From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Decompose the range of order-0 pages to be freed into the set of largest
possible power-of-2 size and aligned chunks and free them to the pcp or
buddy. This improves on the previous approach which freed each order-0
page individually in a loop. Testing shows performance to be improved by
more than 10x in some cases.
Since each page is order-0, we must decrement each page's reference
count individually and only consider the page for freeing as part of a
high order chunk if the reference count goes to zero. Additionally
free_pages_prepare() must be called for each individual order-0 page
too, so that the struct page state and global accounting state can be
appropriately managed. But once this is done, the resulting high order
chunks can be freed as a unit to the pcp or buddy.
This significantly speeds up the free operation but also has the side
benefit that high order blocks are added to the pcp instead of each page
ending up on the pcp order-0 list; memory remains more readily available
in high orders.
vmalloc will shortly become a user of this new optimized
free_contig_range() since it aggressively allocates high order
non-compound pages, but then calls split_page() to end up with
contiguous order-0 pages. These can now be freed much more efficiently.
The execution time of the following function was measured in a server
class arm64 machine:
static int page_alloc_high_order_test(void)
{
unsigned int order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
struct page *page;
int i;
for (i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
page = alloc_pages(GFP_KERNEL, order);
if (!page)
return -1;
split_page(page, order);
free_contig_range(page_to_pfn(page), 1UL << order);
}
return 0;
}
Execution time before: 4097358 usec
Execution time after: 729831 usec
Perf trace before:
99.63% 0.00% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [.] kthread
|
---kthread
0xffffb33c12a26af8
|
|--98.13%--0xffffb33c12a26060
| |
| |--97.37%--free_contig_range
| | |
| | |--94.93%--___free_pages
| | | |
| | | |--55.42%--__free_frozen_pages
| | | | |
| | | | --43.20%--free_frozen_page_commit
| | | | |
| | | | --35.37%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
| | | |
| | | |--11.53%--_raw_spin_trylock
| | | |
| | | |--8.19%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
| | | |
| | | |--5.64%--_raw_spin_unlock
| | | |
| | | |--2.37%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
| | | |
| | | --1.07%--free_frozen_page_commit
| | |
| | --1.54%--__free_frozen_pages
| |
| --0.77%--___free_pages
|
--0.98%--0xffffb33c12a26078
alloc_pages_noprof
Perf trace after:
8.42% 2.90% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __free_contig_range
|
|--5.52%--__free_contig_range
| |
| |--5.00%--free_prepared_contig_range
| | |
| | |--1.43%--__free_frozen_pages
| | | |
| | | --0.51%--free_frozen_page_commit
| | |
| | |--1.08%--_raw_spin_trylock
| | |
| | --0.89%--_raw_spin_unlock
| |
| --0.52%--free_pages_prepare
|
--2.90%--ret_from_fork
kthread
0xffffae1c12abeaf8
0xffffae1c12abe7a0
|
--2.69%--vfree
__free_contig_range
Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Co-developed-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
---
Changes since v4:
- Move can_free initialization inside the loop
- Make __free_pages_prepare() static on reviewer's request
- Remove export of __free_contig_range
- Use pfn_to_page() for each pfn instead of page++
Changes since v3:
- Move __free_contig_range() to more generic __free_contig_range_common()
which will used to free frozen pages as well
- Simplify the loop in __free_contig_range_common()
- Rewrite the comment
Changes since v2:
- Handle different possible section boundries in __free_contig_range()
- Drop the TODO
- Remove return value from __free_contig_range()
- Remove non-functional change from __free_pages_ok()
Changes since v1:
- Rebase on mm-new
- Move FPI_PREPARED check inside __free_pages_prepare() now that
fpi_flags are already being passed.
