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mm/vmalloc: free unused pages on vrealloc() shrink

From:  Shivam Kalra via B4 Relay <devnull+shivamkalra98.zohomail.in-AT-kernel.org>
To:  Andrew Morton <akpm-AT-linux-foundation.org>, Uladzislau Rezki <urezki-AT-gmail.com>
Subject:  [PATCH v12 0/5] mm/vmalloc: free unused pages on vrealloc() shrink
Date:  Tue, 28 Apr 2026 01:54:15 +0530
Message-ID:  <20260428-vmalloc-shrink-v12-0-3c18c9172eb1@zohomail.in>
Cc:  linux-mm-AT-kvack.org, linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org, Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl-AT-google.com>, Danilo Krummrich <dakr-AT-kernel.org>, Shivam Kalra <shivamkalra98-AT-zohomail.in>
Archive-link:  Article

This series implements the TODO in vrealloc() to unmap and free unused
pages when shrinking across a page boundary.

Problem:
When vrealloc() shrinks an allocation, it updates bookkeeping
(requested_size, KASAN shadow) but does not free the underlying physical
pages. This wastes memory for the lifetime of the allocation.

Solution:
- Patch 1: Extracts a vm_area_free_pages(vm, start_idx, end_idx) helper
  from vfree() that frees a range of pages with memcg and nr_vmalloc_pages
  accounting. Freed page pointers are set to NULL to prevent stale
  references.
- Patch 2: Update the grow-in-place check in vrealloc() to compare the
  requested size against the actual physical page count (vm->nr_pages) 
  rather than the virtual area sizes. This is a prerequisite for shrinking.
- Patch 3: Update vread_iter() to derive the vm area size from
  vm->nr_pages rather than get_vm_area_size(), which would overestimate
  the mapped range after a shrink.
- Patch 4: Uses the helper to free tail pages when vrealloc() shrinks
  across a page boundary. 
- Patch 5: Adds a vrealloc test case to lib/test_vmalloc that exercises
  grow-realloc, shrink-across-boundary, shrink-within-page, and
  grow-in-place paths.

The virtual address reservation is kept intact to preserve the range
for potential future grow-in-place support.
A concrete user is the Rust binder driver's KVVec::shrink_to [1], which
performs explicit vrealloc() shrinks for memory reclamation.

Tested:
- KASAN KUnit (vmalloc_oob passes)
- lib/test_vmalloc stress tests (3/3, 1M iterations each)
- checkpatch, sparse, W=1, allmodconfig, coccicheck clean

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260216-binder-shrink-vec-v3...

Suggested-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Shivam Kalra <shivamkalra98@zohomail.in>
---
Changes in v12:
- Rewrite vm_area_free_pages() to use free_pages_bulk() 
  following the upstream vfree() refactoring.(Andrew)
- Drop Reviewed-by tags from Patch 1 due to the rewrite
- Rebase to latest mm-new
- Link to v11: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260420-vmalloc-shrink-v11-0-c...

Changes in v11:
- Prepare vread_iter() to use vm->nr_pages instead of
  get_vm_area_size() (Uladzislau Rezki, Sashiko)
- Drop (size_t) cast from nr_pages << PAGE_SHIFT (Uladzislau Rezki)
- Link to v10: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260404-vmalloc-shrink-v10-0-3...

Changes in v10:
- Reorder vm->nr_pages to the beginning (Alice Ryhl)
- Link to v9: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260401-vmalloc-shrink-v9-0-bf...

Changes in v9:
- Remove READ_ONCE, WRITE_ONCE and drop commit
  about show_numa_info. (Uladzislau Rezki)
- Update the commit message in Patch 2. (Alice Ryhl)
- Remove zero newly exposed memory commit.
- Link to v8: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260327-vmalloc-shrink-v8-0-cc...

Changes in v8:
- Strip the KASAN tag from the pointer before addr_to_node()
  to avoid acquiring the wrong node lock (Sashiko).
- Rebase to latest mm-new.
- Link to v7: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260324-vmalloc-shrink-v7-0-c0...

Changes in v7:
- Fix NULL pointer dereference in shrink path (Sashiko)
- Acquire vn->busy.lock when updating vm->nr_pages to synchronize 
  with concurrent readers (Uladzislau Rezki)
- Use READ_ONCE in vmalloc_dump_obj (Sashiko)
- Skip shrink path on GFP_NIO or GFP_NOFS. (Sashiko)
- Fix Overflow issue for large allocations. (Sashiko)
- Use vrealloc instead of vmalloc in vrealloc test.  
- Link to v6: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260321-vmalloc-shrink-v6-0-06...

Changes in v6:
- Fix VM_USERMAP crash by explicitly bypassing early in the shrink path if the flag is set.(Sashiko)
- Fix Kmemleak scanner panic by calling kmemleak_free_part() to update tracking on shrink.(Sashiko)
- Fix /proc/vmallocinfo race condition by protecting vm->nr_pages access with 
  READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() for concurrent readers.(Sashiko)
- Fix stale data leak on grow-after-shrink by enforcing mandatory zeroing of the newly exposed memory.(Sashiko)
- Fix memory leaks in vrealloc_test() by using a temporary pointer to preserve and 
  free the original allocation upon failure.(Sashiko)
- Rename vmalloc_free_pages parameters from start/end to start_idx/end_idx for better clarity.(Uladzislau Rezki)
- Link to v5: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260317-vmalloc-shrink-v5-0-bb...
- Link to Sashiko: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260317-vmalloc-shrink-v5...

Changes in v5:
- Skip vrealloc shrink for VM_FLUSH_RESET_PERMS (Uladzislau Rezki)
- Link to v4: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260314-vmalloc-shrink-v4-0-c1...

Changes in v4:
- Rename vmalloc_free_pages() to vm_area_free_pages() to align with
  vm_area_alloc_pages() (Uladzislau Rezki)
- NULL out freed vm->pages[] entries to prevent stale pointers (Alice Ryhl)
- Remove redundant if (vm->nr_pages) guard in vfree() (Uladzislau Rezki)
- Add vrealloc test case to lib/test_vmalloc (new patch 3/3)
- Link to v3: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260309-vmalloc-shrink-v3-0-55...

Changes in v3:
- Restore the comment.
- Rebase to the latest mm-new 
- Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260304-vmalloc-shrink-v2-0-28...

Changes in v2:
- Updated the base-commit to mm-new
- Fix conflicts after rebase
- Ran `clang-format` on the changes made
- Use a single `kasan_vrealloc` (Alice Ryhl)
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260302-vmalloc-shrink-v1-0-46...

---
Shivam Kalra (5):
      mm/vmalloc: extract vm_area_free_pages() helper from vfree()
      mm/vmalloc: use physical page count for vrealloc() grow-in-place check
      mm/vmalloc: use physical page count in vread_iter()
      mm/vmalloc: free unused pages on vrealloc() shrink
      lib/test_vmalloc: add vrealloc test case

 lib/test_vmalloc.c |  62 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 mm/vmalloc.c       | 107 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
 2 files changed, 156 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 4f7b2cc1ad8719d55a8de9675a0aca65cb17c364
change-id: 20260302-vmalloc-shrink-04b2fa688a14

Best regards,
-- 
Shivam Kalra <shivamkalra98@zohomail.in>





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