| Message ID | 20181205122851.5891-8-david@redhat.com (mailing list archive) |
|---|---|
| State | New, archived |
| Headers | show |
| Series | mm: PG_reserved cleanups and documentation | expand |
On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 01:28:51PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: > I don't see a reason why we have to document "Some of them might not even > exist". If there is a user, we should document it. E.g. for balloon > drivers we now use PG_offline to indicate that a page might currently > not be backed by memory in the hypervisor. And that is independent from > PG_reserved. I think you're confused by the meaning of "some of them might not even exist". What this means is that there might not be memory there; maybe writes to that memory will be discarded, or maybe they'll cause a machine check. Maybe reads will return ~0, or 0, or cause a machine check. We just don't know what's there, and we shouldn't try touching the memory. > +++ b/include/linux/page-flags.h > @@ -17,8 +17,22 @@ > /* > * Various page->flags bits: > * > - * PG_reserved is set for special pages, which can never be swapped out. Some > - * of them might not even exist... > + * PG_reserved is set for special pages. The "struct page" of such a page > + * should in general not be touched (e.g. set dirty) except by their owner. > + * Pages marked as PG_reserved include: > + * - Kernel image (including vDSO) and similar (e.g. BIOS, initrd) > + * - Pages allocated early during boot (bootmem, memblock) > + * - Zero pages > + * - Pages that have been associated with a zone but are not available for > + * the page allocator (e.g. excluded via online_page_callback()) > + * - Pages to exclude from the hibernation image (e.g. loaded kexec images) > + * - MMIO pages (communicate with a device, special caching strategy needed) > + * - MCA pages on ia64 (pages with memory errors) > + * - Device memory (e.g. PMEM, DAX, HMM) > + * Some architectures don't allow to ioremap pages that are not marked > + * PG_reserved (as they might be in use by somebody else who does not respect > + * the caching strategy). Consequently, PG_reserved for a page mapped into > + * user space can indicate the zero page, the vDSO, MMIO pages or device memory. So maybe just add one more option to the list.
On 05.12.18 15:35, Matthew Wilcox wrote: > On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 01:28:51PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: >> I don't see a reason why we have to document "Some of them might not even >> exist". If there is a user, we should document it. E.g. for balloon >> drivers we now use PG_offline to indicate that a page might currently >> not be backed by memory in the hypervisor. And that is independent from >> PG_reserved. > > I think you're confused by the meaning of "some of them might not even > exist". What this means is that there might not be memory there; maybe > writes to that memory will be discarded, or maybe they'll cause a machine > check. Maybe reads will return ~0, or 0, or cause a machine check. > We just don't know what's there, and we shouldn't try touching the memory. If there are users, let's document it. And I need more details for that :) 1. machine check: if there is a HW error, we set PG_hwpoison (except ia64 MCA, see the list) 2. Writes to that memory will be discarded Who is the user of that? When will we have such pages right now? 3. Reads will return ~0, / 0? I think this is a special case of e.g. x86? But where do we have that, are there any user? In summary: When can we have memory sections that are online but pages reserved and not accessible? (one example is ballooning I mention here) (I classify this as dangerous as dump tools will happily dump PG_reserved pages (unless PG_hwpoison/PG_offline) and that's the right thing to do). I want to avoid documenting things that are not actually getting used. > >> +++ b/include/linux/page-flags.h >> @@ -17,8 +17,22 @@ >> /* >> * Various page->flags bits: >> * >> - * PG_reserved is set for special pages, which can never be swapped out. Some >> - * of them might not even exist... >> + * PG_reserved is set for special pages. The "struct page" of such a page >> + * should in general not be touched (e.g. set dirty) except by their owner. >> + * Pages marked as PG_reserved include: >> + * - Kernel image (including vDSO) and similar (e.g. BIOS, initrd) >> + * - Pages allocated early during boot (bootmem, memblock) >> + * - Zero pages >> + * - Pages that have been associated with a zone but are not available for >> + * the page allocator (e.g. excluded via online_page_callback()) >> + * - Pages to exclude from the hibernation image (e.g. loaded kexec images) >> + * - MMIO pages (communicate with a device, special caching strategy needed) >> + * - MCA pages on ia64 (pages with memory errors) >> + * - Device memory (e.g. PMEM, DAX, HMM) >> + * Some architectures don't allow to ioremap pages that are not marked >> + * PG_reserved (as they might be in use by somebody else who does not respect >> + * the caching strategy). Consequently, PG_reserved for a page mapped into >> + * user space can indicate the zero page, the vDSO, MMIO pages or device memory. > > So maybe just add one more option to the list. >