- Add todo (Zi Yan)
- Rerun benchmarks
- Convert VM_BUG_ON_PAGE() to VM_WARN_ON_ONCE()
- Rework order calculation in free_prepared_contig_range() and use
MAX_PAGE_ORDER as high limit instead of pageblock_order as it must
be up to internal __free_frozen_pages() how it frees them
---
include/linux/gfp.h | 2 +
mm/page_alloc.c | 110 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
2 files changed, 108 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/gfp.h b/include/linux/gfp.h
index f82d74a77cad8..7c1f9da7c8e56 100644
--- a/include/linux/gfp.h
+++ b/include/linux/gfp.h
@@ -467,6 +467,8 @@ void free_contig_frozen_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
void free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
#endif
+void __free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
+
DEFINE_FREE(free_page, void *, free_page((unsigned long)_T))
#endif /* __LINUX_GFP_H */
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 75ee81445640b..6e8c79ea62f1c 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ typedef int __bitwise fpi_t;
/* Free the page without taking locks. Rely on trylock only. */
#define FPI_TRYLOCK ((__force fpi_t)BIT(2))
+/* free_pages_prepare() has already been called for page(s) being freed. */
+#define FPI_PREPARED ((__force fpi_t)BIT(3))
+
/* prevent >1 _updater_ of zone percpu pageset ->high and ->batch fields */
static DEFINE_MUTEX(pcp_batch_high_lock);
#define MIN_PERCPU_PAGELIST_HIGH_FRACTION (8)
@@ -1301,8 +1304,8 @@ static inline void pgalloc_tag_sub_pages(struct alloc_tag *tag, unsigned int nr)
#endif /* CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING */
-__always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
- unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
+static __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
+ unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
{
int bad = 0;
bool skip_kasan_poison = should_skip_kasan_poison(page);
@@ -1310,6 +1313,9 @@ __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
bool compound = PageCompound(page);
struct folio *folio = page_folio(page);
+ if (fpi_flags & FPI_PREPARED)
+ return true;
+
VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(PageTail(page), page);
trace_mm_page_free(page, order);
@@ -6784,6 +6790,103 @@ void __init page_alloc_sysctl_init(void)
register_sysctl_init("vm", page_alloc_sysctl_table);
}
+static void free_prepared_contig_range(struct page *page,
+ unsigned long nr_pages)
+{
+ while (nr_pages) {
+ unsigned long pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
+ unsigned int order;
+
+ /* We are limited by the largest buddy order. */
+ order = pfn ? __ffs(pfn) : MAX_PAGE_ORDER;
+ /* Don't exceed the number of pages to free. */
+ order = min_t(unsigned int, order, ilog2(nr_pages));
+ order = min_t(unsigned int, order, MAX_PAGE_ORDER);
+
+ /*
+ * Free the chunk as a single block. Our caller has already
+ * called free_pages_prepare() for each order-0 page.
+ */
+ __free_frozen_pages(page, order, FPI_PREPARED);
+
+ page += 1UL << order;
+ nr_pages -= 1UL << order;
+ }
+}
+
+static void __free_contig_range_common(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
+ bool is_frozen)
+{
+ struct page *page, *start = NULL;
+ unsigned long nr_start = 0;
+ unsigned long start_sec;
+ unsigned long i;
+
+ for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) {
+ bool can_free = true;
+
+ /*
+ * Contiguous PFNs might not have contiguous "struct pages"
+ * in some kernel configs: page++ across a section boundary
+ * is undefined. Use pfn_to_page() for each PFN.
+ */
+ page = pfn_to_page(pfn + i);
+
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageHead(page));
+ VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageTail(page));
+
+ if (!is_frozen)
+ can_free = put_page_testzero(page);
+
+ if (can_free)
+ can_free = free_pages_prepare(page, 0);
+
+ if (!can_free) {
+ if (start) {
+ free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
+ start = NULL;
+ }
+ continue;
+ }
+
+ if (start && memdesc_section(page->flags) != start_sec) {
+ free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
+ start = page;
+ nr_start = i;
+ start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
+ } else if (!start) {
+ start = page;
+ nr_start = i;
+ start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (start)
+ free_prepared_contig_range(start, nr_pages - nr_start);
+}
+
+/**
+ * __free_contig_range - Free contiguous range of order-0 pages.
+ * @pfn: Page frame number of the first page in the range.
+ * @nr_pages: Number of pages to free.
+ *
+ * For each order-0 struct page in the physically contiguous range, put a
+ * reference. Free any page who's reference count falls to zero. The
+ * implementation is functionally equivalent to, but significantly faster than
+ * calling __free_page() for each struct page in a loop.
+ *
+ * Memory allocated with alloc_pages(order>=1) then subsequently split to
+ * order-0 with split_page() is an example of appropriate contiguous pages that
+ * can be freed with this API.
+ *
+ * Context: May be called in interrupt context or while holding a normal
+ * spinlock, but not in NMI context or while holding a raw spinlock.
+ */
+void __free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages)
+{
+ __free_contig_range_common(pfn, nr_pages, /* is_frozen= */ false);
+}
+
#ifdef CONFIG_CONTIG_ALLOC
/* Usage: See admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto.rst */
static void alloc_contig_dump_pages(struct list_head *page_list)
@@ -7330,8 +7433,7 @@ void free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages)
if (WARN_ON_ONCE(PageHead(pfn_to_page(pfn))))
return;
- for (; nr_pages--; pfn++)
- __free_page(pfn_to_page(pfn));
+ __free_contig_range(pfn, nr_pages);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(free_contig_range);
#endif /* CONFIG_CONTIG_ALLOC */
--
2.47.3On 3/31/26 17:21, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:
> From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>
> Decompose the range of order-0 pages to be freed into the set of largest
> possible power-of-2 size and aligned chunks and free them to the pcp or
> buddy. This improves on the previous approach which freed each order-0
> page individually in a loop. Testing shows performance to be improved by
> more than 10x in some cases.
>
> Since each page is order-0, we must decrement each page's reference
> count individually and only consider the page for freeing as part of a
> high order chunk if the reference count goes to zero. Additionally
> free_pages_prepare() must be called for each individual order-0 page
> too, so that the struct page state and global accounting state can be
> appropriately managed. But once this is done, the resulting high order
> chunks can be freed as a unit to the pcp or buddy.
