Patch "kaiser: _pgd_alloc() without __GFP_REPEAT to avoid stalls" has been added to the 4.4-stable tree

[<gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled

    kaiser: _pgd_alloc() without __GFP_REPEAT to avoid stalls

to the 4.4-stable tree which can be found at:
    http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary

The filename of the patch is:
     kaiser-_pgd_alloc-without-__gfp_repeat-to-avoid-stalls.patch
and it can be found in the queue-4.4 subdirectory.

If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree,
please let <stable@vger.kernel.org> know about it.


>From foo@baz Wed Jan  3 18:58:12 CET 2018
From: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2017 12:10:00 -0700
Subject: kaiser: _pgd_alloc() without __GFP_REPEAT to avoid stalls

From: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>


Synthetic filesystem mempressure testing has shown softlockups, with
hour-long page allocation stalls, and pgd_alloc() trying for order:1
with __GFP_REPEAT in one of the backtraces each time.

That's _pgd_alloc() going for a Kaiser double-pgd, using the __GFP_REPEAT
common to all page table allocations, but actually having no effect on
order:0 (see should_alloc_oom() and should_continue_reclaim() in this
tree, but beware that ports to another tree might behave differently).

Order:1 stack allocation has been working satisfactorily without
__GFP_REPEAT forever, and page table allocation only asks __GFP_REPEAT
for awkward occasions in a long-running process: it's not appropriate
at fork or exec time, and seems to be doing much more harm than good:
getting those contiguous pages under very heavy mempressure can be
hard (though even without it, Kaiser does generate more mempressure).

Mask out that __GFP_REPEAT inside _pgd_alloc().  Why not take it out
of the PGALLOG_GFP altogether, as v4.7 commit a3a9a59d2067 ("x86: get
rid of superfluous __GFP_REPEAT") did?  Because I think that might
make a difference to our page table memcg charging, which I'd prefer
not to interfere with at this time.

hughd adds: __alloc_pages_slowpath() in the 4.4.89-stable tree handles
__GFP_REPEAT a little differently than in prod kernel or 3.18.72-stable,
so it may not always be exactly a no-op on order:0 pages, as said above;
but I think still appropriate to omit it from Kaiser or non-Kaiser pgd.

Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Acked-by: Jiri Kosina <jkosina@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
 arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c |    6 ++++--
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

--- a/arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/pgtable.c
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #include <asm/fixmap.h>
 #include <asm/mtrr.h>
 
-#define PGALLOC_GFP GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOTRACK | __GFP_REPEAT | __GFP_ZERO
+#define PGALLOC_GFP (GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOTRACK | __GFP_REPEAT | __GFP_ZERO)
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_HIGHPTE
 #define PGALLOC_USER_GFP __GFP_HIGHMEM
@@ -354,7 +354,9 @@ static inline void _pgd_free(pgd_t *pgd)
 
 static inline pgd_t *_pgd_alloc(void)
 {
-	return (pgd_t *)__get_free_pages(PGALLOC_GFP, PGD_ALLOCATION_ORDER);
+	/* No __GFP_REPEAT: to avoid page allocation stalls in order-1 case */
+	return (pgd_t *)__get_free_pages(PGALLOC_GFP & ~__GFP_REPEAT,
+					 PGD_ALLOCATION_ORDER);
 }
 
 static inline void _pgd_free(pgd_t *pgd)


Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from hughd@google.com are

queue-4.4/kaiser-vmstat-show-nr_kaisertable-as-nr_overhead.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-add-nokaiser-boot-option-using-alternative.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-fix-unlikely-error-in-alloc_ldt_struct.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-_pgd_alloc-without-__gfp_repeat-to-avoid-stalls.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-kaiser_flush_tlb_on_return_to_user-check-pcid.patch
queue-4.4/x86-paravirt-dont-patch-flush_tlb_single.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-merged-update.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-delete-kaiser_real_switch-option.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-kaiser_remove_mapping-move-along-the-pgd.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-fix-perf-crashes.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-drop-is_atomic-arg-to-kaiser_pagetable_walk.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-load_new_mm_cr3-let-switch_user_cr3-flush-user.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-enhanced-by-kernel-and-user-pcids.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-x86_cr3_pcid_noflush-and-x86_cr3_pcid_user.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-use-alternative-instead-of-x86_cr3_pcid_noflush.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-stack-map-page_size-at-thread_size-page_size.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-name-that-0x1000-kaiser_shadow_pgd_offset.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-fix-regs-to-do_nmi-ifndef-config_kaiser.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-do-not-set-_page_nx-on-pgd_none.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-tidied-up-asm-kaiser.h-somewhat.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-cleanups-while-trying-for-gold-link.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-tidied-up-kaiser_add-remove_mapping-slightly.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-fix-build-and-fixme-in-alloc_ldt_struct.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-kernel-address-isolation.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-enomem-if-kaiser_pagetable_walk-null.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-asm-tlbflush.h-handle-nopge-at-lower-level.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-paranoid_entry-pass-cr3-need-to-paranoid_exit.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-kaiser-depends-on-smp.patch
queue-4.4/kaiser-pcid-0-for-kernel-and-128-for-user.patch