[PATCH v2 2/2] arm64: mmu: avoid allocating pages while installing ng-mapping for KPTI

David Hildenbrand (Red Hat) david at kernel.org
Thu Dec 18 00:46:10 PST 2025


On 12/18/25 09:37, Yeoreum Yun wrote:
> [...]
>>> I think it would be better to use only __GFP_HIGH in here since
>>> when kpti_install_ng_mappings() is called, "kswpd" doesn't created yet.
>>> and to allocate page with assurance, It would be good to use
>>> min_reserved to.
>>>
>>> Am I missing something?
>>
>> Personally I think we should just use "GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_ZERO". Anything else
>> would make this allocation look special, which it is not. If we fail to allocate
>> at this point in boot, we have bigger problems.
> 
> But I'm not sure *HOW effective* to use GFP_KERNEL in here.
> Since it's before the any filesystem inited.
> IOW, in this context, almost there would be no *page cache*
> and I think it seems meaningless to use "GFP_KERNEL" and "direct
> reclaim"
> 
> So to get success for allocation, __GFP_HIGH | _GFP_ZERO seems much
> better.

Unless there is a real reason to confuse readers why this is very 
special, just go with "GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_ZERO", really.

In particular if it doesn't matter in practice? Or does it and we are 
not getting your point?

-- 
Cheers

David



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