>
> This significantly speeds up the free operation but also has the side
> benefit that high order blocks are added to the pcp instead of each page
> ending up on the pcp order-0 list; memory remains more readily available
> in high orders.
>
> vmalloc will shortly become a user of this new optimized
> free_contig_range() since it aggressively allocates high order
> non-compound pages, but then calls split_page() to end up with
> contiguous order-0 pages. These can now be freed much more efficiently.
>
> The execution time of the following function was measured in a server
> class arm64 machine:
>
> static int page_alloc_high_order_test(void)
> {
> unsigned int order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
> struct page *page;
> int i;
>
> for (i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
> page = alloc_pages(GFP_KERNEL, order);
> if (!page)
> return -1;
> split_page(page, order);
> free_contig_range(page_to_pfn(page), 1UL << order);
> }
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> Execution time before: 4097358 usec
> Execution time after: 729831 usec
>
> Perf trace before:
>
> 99.63% 0.00% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [.] kthread
> |
> ---kthread
> 0xffffb33c12a26af8
> |
> |--98.13%--0xffffb33c12a26060
> | |
> | |--97.37%--free_contig_range
> | | |
> | | |--94.93%--___free_pages
> | | | |
> | | | |--55.42%--__free_frozen_pages
> | | | | |
> | | | | --43.20%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | | | |
> | | | | --35.37%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
> | | | |
> | | | |--11.53%--_raw_spin_trylock
> | | | |
> | | | |--8.19%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
> | | | |
> | | | |--5.64%--_raw_spin_unlock
> | | | |
> | | | |--2.37%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
> | | | |
> | | | --1.07%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | |
> | | --1.54%--__free_frozen_pages
> | |
> | --0.77%--___free_pages
> |
> --0.98%--0xffffb33c12a26078
> alloc_pages_noprof
>
> Perf trace after:
>
> 8.42% 2.90% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __free_contig_range
> |
> |--5.52%--__free_contig_range
> | |
> | |--5.00%--free_prepared_contig_range
> | | |
> | | |--1.43%--__free_frozen_pages
> | | | |
> | | | --0.51%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | |
> | | |--1.08%--_raw_spin_trylock
> | | |
> | | --0.89%--_raw_spin_unlock
> | |
> | --0.52%--free_pages_prepare
> |
> --2.90%--ret_from_fork
> kthread
> 0xffffae1c12abeaf8
> 0xffffae1c12abe7a0
> |
> --2.69%--vfree
> __free_contig_range
>
> Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
> Co-developed-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
Nit below:
> @@ -6784,6 +6790,103 @@ void __init page_alloc_sysctl_init(void)
> register_sysctl_init("vm", page_alloc_sysctl_table);
> }
>
> +static void free_prepared_contig_range(struct page *page,
> + unsigned long nr_pages)
> +{
> + while (nr_pages) {
> + unsigned long pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
Sorry for not noticing earlier. I now realized that because here we are
guaranteed to be restricted to the same section, we can do page_to_pfn()
just once outside the loop and then "pfn += 1UL << order;" below?
> + unsigned int order;
> +
> + /* We are limited by the largest buddy order. */
> + order = pfn ? __ffs(pfn) : MAX_PAGE_ORDER;
> + /* Don't exceed the number of pages to free. */
> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, ilog2(nr_pages));
> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, MAX_PAGE_ORDER);
> +
> + /*
> + * Free the chunk as a single block. Our caller has already
> + * called free_pages_prepare() for each order-0 page.
> + */
> + __free_frozen_pages(page, order, FPI_PREPARED);
> +
> + page += 1UL << order;
> + nr_pages -= 1UL << order;
> + }
> +}
> +
> +static void __free_contig_range_common(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
> + bool is_frozen)
> +{
> + struct page *page, *start = NULL;
> + unsigned long nr_start = 0;
> + unsigned long start_sec;
> + unsigned long i;
> +
> + for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) {
> + bool can_free = true;
> +
> + /*
> + * Contiguous PFNs might not have contiguous "struct pages"
> + * in some kernel configs: page++ across a section boundary
> + * is undefined. Use pfn_to_page() for each PFN.
> + */
> + page = pfn_to_page(pfn + i);
Hm ideally we'd have some pfn+page iterator thingy that would just do a
page++ on configs where it's contiguous and this more expensive operation
otherwise. Wonder why we don't have it yet. But that's for a possible
followup, not required now.
> +
> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageHead(page));
> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageTail(page));
> +
> + if (!is_frozen)
> + can_free = put_page_testzero(page);
> +
> + if (can_free)
> + can_free = free_pages_prepare(page, 0);
> +
> + if (!can_free) {
> + if (start) {
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
> + start = NULL;
> + }
> + continue;
> + }
> +
> + if (start && memdesc_section(page->flags) != start_sec) {
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
> + start = page;
> + nr_start = i;
> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
> + } else if (!start) {
> + start = page;
> + nr_start = i;
> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (start)
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, nr_pages - nr_start);
> +}
> +
Hi,
Thank you for the suggestion. I think I'll send the updated
series today as I don't see any outstanding item now.
