[PATCH v2 1/1] page_frag: Recover from memory pressure

[PATCH v2 1/1] page_frag: Recover from memory pressure

[Dongli Zhang]

The ethernet driver may allocate skb (and skb->data) via napi_alloc_skb().
This ends up to page_frag_alloc() to allocate skb->data from
page_frag_cache->va.

During the memory pressure, page_frag_cache->va may be allocated as
pfmemalloc page. As a result, the skb->pfmemalloc is always true as
skb->data is from page_frag_cache->va. The skb will be dropped if the
sock (receiver) does not have SOCK_MEMALLOC. This is expected behaviour
under memory pressure.

However, once kernel is not under memory pressure any longer (suppose large
amount of memory pages are just reclaimed), the page_frag_alloc() may still
re-use the prior pfmemalloc page_frag_cache->va to allocate skb->data. As a
result, the skb->pfmemalloc is always true unless page_frag_cache->va is
re-allocated, even if the kernel is not under memory pressure any longer.

Here is how kernel runs into issue.

1. The kernel is under memory pressure and allocation of
PAGE_FRAG_CACHE_MAX_ORDER in __page_frag_cache_refill() will fail. Instead,
the pfmemalloc page is allocated for page_frag_cache->va.

2: All skb->data from page_frag_cache->va (pfmemalloc) will have
skb->pfmemalloc=true. The skb will always be dropped by sock without
SOCK_MEMALLOC. This is an expected behaviour.

3. Suppose a large amount of pages are reclaimed and kernel is not under
memory pressure any longer. We expect skb->pfmemalloc drop will not happen.

4. Unfortunately, page_frag_alloc() does not proactively re-allocate
page_frag_alloc->va and will always re-use the prior pfmemalloc page. The
skb->pfmemalloc is always true even kernel is not under memory pressure any
longer.

Fix this by freeing and re-allocating the page instead of recycling it.

References: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20201103193239.1807-1-dongli.zhang@oracle.com/
References: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20201105042140.5253-1-willy@infradead.org/
Suggested-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Aruna Ramakrishna <aruna.ramakrishna@oracle.com>
Cc: Bert Barbe <bert.barbe@oracle.com>
Cc: Rama Nichanamatlu <rama.nichanamatlu@oracle.com>
Cc: Venkat Venkatsubra <venkat.x.venkatsubra@oracle.com>
Cc: Manjunath Patil <manjunath.b.patil@oracle.com>
Cc: Joe Jin <joe.jin@oracle.com>
Cc: SRINIVAS <srinivas.eeda@oracle.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 79930f5892e ("net: do not deplete pfmemalloc reserve")
Signed-off-by: Dongli Zhang <dongli.zhang@oracle.com>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
---
Changed since v1:
  - change author from Matthew to Dongli
  - Add references to all prior discussions
  - Add more details to commit message

 mm/page_alloc.c | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 23f5066bd4a5..91129ce75ed4 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -5103,6 +5103,11 @@ void *page_frag_alloc(struct page_frag_cache *nc,
 		if (!page_ref_sub_and_test(page, nc->pagecnt_bias))
 			goto refill;
 
+		if (nc->pfmemalloc) {
+			free_the_page(page, compound_order(page));
+			goto refill;
+		}
+
 #if (PAGE_SIZE < PAGE_FRAG_CACHE_MAX_SIZE)
 		/* if size can vary use size else just use PAGE_SIZE */
 		size = nc->size;
-- 
2.17.1

Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] page_frag: Recover from memory pressure

[Matthew Wilcox]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 10:51:06PM -0800, Dongli Zhang wrote:
> +		if (nc->pfmemalloc) {

You missed the unlikely() change that Eric recommended.

Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] page_frag: Recover from memory pressure

[Dongli Zhang]

On 11/15/20 4:18 AM, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 10:51:06PM -0800, Dongli Zhang wrote:
>> +		if (nc->pfmemalloc) {
> 
> You missed the unlikely() change that Eric recommended.
> 

Thank you very much. I missed that email.

I will send v3.

Dongli Zhang