kernel/linux.git/include/linux/ksm.h, branch v6.6.131

mm/ksm: fix incorrect KSM counter handling in mm_struct during fork

2025-10-19T14:30:58+00:00

[ Upstream commit 4d6fc29f36341d7795db1d1819b4c15fe9be7b23 ] Patch series "mm/ksm: Fix incorrect accounting of KSM counters during fork", v3. The first patch in this series fixes the incorrect accounting of KSM counters such as ksm_merging_pages, ksm_rmap_items, and the global ksm_zero_pages during fork. The following patch add a selftest to verify the ksm_merging_pages counter was updated correctly during fork. Test Results ============ Without the first patch ----------------------- # [RUN] test_fork_ksm_merging_page_count not ok 10 ksm_merging_page in child: 32 With the first patch -------------------- # [RUN] test_fork_ksm_merging_page_count ok 10 ksm_merging_pages is not inherited after fork This patch (of 2): Currently, the KSM-related counters in `mm_struct`, such as `ksm_merging_pages`, `ksm_rmap_items`, and `ksm_zero_pages`, are inherited by the child process during fork. This results in inconsistent accounting. When a process uses KSM, identical pages are merged and an rmap item is created for each merged page. The `ksm_merging_pages` and `ksm_rmap_items` counters are updated accordingly. However, after a fork, these counters are copied to the child while the corresponding rmap items are not. As a result, when the child later triggers an unmerge, there are no rmap items present in the child, so the counters remain stale, leading to incorrect accounting. A similar issue exists with `ksm_zero_pages`, which maintains both a global counter and a per-process counter. During fork, the per-process counter is inherited by the child, but the global counter is not incremented. Since the child also references zero pages, the global counter should be updated as well. Otherwise, during zero-page unmerge, both the global and per-process counters are decremented, causing the global counter to become inconsistent. To fix this, ksm_merging_pages and ksm_rmap_items are reset to 0 during fork, and the global ksm_zero_pages counter is updated with the per-process ksm_zero_pages value inherited by the child. This ensures that KSM statistics remain accurate and reflect the activity of each process correctly. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/cover.1758648700.git.donettom@linux.ibm.com Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/7b9870eb67ccc0d79593940d9dbd4a0b39b5d396.1758648700.git.donettom@linux.ibm.com Fixes: 7609385337a4 ("ksm: count ksm merging pages for each process") Fixes: cb4df4cae4f2 ("ksm: count allocated ksm rmap_items for each process") Fixes: e2942062e01d ("ksm: count all zero pages placed by KSM") Signed-off-by: Donet Tom Reviewed-by: Chengming Zhou Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: Aboorva Devarajan Cc: David Hildenbrand Cc: Donet Tom Cc: "Ritesh Harjani (IBM)" Cc: Wei Yang Cc: xu xin Cc: [6.6+] Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton [ changed mm_flags_test() to test_bit() ] Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

mm/ksm: fix ksm_zero_pages accounting

2024-06-16T11:47:41+00:00

commit c2dc78b86e0821ecf9a9d0c35dba2618279a5bb6 upstream. We normally ksm_zero_pages++ in ksmd when page is merged with zero page, but ksm_zero_pages-- is done from page tables side, where there is no any accessing protection of ksm_zero_pages. So we can read very exceptional value of ksm_zero_pages in rare cases, such as -1, which is very confusing to users. Fix it by changing to use atomic_long_t, and the same case with the mm->ksm_zero_pages. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20240528-b4-ksm-counters-v3-2-34bb358fdc13@linux.dev Fixes: e2942062e01d ("ksm: count all zero pages placed by KSM") Fixes: 6080d19f0704 ("ksm: add ksm zero pages for each process") Signed-off-by: Chengming Zhou Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: Andrea Arcangeli Cc: Hugh Dickins Cc: Ran Xiaokai Cc: Stefan Roesch Cc: xu xin Cc: Yang Yang Cc: Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

