[PATCH v3 10/11] mm, swap: defer memcg_table allocation for physical swap clusters

Nhat Pham <[email protected]> Thu, 6 Aug 2026 11:42:53 -0700
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.cgroups,org.kernel.vger.linux-doc,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kvack.linux-mm
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Stop allocating a memcg table for every physical swap cluster that only
ever holds vswap backings. The table costs SWAPFILE_CLUSTER *
sizeof(unsigned short) per cluster, 1 KB per 2 MB of swap on a 64-bit
kernel with 4 KB pages. On a vswap-heavy workload, where zswap writeback
is the only consumer of physical swap, that is the common case.

Such clusters never have their memcg_table read or written: vswap-layer
charging records on the vswap cluster's table, not the physical one.

Allocate eagerly only when the cluster is known to need a table: any
cluster in a !CONFIG_VSWAP build, or any vswap cluster. For physical
clusters in CONFIG_VSWAP builds, defer to alloc_swap_scan_cluster(),
which allocates on the first direct-use slot and skips entirely when the
cluster only holds pointer-tagged vswap backings.

Signed-off-by: Nhat Pham <[email protected]>
---
 mm/swapfile.c | 40 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/swapfile.c b/mm/swapfile.c
index b4d7af21ca1c..65559647eeb4 100644
--- a/mm/swapfile.c
+++ b/mm/swapfile.c
@@ -492,7 +492,8 @@ static void swap_cluster_free_table(struct swap_cluster_info *ci)
 		 swap_cluster_free_table_folio_rcu_cb);
 }
 
-static int swap_cluster_alloc_table(struct swap_cluster_info *ci, gfp_t gfp)
+static int swap_cluster_alloc_table(struct swap_info_struct *si,
+				    struct swap_cluster_info *ci, gfp_t gfp)
 {
 	struct swap_table *table = NULL;
 	struct folio *folio;
@@ -515,7 +516,16 @@ static int swap_cluster_alloc_table(struct swap_cluster_info *ci, gfp_t gfp)
 	rcu_assign_pointer(ci->table, table);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
-	if (!mem_cgroup_disabled()) {
+	/*
+	 * Allocate memcg_table eagerly only when we know it will be used:
+	 * any cluster in a !CONFIG_VSWAP build (all slots are direct use),
+	 * or any vswap cluster (every vswap alloc records memcg). Physical
+	 * clusters in a CONFIG_VSWAP build defer to alloc_swap_scan_cluster,
+	 * which allocates on the first direct-use slot and skips entirely
+	 * when the cluster only holds Pointer-tagged vswap backings.
+	 */
+	if ((!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_VSWAP) || swap_is_vswap(si)) &&
+	    !mem_cgroup_disabled()) {
 		VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(ci->memcg_table);
 		ci->memcg_table = kzalloc_obj(*ci->memcg_table, gfp);
 		if (!ci->memcg_table) {
@@ -589,8 +599,8 @@ swap_cluster_populate(struct swap_info_struct *si,
 		lockdep_assert_held(&si->global_cluster_lock);
 	lockdep_assert_held(&ci->lock);
 
-	if (!swap_cluster_alloc_table(ci, __GFP_HIGH | __GFP_NOMEMALLOC |
-					  __GFP_NOWARN))
+	if (!swap_cluster_alloc_table(si, ci, __GFP_HIGH | __GFP_NOMEMALLOC |
+					      __GFP_NOWARN))
 		return ci;
 
 	/*
@@ -608,8 +618,8 @@ swap_cluster_populate(struct swap_info_struct *si,
 	if (!swap_is_vswap(si))
 		local_unlock(&percpu_swap_cluster.lock);
 
-	ret = swap_cluster_alloc_table(ci, __GFP_HIGH | __GFP_NOMEMALLOC |
-					   GFP_KERNEL);
+	ret = swap_cluster_alloc_table(si, ci, __GFP_HIGH | __GFP_NOMEMALLOC |
+					       GFP_KERNEL);
 
 	/*
 	 * Back to atomic context. We might have migrated to a new CPU with a
@@ -911,7 +921,7 @@ static int swap_cluster_setup_bad_slot(struct swap_info_struct *si,
 
 	ci = cluster_info + idx;
 	/* Need to allocate swap table first for initial bad slot marking. */
-	if (!ci->count && swap_cluster_alloc_table(ci, GFP_KERNEL))
+	if (!ci->count && swap_cluster_alloc_table(si, ci, GFP_KERNEL))
 		return -ENOMEM;
 	spin_lock(&ci->lock);
 	/* Check for duplicated bad swap slots. */
@@ -1193,6 +1203,20 @@ static unsigned int alloc_swap_scan_cluster(struct swap_info_struct *si,
 			if (!ret)
 				continue;
 		}
+#ifdef CONFIG_MEMCG
+		/*
+		 * Lazy-allocate memcg_table on the first direct-use slot of a
+		 * physical cluster.
+		 */
+		if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_VSWAP) && folio &&
+		    !folio_test_swapcache(folio) && !mem_cgroup_disabled() &&
+		    !ci->memcg_table) {
+			ci->memcg_table = kzalloc_obj(*ci->memcg_table,
+						      GFP_ATOMIC | __GFP_NOWARN);
+			if (!ci->memcg_table)
+				goto out;
+		}
+#endif
 		if (!__swap_cluster_alloc_entries(si, ci, folio, offset % SWAPFILE_CLUSTER))
 			break;
 		found = offset;
@@ -1259,7 +1283,7 @@ static unsigned int alloc_swap_scan_dynamic(struct swap_info_struct *si,
 	spin_lock_init(&ci_dyn->ci.lock);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ci_dyn->ci.list);
 
-	if (swap_cluster_alloc_table(&ci_dyn->ci, GFP_ATOMIC)) {
+	if (swap_cluster_alloc_table(si, &ci_dyn->ci, GFP_ATOMIC)) {
 		kfree(ci_dyn);
 		return SWAP_ENTRY_INVALID;
 	}
-- 
2.53.0-Meta