[PATCH v7 6/9] string: introduce memcpy_nontemporal()

"Li Zhe" <[email protected]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:02:56 +0800
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-arch,org.kernel.vger.linux-hardening,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kvack.linux-mm
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Introduce memcpy_nontemporal() for write-once copy sites that want a
named non-temporal copy primitive.

On x86_64, override the helper in arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h using
the usual self-macro pattern, next to the existing memcpy_flushcache()
backend that memcpy_nontemporal() wraps.

include/linux/string.h provides the generic memcpy_nontemporal()
fallback as

  #define memcpy_nontemporal memcpy

instead of an inline wrapper, so architectures without a specialized
backend keep the usual memcpy() FORTIFY coverage when the compiler can
still see object sizes at the original call site.

The immediate user is the ZONE_DEVICE template-copy path. It populates
struct page descriptors in a write-once pattern, so a regular cached
memcpy() can incur avoidable write-allocate traffic and cache pollution
for data with little near-term reuse.

Signed-off-by: Li Zhe <[email protected]>
---
 arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h | 12 ++++++++++++
 include/linux/string.h           | 12 ++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 24 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h
index 4635616863f5..21ae515ae35a 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/string_64.h
@@ -100,6 +100,18 @@ static __always_inline void memcpy_flushcache(void *dst, const void *src, size_t
 	}
 	__memcpy_flushcache(dst, src, cnt);
 }
+
+#define memcpy_nontemporal memcpy_nontemporal
+/*
+ * Reuse the existing x86 flushcache backend as the non-temporal copy
+ * primitive.
+ */
+static __always_inline void memcpy_nontemporal(void *dst, const void *src,
+		size_t cnt)
+{
+	memcpy_flushcache(dst, src, cnt);
+}
+
 #endif
 
 #endif /* __KERNEL__ */
diff --git a/include/linux/string.h b/include/linux/string.h
index 5702daca4326..9815c08867d7 100644
--- a/include/linux/string.h
+++ b/include/linux/string.h
@@ -278,6 +278,18 @@ static inline void memcpy_flushcache(void *dst, const void *src, size_t cnt)
 }
 #endif
 
+#ifndef memcpy_nontemporal
+/*
+ * memcpy_nontemporal() requests a non-temporal copy when the
+ * architecture has a suitable backend. Architectures without a
+ * specialized backend fall back to memcpy(). Keep this as a macro alias
+ * so the compiler can still see the original memcpy() call site and
+ * preserve the usual FORTIFY coverage when object sizes remain visible
+ * there.
+ */
+#define memcpy_nontemporal memcpy
+#endif
+
 void *memchr_inv(const void *s, int c, size_t n);
 char *strreplace(char *str, char old, char new);
 
-- 
2.20.1