concerns of your method are that it deal with just one case
> specially.  While retrying after undoing all appears more general.


Makes sense. Also, please ignore my "change the return value"
thing, I got confused between unmap_folios, ret_folios, etc.
Now I think I understood what the lists are doing :)

>
> If it's really important to retry after undoing all, we can either
> convert two retying loops of migrate_pages_batch() into one loop, or
> remove retry loop in migrate_pages_batch() and retry in its caller
> instead.

And if I implemented this correctly, the following makes the test
pass always:
https://www.codedump.xyz/diff/Zrn7EdxzNXmXyNXe



>
> --
> Best Regards,
> Huang, Ying