ksm: add ksm zero pages for each process

2023-08-18T17:12:10+00:00

As the number of ksm zero pages is not included in ksm_merging_pages per process when enabling use_zero_pages, it's unclear of how many actual pages are merged by KSM. To let users accurately estimate their memory demands when unsharing KSM zero-pages, it's necessary to show KSM zero- pages per process. In addition, it help users to know the actual KSM profit because KSM-placed zero pages are also benefit from KSM. since unsharing zero pages placed by KSM accurately is achieved, then tracking empty pages merging and unmerging is not a difficult thing any longer. Since we already have /proc//ksm_stat, just add the information of 'ksm_zero_pages' in it. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230613030938.185993-1-yang.yang29@zte.com.cn Signed-off-by: xu xin Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Reviewed-by: Xiaokai Ran Reviewed-by: Yang Yang Cc: Claudio Imbrenda Cc: Xuexin Jiang Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

ksm: count all zero pages placed by KSM

2023-08-18T17:12:09+00:00

As pages_sharing and pages_shared don't include the number of zero pages merged by KSM, we cannot know how many pages are zero pages placed by KSM when enabling use_zero_pages, which leads to KSM not being transparent with all actual merged pages by KSM. In the early days of use_zero_pages, zero-pages was unable to get unshared by the ways like MADV_UNMERGEABLE so it's hard to count how many times one of those zeropages was then unmerged. But now, unsharing KSM-placed zero page accurately has been achieved, so we can easily count both how many times a page full of zeroes was merged with zero-page and how many times one of those pages was then unmerged. and so, it helps to estimate memory demands when each and every shared page could get unshared. So we add ksm_zero_pages under /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/ to show the number of all zero pages placed by KSM. Meanwhile, we update the Documentation. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230613030934.185944-1-yang.yang29@zte.com.cn Signed-off-by: xu xin Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: Claudio Imbrenda Cc: Xuexin Jiang Reviewed-by: Xiaokai Ran Reviewed-by: Yang Yang Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

ksm: support unsharing KSM-placed zero pages

2023-08-18T17:12:09+00:00

Patch series "ksm: support tracking KSM-placed zero-pages", v10. The core idea of this patch set is to enable users to perceive the number of any pages merged by KSM, regardless of whether use_zero_page switch has been turned on, so that users can know how much free memory increase is really due to their madvise(MERGEABLE) actions. But the problem is, when enabling use_zero_pages, all empty pages will be merged with kernel zero pages instead of with each other as use_zero_pages is disabled, and then these zero-pages are no longer monitored by KSM. The motivations to do this is seen at: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/202302100915227721315@zte.com.cn/ In one word, we hope to implement the support for KSM-placed zero pages tracking without affecting the feature of use_zero_pages, so that app developer can also benefit from knowing the actual KSM profit by getting KSM-placed zero pages to optimize applications eventually when /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/use_zero_pages is enabled. This patch (of 5): When use_zero_pages of ksm is enabled, madvise(addr, len, MADV_UNMERGEABLE) and other ways (like write 2 to /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/run) to trigger unsharing will *not* actually unshare the shared zeropage as placed by KSM (which is against the MADV_UNMERGEABLE documentation). As these KSM-placed zero pages are out of the control of KSM, the related counts of ksm pages don't expose how many zero pages are placed by KSM (these special zero pages are different from those initially mapped zero pages, because the zero pages mapped to MADV_UNMERGEABLE areas are expected to be a complete and unshared page). To not blindly unshare all shared zero_pages in applicable VMAs, the patch use pte_mkdirty (related with architecture) to mark KSM-placed zero pages. Thus, MADV_UNMERGEABLE will only unshare those KSM-placed zero pages. In addition, we'll reuse this mechanism to reliably identify KSM-placed ZeroPages to properly account for them (e.g., calculating the KSM profit that includes zeropages) in the latter patches. The patch will not degrade the performance of use_zero_pages as it doesn't change the way of merging empty pages in use_zero_pages's feature. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/202306131104554703428@zte.com.cn Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230613030928.185882-1-yang.yang29@zte.com.cn Signed-off-by: xu xin Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: Claudio Imbrenda Cc: Xuexin Jiang Reviewed-by: Xiaokai Ran Reviewed-by: Yang Yang Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

mm/ksm: move disabling KSM from s390/gmap code to KSM code

2023-05-03T00:21:50+00:00

Let's factor out actual disabling of KSM. The existing "mm->def_flags &= ~VM_MERGEABLE;" was essentially a NOP and can be dropped, because def_flags should never include VM_MERGEABLE. Note that we don't currently prevent re-enabling KSM. This should now be faster in case KSM was never enabled, because we only conditionally iterate all VMAs. Further, it certainly looks cleaner. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230422210156.33630-1-david@redhat.com Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand Acked-by: Janosch Frank Acked-by: Stefan Roesch Cc: Christian Borntraeger Cc: Claudio Imbrenda Cc: Heiko Carstens Cc: Johannes Weiner Cc: Michal Hocko Cc: Rik van Riel Cc: Shuah Khan Cc: Sven Schnelle Cc: Vasily Gorbik Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