On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 04:05:12PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: > On 05.12.18 15:35, Matthew Wilcox wrote: > > On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 01:28:51PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: > >> I don't see a reason why we have to document "Some of them might not even > >> exist". If there is a user, we should document it. E.g. for balloon > >> drivers we now use PG_offline to indicate that a page might currently > >> not be backed by memory in the hypervisor. And that is independent from > >> PG_reserved. > > > > I think you're confused by the meaning of "some of them might not even > > exist". What this means is that there might not be memory there; maybe > > writes to that memory will be discarded, or maybe they'll cause a machine > > check. Maybe reads will return ~0, or 0, or cause a machine check. > > We just don't know what's there, and we shouldn't try touching the memory. > > If there are users, let's document it. And I need more details for that :) > > 1. machine check: if there is a HW error, we set PG_hwpoison (except > ia64 MCA, see the list) > > 2. Writes to that memory will be discarded > > Who is the user of that? When will we have such pages right now? > > 3. Reads will return ~0, / 0? > > I think this is a special case of e.g. x86? But where do we have that, > are there any user? When there are gaps in the physical memory. As in, if you put that physical address on the bus (or in a packet), no device will respond to it. Look: 00000000-00000fff : Reserved 00001000-00057fff : System RAM 00058000-00058fff : Reserved 00059000-0009dfff : System RAM 0009e000-000fffff : Reserved Those examples I gave are examples of how various different architectures respond to "no device responded to this memory access".
On 05.12.18 18:32, Matthew Wilcox wrote: > On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 04:05:12PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: >> On 05.12.18 15:35, Matthew Wilcox wrote: >>> On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 01:28:51PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: >>>> I don't see a reason why we have to document "Some of them might not even >>>> exist". If there is a user, we should document it. E.g. for balloon >>>> drivers we now use PG_offline to indicate that a page might currently >>>> not be backed by memory in the hypervisor. And that is independent from >>>> PG_reserved. >>> >>> I think you're confused by the meaning of "some of them might not even >>> exist". What this means is that there might not be memory there; maybe >>> writes to that memory will be discarded, or maybe they'll cause a machine >>> check. Maybe reads will return ~0, or 0, or cause a machine check. >>> We just don't know what's there, and we shouldn't try touching the memory. >> >> If there are users, let's document it. And I need more details for that :) >> >> 1. machine check: if there is a HW error, we set PG_hwpoison (except >> ia64 MCA, see the list) >> >> 2. Writes to that memory will be discarded >> >> Who is the user of that? When will we have such pages right now? >> >> 3. Reads will return ~0, / 0? >> >> I think this is a special case of e.g. x86? But where do we have that, >> are there any user? > > When there are gaps in the physical memory. As in, if you put that > physical address on the bus (or in a packet), no device will respond > to it. Look: > > 00000000-00000fff : Reserved > 00001000-00057fff : System RAM > 00058000-00058fff : Reserved > 00059000-0009dfff : System RAM > 0009e000-000fffff : Reserved > > Those examples I gave are examples of how various different architectures > respond to "no device responded to this memory access". > Okay, so for this memory we will have a) vmmaps b) Memory block devices c) A sections that is online So essentially "Gaps in physical memory" which is part of a online section. This might be a candidate for PG_offline as well. Thanks for the info, I'll try to find out how such things are handled. In general I assume this memory has to be readable, because otherwise kdump and friends would crash already when trying to dump?