On 01/04/2026 10:07 am, Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) wrote:
> On 3/31/26 17:21, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:
>> From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>>
>> Decompose the range of order-0 pages to be freed into the set of largest
>> possible power-of-2 size and aligned chunks and free them to the pcp or
>> buddy. This improves on the previous approach which freed each order-0
>> page individually in a loop. Testing shows performance to be improved by
>> more than 10x in some cases.
>>
>> Since each page is order-0, we must decrement each page's reference
>> count individually and only consider the page for freeing as part of a
>> high order chunk if the reference count goes to zero. Additionally
>> free_pages_prepare() must be called for each individual order-0 page
>> too, so that the struct page state and global accounting state can be
>> appropriately managed. But once this is done, the resulting high order
>> chunks can be freed as a unit to the pcp or buddy.
>>
>> This significantly speeds up the free operation but also has the side
>> benefit that high order blocks are added to the pcp instead of each page
>> ending up on the pcp order-0 list; memory remains more readily available
>> in high orders.
>>
>> vmalloc will shortly become a user of this new optimized
>> free_contig_range() since it aggressively allocates high order
>> non-compound pages, but then calls split_page() to end up with
>> contiguous order-0 pages. These can now be freed much more efficiently.
>>
>> The execution time of the following function was measured in a server
>> class arm64 machine:
>>
>> static int page_alloc_high_order_test(void)
>> {
>> unsigned int order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
>> struct page *page;
>> int i;
>>
>> for (i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
>> page = alloc_pages(GFP_KERNEL, order);
>> if (!page)
>> return -1;
>> split_page(page, order);
>> free_contig_range(page_to_pfn(page), 1UL << order);
>> }
>>
>> return 0;
>> }
>>
>> Execution time before: 4097358 usec
>> Execution time after: 729831 usec
>>
>> Perf trace before:
>>
>> 99.63% 0.00% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [.] kthread
>> |
>> ---kthread
>> 0xffffb33c12a26af8
>> |
>> |--98.13%--0xffffb33c12a26060
>> | |
>> | |--97.37%--free_contig_range
>> | | |
>> | | |--94.93%--___free_pages
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--55.42%--__free_frozen_pages
>> | | | | |
>> | | | | --43.20%--free_frozen_page_commit
>> | | | | |
>> | | | | --35.37%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--11.53%--_raw_spin_trylock
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--8.19%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--5.64%--_raw_spin_unlock
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--2.37%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
>> | | | |
>> | | | --1.07%--free_frozen_page_commit
>> | | |
>> | | --1.54%--__free_frozen_pages
>> | |
>> | --0.77%--___free_pages
>> |
>> --0.98%--0xffffb33c12a26078
>> alloc_pages_noprof
>>
>> Perf trace after:
>>
>> 8.42% 2.90% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __free_contig_range
>> |
>> |--5.52%--__free_contig_range
>> | |
>> | |--5.00%--free_prepared_contig_range
>> | | |
>> | | |--1.43%--__free_frozen_pages
>> | | | |
>> | | | --0.51%--free_frozen_page_commit
>> | | |
>> | | |--1.08%--_raw_spin_trylock
>> | | |
>> | | --0.89%--_raw_spin_unlock
>> | |
>> | --0.52%--free_pages_prepare
>> |
>> --2.90%--ret_from_fork
>> kthread
>> 0xffffae1c12abeaf8
>> 0xffffae1c12abe7a0
>> |
>> --2.69%--vfree
>> __free_contig_range
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>> Co-developed-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
>
> Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@kernel.org>
>
> Nit below:
>
>> @@ -6784,6 +6790,103 @@ void __init page_alloc_sysctl_init(void)
>> register_sysctl_init("vm", page_alloc_sysctl_table);
>> }
>>
>> +static void free_prepared_contig_range(struct page *page,
>> + unsigned long nr_pages)
>> +{
>> + while (nr_pages) {
>> + unsigned long pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
>
> Sorry for not noticing earlier. I now realized that because here we are
> guaranteed to be restricted to the same section, we can do page_to_pfn()
> just once outside the loop and then "pfn += 1UL << order;" below?
Please let me make this update.
>
>> + unsigned int order;
>> +
>> + /* We are limited by the largest buddy order. */
>> + order = pfn ? __ffs(pfn) : MAX_PAGE_ORDER;
>> + /* Don't exceed the number of pages to free. */
>> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, ilog2(nr_pages));
>> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, MAX_PAGE_ORDER);
>> +
>> + /*
>> + * Free the chunk as a single block. Our caller has already
>> + * called free_pages_prepare() for each order-0 page.
>> + */
>> + __free_frozen_pages(page, order, FPI_PREPARED);
>> +
>> + page += 1UL << order;
>> + nr_pages -= 1UL << order;
>> + }
>> +}
>> +
>> +static void __free_contig_range_common(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
>> + bool is_frozen)
>> +{
>> + struct page *page, *start = NULL;
>> + unsigned long nr_start = 0;
>> + unsigned long start_sec;
>> + unsigned long i;
>> +
>> + for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) {
>> + bool can_free = true;
>> +
>> + /*
>> + * Contiguous PFNs might not have contiguous "struct pages"
>> + * in some kernel configs: page++ across a section boundary
>> + * is undefined. Use pfn_to_page() for each PFN.
