[PATCH v5 4/8] mm/slab: extend deferred free mechanism to handle rcu sheaves

"Harry Yoo (Oracle)" <[email protected]> Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:20:12 +0900
Newsgroups dev.linux.lists.linux-rt-devel,org.kernel.vger.bpf,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kernel.vger.rcu,org.kvack.linux-mm
Message-ID <[email protected]>
__kfree_rcu_sheaf() cannot invoke call_rcu() when spinning is not
allowed and IRQs are disabled. To relax the limitation, extend the
deferred free fallback so that a full rcu sheaf can be submitted to
call_rcu() via the existing IRQ work.

Since the deferred mechanism does more than deferred freeing of objects,
rename the struct to deferred_percpu_work and adjust names accordingly.

When a sheaf is queued on an IRQ work, it is detached from
pcs->rcu_free but call_rcu() is not invoked until the irq_work runs.
To keep the kvfree_rcu barrier's promise, call irq_work_sync() on each
CPU before calling rcu_barrier().

In the meantime, remove the TODO item as apparently there is no simple
and effective way to achieve that. This is because, unlike sheaves,
kfree_rcu() batches objects from different caches together.

Suggested-by: Alexei Starovoitov <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Pedro Falcato <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Harry Yoo (Oracle) <[email protected]>
---
 mm/slab.h        |  2 +-
 mm/slab_common.c |  7 ++---
 mm/slub.c        | 85 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------
 3 files changed, 53 insertions(+), 41 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/slab.h b/mm/slab.h
index 7e7f986b49e9..d13a0f6b7a1b 100644
--- a/mm/slab.h
+++ b/mm/slab.h
@@ -909,7 +909,7 @@ void __kmem_obj_info(struct kmem_obj_info *kpp, void *object, struct slab *slab)
 void __check_heap_object(const void *ptr, unsigned long n,
 			 const struct slab *slab, bool to_user);
 
-void defer_free_barrier(void);
+void deferred_work_barrier(void);
 
 static inline bool slub_debug_orig_size(struct kmem_cache *s)
 {
diff --git a/mm/slab_common.c b/mm/slab_common.c
index 42db62f3e801..d81cc2136c68 100644
--- a/mm/slab_common.c
+++ b/mm/slab_common.c
@@ -558,7 +558,7 @@ void kmem_cache_destroy(struct kmem_cache *s)
 	}
 
 	/* Wait for deferred work from kmalloc/kfree_nolock() */
-	defer_free_barrier();
+	deferred_work_barrier();
 
 	cpus_read_lock();
 	mutex_lock(&slab_mutex);
@@ -2146,13 +2146,10 @@ void kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache(struct kmem_cache *s)
 		cpus_read_lock();
 		flush_rcu_sheaves_on_cache(s);
 		cpus_read_unlock();
+		deferred_work_barrier();
 		rcu_barrier();
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * TODO: Introduce a version of __kvfree_rcu_barrier() that works
-	 * on a specific slab cache.
-	 */
 	__kvfree_rcu_barrier();
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache);
diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
index bb0f2975c95b..92c99ff34a2c 100644
--- a/mm/slub.c
+++ b/mm/slub.c
@@ -423,6 +423,8 @@ struct slab_sheaf {
 	union {
 		struct rcu_head rcu_head;
 		struct list_head barn_list;
+		/* only used to defer call_rcu() in unknown context */
+		struct llist_node llnode;
 		/* only used for prefilled sheafs */
 		struct {
 			unsigned int capacity;
@@ -4095,6 +4097,20 @@ static void flush_all(struct kmem_cache *s)
 	cpus_read_unlock();
 }
 
+struct deferred_percpu_work {
+	struct llist_head objects;
+	struct llist_head rcu_sheaves;
+	struct irq_work work;
+};
+
+static void deferred_percpu_work_fn(struct irq_work *work);
+
+static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct deferred_percpu_work, deferred_percpu_work) = {
+	.objects = LLIST_HEAD_INIT(objects),
+	.rcu_sheaves = LLIST_HEAD_INIT(rcu_sheaves),
+	.work = IRQ_WORK_INIT(deferred_percpu_work_fn),
+};
+
 static void flush_rcu_sheaf(struct work_struct *w)
 {
 	struct slub_percpu_sheaves *pcs;
@@ -4166,6 +4182,7 @@ void flush_all_rcu_sheaves(void)
 	mutex_unlock(&slab_mutex);
 	cpus_read_unlock();
 
+	deferred_work_barrier();
 	rcu_barrier();
 }
 
@@ -6157,16 +6174,6 @@ bool __kfree_rcu_sheaf(struct kmem_cache *s, void *obj, unsigned int free_flags)
 	if (likely(rcu_sheaf->size < s->sheaf_capacity)) {
 		rcu_sheaf = NULL;
 	} else {
-		/*
-		 * With !allow_spin, we might have interrupted call_rcu()'s
-		 * IRQ-disabled critical section. If IRQs are not disabled,
-		 * we know that's not the case.
-		 */
-		if (unlikely(!allow_spin && irqs_disabled())) {
-			rcu_sheaf->size--;
-			local_unlock(&s->cpu_sheaves->lock);
-			goto fail;
-		}
 		pcs->rcu_free = NULL;
 		rcu_sheaf->node = numa_node_id();
 	}
@@ -6175,8 +6182,22 @@ bool __kfree_rcu_sheaf(struct kmem_cache *s, void *obj, unsigned int free_flags)
 	 * we flush before local_unlock to make sure a racing
 	 * flush_all_rcu_sheaves() doesn't miss this sheaf
 	 */
-	if (rcu_sheaf)
-		call_rcu(&rcu_sheaf->rcu_head, rcu_free_sheaf);
+	if (rcu_sheaf) {
+		/*
+		 * With !allow_spin, we might have interrupted call_rcu()'s
+		 * IRQ-disabled critical section. If IRQs are not disabled,
+		 * we know that's not the case.
+		 */
+		if (unlikely(!allow_spin && irqs_disabled())) {
+			struct deferred_percpu_work *dpw;
+
+			dpw = this_cpu_ptr(&deferred_percpu_work);
+			if (llist_add(&rcu_sheaf->llnode, &dpw->rcu_sheaves))
+				irq_work_queue(&dpw->work);
+		} else {
+			call_rcu(&rcu_sheaf->rcu_head, rcu_free_sheaf);
+		}
+	}
 
 	local_unlock(&s->cpu_sheaves->lock);
 
@@ -6375,31 +6396,21 @@ static void free_to_pcs_bulk(struct kmem_cache *s, size_t size, void **p)
 	}
 }
 
-struct defer_free {
-	struct llist_head objects;
-	struct irq_work work;
-};
-
-static void free_deferred_objects(struct irq_work *work);
-
-static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct defer_free, defer_free_objects) = {
-	.objects = LLIST_HEAD_INIT(objects),
-	.work = IRQ_WORK_INIT(free_deferred_objects),
-};
-
 /*
  * In PREEMPT_RT irq_work runs in per-cpu kthread, so it's safe
  * to take sleeping spin_locks from __slab_free().
  * In !PREEMPT_RT irq_work will run after local_unlock_irqrestore().
  */
-static void free_deferred_objects(struct irq_work *work)
+static void deferred_percpu_work_fn(struct irq_work *work)
 {
-	struct defer_free *df = container_of(work, struct defer_free, work);
-	struct llist_head *objs = &df->objects;
+	struct deferred_percpu_work *dpw;
+	struct llist_head *objs, *rcu_sheaves;
 	struct llist_node *llnode, *pos, *t;
+	struct slab_sheaf *sheaf, *next;
 
-	if (llist_empty(objs))
-		return;
+	dpw = container_of(work, struct deferred_percpu_work, work);
+	rcu_sheaves = &dpw->rcu_sheaves;
+	objs = &dpw->objects;
 
 	llnode = llist_del_all(objs);
 	llist_for_each_safe(pos, t, llnode) {
@@ -6423,27 +6434,31 @@ static void free_deferred_objects(struct irq_work *work)
 		__slab_free(s, slab, x, x, 1, _THIS_IP_);
 		stat(s, FREE_SLOWPATH);
 	}
+
+	llnode = llist_del_all(rcu_sheaves);
+	llist_for_each_entry_safe(sheaf, next, llnode, llnode)
+		call_rcu(&sheaf->rcu_head, rcu_free_sheaf);
 }
 
 static void defer_free(struct kmem_cache *s, void *head)
 {
-	struct defer_free *df;
+	struct deferred_percpu_work *dpw;
 
 	guard(preempt)();
 
 	head = kasan_reset_tag(head);
 
-	df = this_cpu_ptr(&defer_free_objects);
-	if (llist_add(head + s->offset, &df->objects))
-		irq_work_queue(&df->work);
+	dpw = this_cpu_ptr(&deferred_percpu_work);
+	if (llist_add(head + s->offset, &dpw->objects))
+		irq_work_queue(&dpw->work);
 }
 
-void defer_free_barrier(void)
+void deferred_work_barrier(void)
 {
 	int cpu;
 
 	for_each_possible_cpu(cpu)
-		irq_work_sync(&per_cpu_ptr(&defer_free_objects, cpu)->work);
+		irq_work_sync(&per_cpu_ptr(&deferred_percpu_work, cpu)->work);
 }
 
 static __fastpath_inline

-- 
2.53.0