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Optimize anonymous large folio unmapping

From:  Dev Jain <dev.jain-AT-arm.com>
To:  akpm-AT-linux-foundation.org, david-AT-kernel.org, ljs-AT-kernel.org, chrisl-AT-kernel.org, kasong-AT-tencent.com, hughd-AT-google.com, liam-AT-infradead.org
Subject:  [PATCH v4 00/12] Optimize anonymous large folio unmapping
Date:  Tue, 26 May 2026 12:06:23 +0530
Message-ID:  <20260526063635.61721-1-dev.jain@arm.com>
Cc:  Dev Jain <dev.jain-AT-arm.com>, riel-AT-surriel.com, vbabka-AT-kernel.org, harry-AT-kernel.org, jannh-AT-google.com, linux-mm-AT-kvack.org, linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org, rppt-AT-kernel.org, surenb-AT-google.com, mhocko-AT-suse.com, qi.zheng-AT-linux.dev, shakeel.butt-AT-linux.dev, baohua-AT-kernel.org, axelrasmussen-AT-google.com, yuanchu-AT-google.com, weixugc-AT-google.com, shikemeng-AT-huaweicloud.com, nphamcs-AT-gmail.com, bhe-AT-redhat.com, youngjun.park-AT-lge.com, baolin.wang-AT-linux.alibaba.com, pfalcato-AT-suse.de, ryan.roberts-AT-arm.com, anshuman.khandual-AT-arm.com
Archive-link:  Article

Speed up unmapping of anonymous large folios by clearing the ptes, and
setting swap ptes, in one go.

The following benchmark (stolen from Barry at [1]) is used to measure the
time taken to swapout 256M worth of memory backed by 64K large folios:

 #define _GNU_SOURCE
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <sys/mman.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <time.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <errno.h>

 #define SIZE_MB 256
 #define SIZE_BYTES (SIZE_MB * 1024 * 1024)

 int main() {
     void *addr = mmap(NULL, SIZE_BYTES, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
                       MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0);
     if (addr == MAP_FAILED) {
         perror("mmap failed");
         return 1;
     }

     memset(addr, 0, SIZE_BYTES);

     struct timespec start, end;
     clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &start);

     if (madvise(addr, SIZE_BYTES, MADV_PAGEOUT) != 0) {
         perror("madvise(MADV_PAGEOUT) failed");
         munmap(addr, SIZE_BYTES);
         return 1;
     }

     clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &end);

     long duration_ns = (end.tv_sec - start.tv_sec) * 1e9 +
                        (end.tv_nsec - start.tv_nsec);
     printf("madvise(MADV_PAGEOUT) took %ld ns (%.3f ms)\n",
            duration_ns, duration_ns / 1e6);

     munmap(addr, SIZE_BYTES);
     return 0;
 }

Performance as measured on a Linux VM on Apple M3 (arm64):

Vanilla - Mean: 37401913 ns, std dev: 12%
Patched - Mean: 17420282 ns, std dev: 11%

No regression observed on 4K folios.

Performance as measured on bare metal x86:

Vanilla - mean: 54986286 ns, std dev: 1.5%
Patched - mean: 51930795 ns, std dev: 3%

Interestingly, no obvious improvement is observed on x86, hinting that the
benefit lies mainly in the reduction of ptep_get() calls and the reduction
of TLB flushes during contpte-unfolding, on arm64.

No regression is observed on 4K folios on x86 too.

---
Applies on mm-unstable (444fc9435e57).

v3->v4:
 - Add patch 1 (page->folio conversion), patch 2 (add try_to_unmap_hugetlb_one),
   patch 6 and 11 (subpage -> page renaming), and patch 10 (refactoring anon
   unmap first)
 - Drop patch 1 of v3, which is now in mm-hotfixes
 - Patch 3: do set_ptes() restoration at call site
 - Patch 4: rename the function, move to memory.c, rename pte->ptep, pteval->pte
 - Patch 7,8: Remove redundant stub, add kerneldoc
 - Patch 9: remove helper, do a loop in-line

v2->v3:
Mostly a resend after merge window. Some minor changes:

 - Match kerneldoc parameter with function parameter (pte -> ptep)
 - Mention change BUG->WARN in patch description
 - Rename walk_done -> exit_walk in patch 2
 - 
v1->v2:
 - Keep nr_pages as unsigned long
 - Add patch 2
 - Rename some functions, make return type bool for functions returning 0/1
 - Drop page_vma_mapped_walk_jump - this is implicitly handled
 - Drop likely()
 - Add folio_dup/put_swap_pages, do subpage -> page
 - Shorten the kerneldoc to remove unnecessary information - keep it
   aligned with analogous functions
 - Put clear_pages_anon_exclusive to mm.h
 - Some more refactoring in last patch with finish_folio_unmap

Dev Jain (12):
  mm/rmap: convert page -> folio for hwpoison checks
  mm/rmap: Add try_to_unmap_hugetlb_one
  mm/rmap: refactor some code around lazyfree folio unmapping
  mm/memory: Batch set uffd-wp markers during zapping
  mm/rmap: batch unmap folios belonging to uffd-wp VMAs
  mm/swap: rename subpage->page in folio_dup_swap/folio_put_swap
  mm/swapfile: Add batched version of folio_dup_swap
  mm/swapfile: Add batched version of folio_put_swap
  mm/rmap: Add batched version of folio_try_share_anon_rmap_pte
  mm/rmap: refactor anon folio unmap in try_to_unmap_one
  mm/mprotect: drop 'sub' from page_anon_exclusive_sub_batch
  mm/rmap: enable batch unmapping of anonymous folios

 include/linux/mm.h        |   4 +
 include/linux/mm_inline.h |  53 -----
 include/linux/rmap.h      |  52 +++--
 mm/internal.h             |  17 ++
 mm/memory.c               |  87 +++++--
 mm/mprotect.c             |  19 +-
 mm/rmap.c                 | 475 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 mm/shmem.c                |   8 +-
 mm/swap.h                 |  36 ++-
 mm/swapfile.c             |  31 ++-
 10 files changed, 470 insertions(+), 312 deletions(-)

-- 
2.34.1




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