mm/ksm: unmerge and clear VM_MERGEABLE when setting PR_SET_MEMORY_MERGE=0

2023-05-03T00:21:49+00:00

Patch series "mm/ksm: improve PR_SET_MEMORY_MERGE=0 handling and cleanup disabling KSM", v2. (1) Make PR_SET_MEMORY_MERGE=0 unmerge pages like setting MADV_UNMERGEABLE does, (2) add a selftest for it and (3) factor out disabling of KSM from s390/gmap code. This patch (of 3): Let's unmerge any KSM pages when setting PR_SET_MEMORY_MERGE=0, and clear the VM_MERGEABLE flag from all VMAs -- just like KSM would. Of course, only do that if we previously set PR_SET_MEMORY_MERGE=1. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230422205420.30372-1-david@redhat.com Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230422205420.30372-2-david@redhat.com Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand Acked-by: Stefan Roesch Cc: Christian Borntraeger Cc: Claudio Imbrenda Cc: Heiko Carstens Cc: Janosch Frank Cc: Johannes Weiner Cc: Michal Hocko Cc: Rik van Riel Cc: Shuah Khan Cc: Sven Schnelle Cc: Vasily Gorbik Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

mm: add new KSM process and sysfs knobs

2023-04-21T21:52:03+00:00

This adds the general_profit KSM sysfs knob and the process profit metric knobs to ksm_stat. 1) expose general_profit metric The documentation mentions a general profit metric, however this metric is not calculated. In addition the formula depends on the size of internal structures, which makes it more difficult for an administrator to make the calculation. Adding the metric for a better user experience. 2) document general_profit sysfs knob 3) calculate ksm process profit metric The ksm documentation mentions the process profit metric and how to calculate it. This adds the calculation of the metric. 4) mm: expose ksm process profit metric in ksm_stat This exposes the ksm process profit metric in /proc//ksm_stat. The documentation mentions the formula for the ksm process profit metric, however it does not calculate it. In addition the formula depends on the size of internal structures. So it makes sense to expose it. 5) document new procfs ksm knobs Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230418051342.1919757-3-shr@devkernel.io Signed-off-by: Stefan Roesch Reviewed-by: Bagas Sanjaya Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: David Hildenbrand Cc: Johannes Weiner Cc: Michal Hocko Cc: Rik van Riel Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