>> + */
>> + page = pfn_to_page(pfn + i);
>
> Hm ideally we'd have some pfn+page iterator thingy that would just do a
> page++ on configs where it's contiguous and this more expensive operation
> otherwise. Wonder why we don't have it yet. But that's for a possible
> followup, not required now.
Yeah, it'll be useful and will make the code overall simple to follow.
>
>> +
>> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageHead(page));
>> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageTail(page));
>> +
>> + if (!is_frozen)
>> + can_free = put_page_testzero(page);
>> +
>> + if (can_free)
>> + can_free = free_pages_prepare(page, 0);
>> +
>> + if (!can_free) {
>> + if (start) {
>> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
>> + start = NULL;
>> + }
>> + continue;
>> + }
>> +
>> + if (start && memdesc_section(page->flags) != start_sec) {
>> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
>> + start = page;
>> + nr_start = i;
>> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
>> + } else if (!start) {
>> + start = page;
>> + nr_start = i;
>> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
>> + }
>> + }
>> +
>> + if (start)
>> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, nr_pages - nr_start);
>> +}
>> +
>
>
--
---
Thanks,
Usama
On 31 Mar 2026, at 11:21, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:
> From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>
> Decompose the range of order-0 pages to be freed into the set of largest
> possible power-of-2 size and aligned chunks and free them to the pcp or
> buddy. This improves on the previous approach which freed each order-0
> page individually in a loop. Testing shows performance to be improved by
> more than 10x in some cases.
>
> Since each page is order-0, we must decrement each page's reference
> count individually and only consider the page for freeing as part of a
> high order chunk if the reference count goes to zero. Additionally
> free_pages_prepare() must be called for each individual order-0 page
> too, so that the struct page state and global accounting state can be
> appropriately managed. But once this is done, the resulting high order
> chunks can be freed as a unit to the pcp or buddy.
>
> This significantly speeds up the free operation but also has the side
> benefit that high order blocks are added to the pcp instead of each page
> ending up on the pcp order-0 list; memory remains more readily available
> in high orders.
>
> vmalloc will shortly become a user of this new optimized
> free_contig_range() since it aggressively allocates high order
> non-compound pages, but then calls split_page() to end up with
> contiguous order-0 pages. These can now be freed much more efficiently.
>
> The execution time of the following function was measured in a server
> class arm64 machine:
>
> static int page_alloc_high_order_test(void)
> {
> unsigned int order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
> struct page *page;
> int i;
>
> for (i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
> page = alloc_pages(GFP_KERNEL, order);
> if (!page)
> return -1;
> split_page(page, order);
> free_contig_range(page_to_pfn(page), 1UL << order);
> }
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> Execution time before: 4097358 usec
> Execution time after: 729831 usec
>
> Perf trace before:
>
> 99.63% 0.00% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [.] kthread
> |
> ---kthread
> 0xffffb33c12a26af8
> |
> |--98.13%--0xffffb33c12a26060
> | |
> | |--97.37%--free_contig_range
> | | |
> | | |--94.93%--___free_pages
> | | | |
> | | | |--55.42%--__free_frozen_pages
> | | | | |
> | | | | --43.20%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | | | |
> | | | | --35.37%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
> | | | |
> | | | |--11.53%--_raw_spin_trylock
> | | | |
> | | | |--8.19%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
> | | | |
> | | | |--5.64%--_raw_spin_unlock
> | | | |
> | | | |--2.37%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
> | | | |
> | | | --1.07%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | |
> | | --1.54%--__free_frozen_pages
> | |
> | --0.77%--___free_pages
> |
> --0.98%--0xffffb33c12a26078
> alloc_pages_noprof
>
> Perf trace after:
>
> 8.42% 2.90% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __free_contig_range
> |
> |--5.52%--__free_contig_range
> | |
> | |--5.00%--free_prepared_contig_range
> | | |
> | | |--1.43%--__free_frozen_pages
> | | | |
> | | | --0.51%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | |
> | | |--1.08%--_raw_spin_trylock
> | | |
> | | --0.89%--_raw_spin_unlock
> | |
> | --0.52%--free_pages_prepare
> |
> --2.90%--ret_from_fork
> kthread
> 0xffffae1c12abeaf8
> 0xffffae1c12abe7a0
> |
> --2.69%--vfree
> __free_contig_range
>
> Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
> Co-developed-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
> ---
> Changes since v4:
> - Move can_free initialization inside the loop
> - Make __free_pages_prepare() static on reviewer's request
> - Remove export of __free_contig_range
> - Use pfn_to_page() for each pfn instead of page++
>
> Changes since v3:
> - Move __free_contig_range() to more generic __free_contig_range_common()
> which will used to free frozen pages as well
> - Simplify the loop in __free_contig_range_common()
> - Rewrite the comment
>
> Changes since v2:
> - Handle different possible section boundries in __free_contig_range()
> - Drop the TODO
> - Remove return value from __free_contig_range()
> - Remove non-functional change from __free_pages_ok()
>
> Changes since v1:
> - Rebase on mm-new
> - Move FPI_PREPARED check inside __free_pages_prepare() now that
> fpi_flags are already being passed.
> - Add todo (Zi Yan)
> - Rerun benchmarks
> - Convert VM_BUG_ON_PAGE() to VM_WARN_ON_ONCE()
> - Rework order calculation in free_prepared_contig_range() and use
> MAX_PAGE_ORDER as high limit instead of pageblock_order as it must
> be up to internal __free_frozen_pages() how it frees them
> ---
> include/linux/gfp.h | 2 +
> mm/page_alloc.c | 110 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> 2 files changed, 108 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/include/linux/gfp.h b/include/linux/gfp.h
> index f82d74a77cad8..7c1f9da7c8e56 100644
> --- a/include/linux/gfp.h
> +++ b/include/linux/gfp.h
> @@ -467,6 +467,8 @@ void free_contig_frozen_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
> void free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
> #endif
>
> +void __free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
> +
> DEFINE_FREE(free_page, void *, free_page((unsigned long)_T))
>
> #endif /* __LINUX_GFP_H */
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 75ee81445640b..6e8c79ea62f1c 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ typedef int __bitwise fpi_t;
> /* Free the page without taking locks. Rely on trylock only. */
> #define FPI_TRYLOCK ((__force fpi_t)BIT(2))
>
> +/* free_pages_prepare() has already been called for page(s) being freed. */
> +#define FPI_PREPARED ((__force fpi_t)BIT(3))
> +
> /* prevent >1 _updater_ of zone percpu pageset ->high and ->batch fields */
> static DEFINE_MUTEX(pcp_batch_high_lock);
> #define MIN_PERCPU_PAGELIST_HIGH_FRACTION (8)
> @@ -1301,8 +1304,8 @@ static inline void pgalloc_tag_sub_pages(struct alloc_tag *tag, unsigned int nr)
>
> #endif /* CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING */
>
> -__always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
> - unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
> +static __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
> + unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
> {
> int bad = 0;
> bool skip_kasan_poison = should_skip_kasan_poison(page);
> @@ -1310,6 +1313,9 @@ __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
> bool compound = PageCompound(page);
> struct folio *folio = page_folio(page);
>
> + if (fpi_flags & FPI_PREPARED)
> + return true;
> +
> VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(PageTail(page), page);
>
> trace_mm_page_free(page, order);
> @@ -6784,6 +6790,103 @@ void __init page_alloc_sysctl_init(void)
> register_sysctl_init("vm", page_alloc_sysctl_table);
> }
>
> +static void free_prepared_contig_range(struct page *page,
> + unsigned long nr_pages)
> +{
> + while (nr_pages) {
> + unsigned long pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
pfn does not change after this assignment. That is why David suggested
prefixing a const. You can send a fixup to this patch to change this
if there is no substantial change needed for this series.
> + unsigned int order;
> +
> + /* We are limited by the largest buddy order. */
> + order = pfn ? __ffs(pfn) : MAX_PAGE_ORDER;
> + /* Don't exceed the number of pages to free. */
> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, ilog2(nr_pages));
> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, MAX_PAGE_ORDER);
> +
> + /*
> + * Free the chunk as a single block. Our caller has already
> + * called free_pages_prepare() for each order-0 page.
> + */
> + __free_frozen_pages(page, order, FPI_PREPARED);
> +
> + page += 1UL << order;
> + nr_pages -= 1UL << order;
> + }
> +}
> +
> +static void __free_contig_range_common(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
> + bool is_frozen)
> +{
> + struct page *page, *start = NULL;
> + unsigned long nr_start = 0;
> + unsigned long start_sec;
> + unsigned long i;
> +
> + for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) {
> + bool can_free = true;
> +
> + /*
> + * Contiguous PFNs might not have contiguous "struct pages"
> + * in some kernel configs: page++ across a section boundary
> + * is undefined. Use pfn_to_page() for each PFN.
> + */
> + page = pfn_to_page(pfn + i);
page is local to this loop. You probably can move its declaration here.
But feel free to ignore this suggestion.
I was about to suggest make it const, but put_page_test_zero()
and free_pages_prepare() do not accept const struct page yet.
> +
> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageHead(page));
> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageTail(page));
> +
> + if (!is_frozen)
> + can_free = put_page_testzero(page);
> +
> + if (can_free)
> + can_free = free_pages_prepare(page, 0);
> +
> + if (!can_free) {
> + if (start) {
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
> + start = NULL;
> + }
> + continue;
> + }
> +
> + if (start && memdesc_section(page->flags) != start_sec) {
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
> + start = page;
> + nr_start = i;
> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
> + } else if (!start) {
> + start = page;
> + nr_start = i;
> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (start)
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, nr_pages - nr_start);
> +}
> +
Otherwise, LGTM. Thanks.
Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Best Regards,
Yan, Zi
On 31/03/2026 5:09 pm, Zi Yan wrote:
> On 31 Mar 2026, at 11:21, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:
>
>> From: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>>
>> Decompose the range of order-0 pages to be freed into the set of largest
>> possible power-of-2 size and aligned chunks and free them to the pcp or
>> buddy. This improves on the previous approach which freed each order-0
>> page individually in a loop. Testing shows performance to be improved by
>> more than 10x in some cases.
>>
>> Since each page is order-0, we must decrement each page's reference
>> count individually and only consider the page for freeing as part of a
>> high order chunk if the reference count goes to zero. Additionally
>> free_pages_prepare() must be called for each individual order-0 page
>> too, so that the struct page state and global accounting state can be
>> appropriately managed. But once this is done, the resulting high order
>> chunks can be freed as a unit to the pcp or buddy.
>>
>> This significantly speeds up the free operation but also has the side
>> benefit that high order blocks are added to the pcp instead of each page
>> ending up on the pcp order-0 list; memory remains more readily available
>> in high orders.
>>
>> vmalloc will shortly become a user of this new optimized
>> free_contig_range() since it aggressively allocates high order
>> non-compound pages, but then calls split_page() to end up with
>> contiguous order-0 pages. These can now be freed much more efficiently.
>>
>> The execution time of the following function was measured in a server
>> class arm64 machine:
>>
>> static int page_alloc_high_order_test(void)
>> {
>> unsigned int order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
>> struct page *page;
>> int i;
>>
>> for (i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
>> page = alloc_pages(GFP_KERNEL, order);
>> if (!page)
>> return -1;
>> split_page(page, order);
>> free_contig_range(page_to_pfn(page), 1UL << order);
>> }
>>
>> return 0;
>> }
>>
>> Execution time before: 4097358 usec
>> Execution time after: 729831 usec
>>
>> Perf trace before:
>>
>> 99.63% 0.00% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [.] kthread
>> |
>> ---kthread
>> 0xffffb33c12a26af8
>> |
>> |--98.13%--0xffffb33c12a26060
>> | |
>> | |--97.37%--free_contig_range
>> | | |
>> | | |--94.93%--___free_pages
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--55.42%--__free_frozen_pages
>> | | | | |
>> | | | | --43.20%--free_frozen_page_commit
>> | | | | |
>> | | | | --35.37%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--11.53%--_raw_spin_trylock
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--8.19%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--5.64%--_raw_spin_unlock
>> | | | |
>> | | | |--2.37%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
>> | | | |
>> | | | --1.07%--free_frozen_page_commit
>> | | |
>> | | --1.54%--__free_frozen_pages
>> | |
>> | --0.77%--___free_pages
>> |
>> --0.98%--0xffffb33c12a26078
>> alloc_pages_noprof
>>
>> Perf trace after:
>>
>> 8.42% 2.90% kthreadd [kernel.kallsyms] [k] __free_contig_range
>> |
>> |--5.52%--__free_contig_range
>> | |
>> | |--5.00%--free_prepared_contig_range
>> | | |
>> | | |--1.43%--__free_frozen_pages
>> | | | |
>> | | | --0.51%--free_frozen_page_commit
>> | | |
>> | | |--1.08%--_raw_spin_trylock
>> | | |
>> | | --0.89%--_raw_spin_unlock
>> | |
>> | --0.52%--free_pages_prepare
>> |
>> --2.90%--ret_from_fork
>> kthread
>> 0xffffae1c12abeaf8
>> 0xffffae1c12abe7a0
>> |
>> --2.69%--vfree
>> __free_contig_range
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>> Co-developed-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@arm.com>
>> ---
>> Changes since v4:
>> - Move can_free initialization inside the loop
>> - Make __free_pages_prepare() static on reviewer's request
>> - Remove export of __free_contig_range
>> - Use pfn_to_page() for each pfn instead of page++
>>
>> Changes since v3:
>> - Move __free_contig_range() to more generic __free_contig_range_common()
>> which will used to free frozen pages as well
>> - Simplify the loop in __free_contig_range_common()
>> - Rewrite the comment
>>
>> Changes since v2:
>> - Handle different possible section boundries in __free_contig_range()
>> - Drop the TODO
>> - Remove return value from __free_contig_range()
>> - Remove non-functional change from __free_pages_ok()
>>
>> Changes since v1:
>> - Rebase on mm-new
>> - Move FPI_PREPARED check inside __free_pages_prepare() now that
>> fpi_flags are already being passed.
>> - Add todo (Zi Yan)
>> - Rerun benchmarks
>> - Convert VM_BUG_ON_PAGE() to VM_WARN_ON_ONCE()
>> - Rework order calculation in free_prepared_contig_range() and use
>> MAX_PAGE_ORDER as high limit instead of pageblock_order as it must
>> be up to internal __free_frozen_pages() how it frees them
>> ---
>> include/linux/gfp.h | 2 +
>> mm/page_alloc.c | 110 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>> 2 files changed, 108 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/include/linux/gfp.h b/include/linux/gfp.h
>> index f82d74a77cad8..7c1f9da7c8e56 100644
>> --- a/include/linux/gfp.h
>> +++ b/include/linux/gfp.h
>> @@ -467,6 +467,8 @@ void free_contig_frozen_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
>> void free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
>> #endif
>>
>> +void __free_contig_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
>> +
>> DEFINE_FREE(free_page, void *, free_page((unsigned long)_T))
>>
>> #endif /* __LINUX_GFP_H */
>> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
>> index 75ee81445640b..6e8c79ea62f1c 100644
>> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
>> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
>> @@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ typedef int __bitwise fpi_t;
>> /* Free the page without taking locks. Rely on trylock only. */
>> #define FPI_TRYLOCK ((__force fpi_t)BIT(2))
>>
>> +/* free_pages_prepare() has already been called for page(s) being freed. */
>> +#define FPI_PREPARED ((__force fpi_t)BIT(3))
>> +
>> /* prevent >1 _updater_ of zone percpu pageset ->high and ->batch fields */
>> static DEFINE_MUTEX(pcp_batch_high_lock);
>> #define MIN_PERCPU_PAGELIST_HIGH_FRACTION (8)
>> @@ -1301,8 +1304,8 @@ static inline void pgalloc_tag_sub_pages(struct alloc_tag *tag, unsigned int nr)
>>
>> #endif /* CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING */
>>
>> -__always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
>> - unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
>> +static __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
>> + unsigned int order, fpi_t fpi_flags)
>> {
>> int bad = 0;
>> bool skip_kasan_poison = should_skip_kasan_poison(page);
>> @@ -1310,6 +1313,9 @@ __always_inline bool __free_pages_prepare(struct page *page,
>> bool compound = PageCompound(page);
>> struct folio *folio = page_folio(page);
>>
>> + if (fpi_flags & FPI_PREPARED)
>> + return true;
>> +
>> VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(PageTail(page), page);
>>
>> trace_mm_page_free(page, order);
>> @@ -6784,6 +6790,103 @@ void __init page_alloc_sysctl_init(void)
>> register_sysctl_init("vm", page_alloc_sysctl_table);
>> }
>>
>> +static void free_prepared_contig_range(struct page *page,
>> + unsigned long nr_pages)
>> +{
>> + while (nr_pages) {
>> + unsigned long pfn = page_to_pfn(page);
>
> pfn does not change after this assignment. That is why David suggested
> prefixing a const. You can send a fixup to this patch to change this
> if there is no substantial change needed for this series.
I'm going to move page_to_pfn() out of this loop as now its guaranteed
that they are from the same section. The page++ would be safe here.
>
>> + unsigned int order;
>> +
>> + /* We are limited by the largest buddy order. */
>> + order = pfn ? __ffs(pfn) : MAX_PAGE_ORDER;
>> + /* Don't exceed the number of pages to free. */
>> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, ilog2(nr_pages));
>> + order = min_t(unsigned int, order, MAX_PAGE_ORDER);
>> +
>> + /*
>> + * Free the chunk as a single block. Our caller has already
>> + * called free_pages_prepare() for each order-0 page.
>> + */
>> + __free_frozen_pages(page, order, FPI_PREPARED);
>> +
>> + page += 1UL << order;
>> + nr_pages -= 1UL << order;
>> + }
>> +}
>> +
>> +static void __free_contig_range_common(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
>> + bool is_frozen)
>> +{
>> + struct page *page, *start = NULL;
>> + unsigned long nr_start = 0;
>> + unsigned long start_sec;
>> + unsigned long i;
>> +
>> + for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++) {
>> + bool can_free = true;
>> +
>> + /*
>> + * Contiguous PFNs might not have contiguous "struct pages"
>> + * in some kernel configs: page++ across a section boundary
>> + * is undefined. Use pfn_to_page() for each PFN.
>> + */
>> + page = pfn_to_page(pfn + i);
>
> page is local to this loop. You probably can move its declaration here.
> But feel free to ignore this suggestion.
I'll make this change.
>
> I was about to suggest make it const, but put_page_test_zero()
> and free_pages_prepare() do not accept const struct page yet.
>
>> +
>> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageHead(page));
>> + VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(PageTail(page));
>> +
>> + if (!is_frozen)
>> + can_free = put_page_testzero(page);
>> +
>> + if (can_free)
>> + can_free = free_pages_prepare(page, 0);
>> +
>> + if (!can_free) {
>> + if (start) {
>> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
>> + start = NULL;
>> + }
>> + continue;
>> + }
>> +
>> + if (start && memdesc_section(page->flags) != start_sec) {
>> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, i - nr_start);
>> + start = page;
>> + nr_start = i;
>> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
>> + } else if (!start) {
>> + start = page;
>> + nr_start = i;
>> + start_sec = memdesc_section(page->flags);
>> + }
>> + }
>> +
>> + if (start)
>> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, nr_pages - nr_start);
>> +}
>> +
>
> Otherwise, LGTM. Thanks.
>
> Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Thank you so much!
>
> Best Regards,
> Yan, Zi
--
---
Thanks,
Usama
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