On 05.12.18 19:13, David Hildenbrand wrote: > On 05.12.18 18:32, Matthew Wilcox wrote: >> On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 04:05:12PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: >>> On 05.12.18 15:35, Matthew Wilcox wrote: >>>> On Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 01:28:51PM +0100, David Hildenbrand wrote: >>>>> I don't see a reason why we have to document "Some of them might not even >>>>> exist". If there is a user, we should document it. E.g. for balloon >>>>> drivers we now use PG_offline to indicate that a page might currently >>>>> not be backed by memory in the hypervisor. And that is independent from >>>>> PG_reserved. >>>> >>>> I think you're confused by the meaning of "some of them might not even >>>> exist". What this means is that there might not be memory there; maybe >>>> writes to that memory will be discarded, or maybe they'll cause a machine >>>> check. Maybe reads will return ~0, or 0, or cause a machine check. >>>> We just don't know what's there, and we shouldn't try touching the memory. >>> >>> If there are users, let's document it. And I need more details for that :) >>> >>> 1. machine check: if there is a HW error, we set PG_hwpoison (except >>> ia64 MCA, see the list) >>> >>> 2. Writes to that memory will be discarded >>> >>> Who is the user of that? When will we have such pages right now? >>> >>> 3. Reads will return ~0, / 0? >>> >>> I think this is a special case of e.g. x86? But where do we have that, >>> are there any user? >> >> When there are gaps in the physical memory. As in, if you put that >> physical address on the bus (or in a packet), no device will respond >> to it. Look: >> >> 00000000-00000fff : Reserved >> 00001000-00057fff : System RAM >> 00058000-00058fff : Reserved >> 00059000-0009dfff : System RAM >> 0009e000-000fffff : Reserved >> >> Those examples I gave are examples of how various different architectures >> respond to "no device responded to this memory access". >> > > Okay, so for this memory we will have > a) vmmaps > b) Memory block devices > c) A sections that is online > > So essentially "Gaps in physical memory" which is part of a online section. > > This might be a candidate for PG_offline as well. > > Thanks for the info, I'll try to find out how such things are handled. > In general I assume this memory has to be readable, because otherwise > kdump and friends would crash already when trying to dump? > So I finally understood how physical memory holes in online sections are handled when dumping. They won't be dumped because the list of dumpable chunks (contained in /proc/kcore and after a crash /proc/vmcore) is built using walk_system_ram_range(). So anything not listed as RAM will be ignored. I will update the documentation, describing that if we have an online section that is not completely IORESOURCE_SYSTEM_RAM, that the physical memory gaps will also be set to PG_reserved. Trying to touch this memory is indeed dangerous, luckily dumping is properly handled. I'll think about if marking these ranges as PG_offline might make sense (and if it can be easily added). Then we directly know when seeing that page type that we should not touch it. Ever. That hint was really helpful :)
diff --git a/include/linux/page-flags.h b/include/linux/page-flags.h index 68b8495e2fbc..112526f5ba61 100644 --- a/include/linux/page-flags.h +++ b/include/linux/page-flags.h @@ -17,8 +17,22 @@ /* * Various page->flags bits: * - * PG_reserved is set for special pages, which can never be swapped out. Some - * of them might not even exist... + * PG_reserved is set for special pages. The "struct page" of such a page + * should in general not be touched (e.g. set dirty) except by their owner. + * Pages marked as PG_reserved include: + * - Kernel image (including vDSO) and similar (e.g. BIOS, initrd) + * - Pages allocated early during boot (bootmem, memblock) + * - Zero pages + * - Pages that have been associated with a zone but are not available for + * the page allocator (e.g. excluded via online_page_callback()) + * - Pages to exclude from the hibernation image (e.g. loaded kexec images) + * - MMIO pages (communicate with a device, special caching strategy needed) + * - MCA pages on ia64 (pages with memory errors) + * - Device memory (e.g. PMEM, DAX, HMM) + * Some architectures don't allow to ioremap pages that are not marked + * PG_reserved (as they might be in use by somebody else who does not respect + * the caching strategy). Consequently, PG_reserved for a page mapped into + * user space can indicate the zero page, the vDSO, MMIO pages or device memory. * * The PG_private bitflag is set on pagecache pages if they contain filesystem * specific data (which is normally at page->private). It can be used by
The usage of PG_reserved and how PG_reserved pages are to be treated is burried deep down in different parts of the kernel. Let's shine some light onto these details by documenting (most?) current users and expected behavior. I don't see a reason why we have to document "Some of them might not even exist". If there is a user, we should document it. E.g. for balloon drivers we now use PG_offline to indicate that a page might currently not be backed by memory in the hypervisor. And that is independent from PG_reserved. Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Stephen Rothwell <sfr@canb.auug.org.au> Cc: Pavel Tatashin <pasha.tatashin@oracle.com> Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com> Cc: Alexander Duyck <alexander.h.duyck@linux.intel.com> Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org> Cc: Anthony Yznaga <anthony.yznaga@oracle.com> Cc: Miles Chen <miles.chen@mediatek.com> Cc: yi.z.zhang@linux.intel.com Cc: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> --- include/linux/page-flags.h | 18 ++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)