mm: add new api to enable ksm per process

2023-04-21T21:52:03+00:00

Patch series "mm: process/cgroup ksm support", v9. So far KSM can only be enabled by calling madvise for memory regions. To be able to use KSM for more workloads, KSM needs to have the ability to be enabled / disabled at the process / cgroup level. Use case 1: The madvise call is not available in the programming language. An example for this are programs with forked workloads using a garbage collected language without pointers. In such a language madvise cannot be made available. In addition the addresses of objects get moved around as they are garbage collected. KSM sharing needs to be enabled "from the outside" for these type of workloads. Use case 2: The same interpreter can also be used for workloads where KSM brings no benefit or even has overhead. We'd like to be able to enable KSM on a workload by workload basis. Use case 3: With the madvise call sharing opportunities are only enabled for the current process: it is a workload-local decision. A considerable number of sharing opportunities may exist across multiple workloads or jobs (if they are part of the same security domain). Only a higler level entity like a job scheduler or container can know for certain if its running one or more instances of a job. That job scheduler however doesn't have the necessary internal workload knowledge to make targeted madvise calls. Security concerns: In previous discussions security concerns have been brought up. The problem is that an individual workload does not have the knowledge about what else is running on a machine. Therefore it has to be very conservative in what memory areas can be shared or not. However, if the system is dedicated to running multiple jobs within the same security domain, its the job scheduler that has the knowledge that sharing can be safely enabled and is even desirable. Performance: Experiments with using UKSM have shown a capacity increase of around 20%. Here are the metrics from an instagram workload (taken from a machine with 64GB main memory): full_scans: 445 general_profit: 20158298048 max_page_sharing: 256 merge_across_nodes: 1 pages_shared: 129547 pages_sharing: 5119146 pages_to_scan: 4000 pages_unshared: 1760924 pages_volatile: 10761341 run: 1 sleep_millisecs: 20 stable_node_chains: 167 stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs: 2000 stable_node_dups: 2751 use_zero_pages: 0 zero_pages_sharing: 0 After the service is running for 30 minutes to an hour, 4 to 5 million shared pages are common for this workload when using KSM. Detailed changes: 1. New options for prctl system command This patch series adds two new options to the prctl system call. The first one allows to enable KSM at the process level and the second one to query the setting. The setting will be inherited by child processes. With the above setting, KSM can be enabled for the seed process of a cgroup and all processes in the cgroup will inherit the setting. 2. Changes to KSM processing When KSM is enabled at the process level, the KSM code will iterate over all the VMA's and enable KSM for the eligible VMA's. When forking a process that has KSM enabled, the setting will be inherited by the new child process. 3. Add general_profit metric The general_profit metric of KSM is specified in the documentation, but not calculated. This adds the general profit metric to /sys/kernel/debug/mm/ksm. 4. Add more metrics to ksm_stat This adds the process profit metric to /proc//ksm_stat. 5. Add more tests to ksm_tests and ksm_functional_tests This adds an option to specify the merge type to the ksm_tests. This allows to test madvise and prctl KSM. It also adds a two new tests to ksm_functional_tests: one to test the new prctl options and the other one is a fork test to verify that the KSM process setting is inherited by client processes. This patch (of 3): So far KSM can only be enabled by calling madvise for memory regions. To be able to use KSM for more workloads, KSM needs to have the ability to be enabled / disabled at the process / cgroup level. 1. New options for prctl system command This patch series adds two new options to the prctl system call. The first one allows to enable KSM at the process level and the second one to query the setting. The setting will be inherited by child processes. With the above setting, KSM can be enabled for the seed process of a cgroup and all processes in the cgroup will inherit the setting. 2. Changes to KSM processing When KSM is enabled at the process level, the KSM code will iterate over all the VMA's and enable KSM for the eligible VMA's. When forking a process that has KSM enabled, the setting will be inherited by the new child process. 1) Introduce new MMF_VM_MERGE_ANY flag This introduces the new flag MMF_VM_MERGE_ANY flag. When this flag is set, kernel samepage merging (ksm) gets enabled for all vma's of a process. 2) Setting VM_MERGEABLE on VMA creation When a VMA is created, if the MMF_VM_MERGE_ANY flag is set, the VM_MERGEABLE flag will be set for this VMA. 3) support disabling of ksm for a process This adds the ability to disable ksm for a process if ksm has been enabled for the process with prctl. 4) add new prctl option to get and set ksm for a process This adds two new options to the prctl system call - enable ksm for all vmas of a process (if the vmas support it). - query if ksm has been enabled for a process. 3. Disabling MMF_VM_MERGE_ANY for storage keys in s390 In the s390 architecture when storage keys are used, the MMF_VM_MERGE_ANY will be disabled. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230418051342.1919757-1-shr@devkernel.io Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230418051342.1919757-2-shr@devkernel.io Signed-off-by: Stefan Roesch Acked-by: David Hildenbrand Cc: David Hildenbrand Cc: Johannes Weiner Cc: Michal Hocko Cc: Rik van Riel Cc: Bagas Sanjaya Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

mm: ksm: support hwpoison for ksm page

2023-04-18T23:53:52+00:00

hwpoison_user_mappings() is updated to support ksm pages, and add collect_procs_ksm() to collect processes when the error hit an ksm page. The difference from collect_procs_anon() is that it also needs to traverse the rmap-item list on the stable node of the ksm page. At the same time, add_to_kill_ksm() is added to handle ksm pages. And task_in_to_kill_list() is added to avoid duplicate addition of tsk to the to_kill list. This is because when scanning the list, if the pages that make up the ksm page all come from the same process, they may be added repeatedly. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230414021741.2597273-3-xialonglong1@huawei.com Signed-off-by: Longlong Xia Tested-by: Naoya Horiguchi Reviewed-by: Kefeng Wang Cc: Miaohe Lin Cc: Nanyong Sun Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton