[PATCHv5 00/17] mm: Eliminate fake head pages from vmemmap optimization
Kiryl Shutsemau
kas at kernel.org
Wed Jan 28 05:54:41 PST 2026
This series removes "fake head pages" from the HugeTLB vmemmap
optimization (HVO) by changing how tail pages encode their relationship
to the head page.
It simplifies compound_head() and page_ref_add_unless(). Both are in the
hot path.
Background
==========
HVO reduces memory overhead by freeing vmemmap pages for HugeTLB pages
and remapping the freed virtual addresses to a single physical page.
Previously, all tail page vmemmap entries were remapped to the first
vmemmap page (containing the head struct page), creating "fake heads" -
tail pages that appear to have PG_head set when accessed through the
deduplicated vmemmap.
This required special handling in compound_head() to detect and work
around fake heads, adding complexity and overhead to a very hot path.
New Approach
============
For architectures/configs where sizeof(struct page) is a power of 2 (the
common case), this series changes how position of the head page is encoded
in the tail pages.
Instead of storing a pointer to the head page, the ->compound_info
(renamed from ->compound_head) now stores a mask.
The mask can be applied to any tail page's virtual address to compute
the head page address. Critically, all tail pages of the same order now
have identical compound_info values, regardless of which compound page
they belong to.
The key insight is that all tail pages of the same order now have
identical compound_info values, regardless of which compound page they
belong to. This allows a single page of tail struct pages to be shared
across all huge pages of the same order on a NUMA node.
Benefits
========
1. Simplified compound_head(): No fake head detection needed, can be
implemented in a branchless manner.
2. Simplified page_ref_add_unless(): RCU protection removed since there's
no race with fake head remapping.
3. Cleaner architecture: The shared tail pages are truly read-only and
contain valid tail page metadata.
If sizeof(struct page) is not power-of-2, there are no functional changes.
HVO is not supported in this configuration.
I had hoped to see performance improvement, but my testing thus far has
shown either no change or only a slight improvement within the noise.
Series Organization
===================
Patch 1: Preparation - move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER to mmzone.h
Patches 2-4: Refactoring - interface changes, field rename, code movement
Patches 5-6: Arch fixes - align vmemmap for riscv and LoongArch
Patch 7: Core change - new mask-based compound_head() encoding
Patch 8: Correctness fix - page_zonenum() must use head page
Patch 9: Add memmap alignment check for compound_info_has_mask()
Patch 10: Refactor vmemmap_walk for new design
Patch 11: Eliminate fake heads with shared tail pages
Patches 12-15: Cleanup - remove fake head infrastructure
Patch 16: Documentation update
Patch 17: Get rid of opencoded compound_head() in page_slab()
Changes in v5:
==============
- Rebased to mm-everything-2026-01-27-04-35
- Add arch-specific patches to align vmemmap to maximal folio size
for riscv and LoongArch architectures.
- Strengthen the memmap alignment check in mm/sparse.c: use BUG()
for CONFIG_DEBUG_VM, WARN() otherwise. (Muchun)
- Use cmpxchg() instead of hugetlb_lock to update vmemmap_tails
array. (Muchun)
- Update page_slab().
Changes in v4:
==============
- Fix build issues due to linux/mmzone.h <-> linux/pgtable.h
dependency loop by avoiding including linux/pgtable.h into
linux/mmzone.h
- Rework vmemmap_remap_alloc() interface. (Muchun)
- Use &folio->page instead of folio address for optimization
target. (Muchun)
Changes in v3:
==============
- Fixed error recovery path in vmemmap_remap_free() to pass correct start
address for TLB flush. (Muchun)
- Wrapped the mask-based compound_info encoding within CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP
check via compound_info_has_mask(). For other memory models, alignment
guarantees are harder to verify. (Muchun)
- Updated vmemmap_dedup.rst documentation wording: changed "vmemmap_tail
shared for the struct hstate" to "A single, per-node page frame shared
among all hugepages of the same size". (Muchun)
- Fixed build error with MAX_FOLIO_ORDER expanding to undefined PUD_ORDER
in certain configurations. (kernel test robot)
Changes in v2:
==============
- Handle boot-allocated huge pages correctly. (Frank)
- Changed from per-hstate vmemmap_tail to per-node vmemmap_tails[] array
in pglist_data. (Muchun)
- Added spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock) protection in vmemmap_get_tail() to fix
a race condition where two threads could both allocate tail pages.
The losing thread now properly frees its allocated page. (Usama)
- Add warning if memmap is not aligned to MAX_FOLIO_SIZE, which is
required for the mask approach. (Muchun)
- Make page_zonenum() use head page - correctness fix since shared
tail pages cannot have valid zone information. (Muchun)
- Added 'const' qualifier to head parameter in set_compound_head() and
prep_compound_tail(). (Usama)
- Updated commit messages.
Kiryl Shutsemau (17):
mm: Move MAX_FOLIO_ORDER definition to mmzone.h
mm: Change the interface of prep_compound_tail()
mm: Rename the 'compound_head' field in the 'struct page' to
'compound_info'
mm: Move set/clear_compound_head() next to compound_head()
riscv/mm: Align vmemmap to maximal folio size
LoongArch/mm: Align vmemmap to maximal folio size
mm: Rework compound_head() for power-of-2 sizeof(struct page)
mm: Make page_zonenum() use head page
mm/sparse: Check memmap alignment for compound_info_has_mask()
mm/hugetlb: Refactor code around vmemmap_walk
mm/hugetlb: Remove fake head pages
mm: Drop fake head checks
hugetlb: Remove VMEMMAP_SYNCHRONIZE_RCU
mm/hugetlb: Remove hugetlb_optimize_vmemmap_key static key
mm: Remove the branch from compound_head()
hugetlb: Update vmemmap_dedup.rst
mm/slab: Use compound_head() in page_slab()
.../admin-guide/kdump/vmcoreinfo.rst | 2 +-
Documentation/mm/vmemmap_dedup.rst | 62 ++--
arch/loongarch/include/asm/pgtable.h | 3 +-
arch/riscv/mm/init.c | 3 +-
include/linux/mm.h | 31 --
include/linux/mm_types.h | 20 +-
include/linux/mmzone.h | 46 +++
include/linux/page-flags.h | 167 +++++-----
include/linux/page_ref.h | 8 +-
include/linux/types.h | 2 +-
kernel/vmcore_info.c | 2 +-
mm/hugetlb.c | 8 +-
mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c | 290 ++++++++----------
mm/internal.h | 12 +-
mm/mm_init.c | 2 +-
mm/page_alloc.c | 4 +-
mm/slab.h | 8 +-
mm/sparse-vmemmap.c | 44 ++-
mm/sparse.c | 13 +
mm/util.c | 16 +-
20 files changed, 371 insertions(+), 372 deletions(-)
--
2.51.2
More information about the linux-riscv
mailing list