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diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/gfp_mask-from-fs-io.rst b/Documentation/core-api/gfp_mask-from-fs-io.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000..e0df8f4165826 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/core-api/gfp_mask-from-fs-io.rst @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +================================= +GFP masks used from FS/IO context +================================= + +:Date: May, 2018 +:Author: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> + +Introduction +============ + +Code paths in the filesystem and IO stacks must be careful when +allocating memory to prevent recursion deadlocks caused by direct +memory reclaim calling back into the FS or IO paths and blocking on +already held resources (e.g. locks - most commonly those used for the +transaction context). + +The traditional way to avoid this deadlock problem is to clear __GFP_FS +respectively __GFP_IO (note the latter implies clearing the first as well) in +the gfp mask when calling an allocator. GFP_NOFS respectively GFP_NOIO can be +used as shortcut. It turned out though that above approach has led to +abuses when the restricted gfp mask is used "just in case" without a +deeper consideration which leads to problems because an excessive use +of GFP_NOFS/GFP_NOIO can lead to memory over-reclaim or other memory +reclaim issues. + +New API +======== + +Since 4.12 we do have a generic scope API for both NOFS and NOIO context +``memalloc_nofs_save``, ``memalloc_nofs_restore`` respectively ``memalloc_noio_save``, +``memalloc_noio_restore`` which allow to mark a scope to be a critical +section from a filesystem or I/O point of view. Any allocation from that +scope will inherently drop __GFP_FS respectively __GFP_IO from the given +mask so no memory allocation can recurse back in the FS/IO. + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/sched/mm.h + :functions: memalloc_nofs_save memalloc_nofs_restore +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/sched/mm.h + :functions: memalloc_noio_save memalloc_noio_restore + +FS/IO code then simply calls the appropriate save function before +any critical section with respect to the reclaim is started - e.g. +lock shared with the reclaim context or when a transaction context +nesting would be possible via reclaim. The restore function should be +called when the critical section ends. All that ideally along with an +explanation what is the reclaim context for easier maintenance. + +Please note that the proper pairing of save/restore functions +allows nesting so it is safe to call ``memalloc_noio_save`` or +``memalloc_noio_restore`` respectively from an existing NOIO or NOFS +scope. + +What about __vmalloc(GFP_NOFS) +============================== + +vmalloc doesn't support GFP_NOFS semantic because there are hardcoded +GFP_KERNEL allocations deep inside the allocator which are quite non-trivial +to fix up. That means that calling ``vmalloc`` with GFP_NOFS/GFP_NOIO is +almost always a bug. The good news is that the NOFS/NOIO semantic can be +achieved by the scope API. + +In the ideal world, upper layers should already mark dangerous contexts +and so no special care is required and vmalloc should be called without +any problems. Sometimes if the context is not really clear or there are +layering violations then the recommended way around that is to wrap ``vmalloc`` +by the scope API with a comment explaining the problem. |