+ mm-memcg-stop-reclaim-when-a-limit-update-is-superseded.patch added to mm-unstable branch
Andrew Morton <[email protected]> Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:35:24 -0700
| Newsgroups | org.kernel.vger.mm-commits,org.kernel.vger.stable |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
The patch titled
Subject: mm: memcg: stop reclaim when a limit update is superseded
has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch. Its filename is
mm-memcg-stop-reclaim-when-a-limit-update-is-superseded.patch
This patch will shortly appear at
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/mm-memcg-stop-reclaim-when-a-limit-update-is-superseded.patch
This patch will later appear in the mm-unstable branch at
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
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------------------------------------------------------
From: Guopeng Zhang <[email protected]>
Subject: mm: memcg: stop reclaim when a limit update is superseded
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2026 10:18:05 +0800
kernfs serializes file operations only per open file, so separate open
files can update the same memory.high or memory.max file concurrently.
Both handlers store the new limit before synchronous reclaim, but continue
to use the writer's local target in the reclaim loop. If another writer
raises or removes the limit, the first writer can continue reclaiming
toward a stale target.
For memory.max, this can leave the writer looping indefinitely once
reclaim retries are exhausted. The OOM path sees sufficient margin under
the current limit and returns true without killing, while the writer still
compares usage against its stale target and records another OOM event.
Check the current limit at the start of each reclaim iteration and stop if
it no longer matches the writer's target.
Reproducer:
Populate a cgroup with anonymous memory and disable swapping. Lower
memory.max from one open file, then restore it to "max" through another
open file after the new limit becomes visible.
Without the patch, the first writer remains blocked and repeatedly
increments the OOM event counter. With the patch, it returns normally.
This was not motivated by a reported production workload. We found it
through automated randomized testing for our cgroup observability work
and reduced it to the reproducer above.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]
Fixes: 8c8c383c04f6 ("mm: memcontrol: try harder to set a new memory.high")
Fixes: b6e6edcfa405 ("mm: memcontrol: reclaim and OOM kill when shrinking memory.max below usage")
Signed-off-by: Guopeng Zhang <[email protected]>
Acked-by: Tao Cui <[email protected]>
Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <[email protected]>
Cc: Michal Hocko <[email protected]>
Cc: Muchun Song <[email protected]>
Cc: Roman Gushchin <[email protected]>
Cc: Shakeel Butt <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
---
mm/memcontrol.c | 6 ++++++
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c~mm-memcg-stop-reclaim-when-a-limit-update-is-superseded
+++ a/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -4837,6 +4837,9 @@ static ssize_t memory_high_write(struct
unsigned long nr_pages = page_counter_read(&memcg->memory);
unsigned long reclaimed;
+ if (high != READ_ONCE(memcg->memory.high))
+ break;
+
if (nr_pages <= high)
break;
@@ -4892,6 +4895,9 @@ static ssize_t memory_max_write(struct k
for (;;) {
unsigned long nr_pages = page_counter_read(&memcg->memory);
+ if (max != READ_ONCE(memcg->memory.max))
+ break;
+
if (nr_pages <= max)
break;
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from [email protected] are
mm-memcontrol-update-state_local-when-flushing-nmi-stats.patch
mm-memcg-v1-account-vmpressure-event-allocations.patch
mm-memcg-v1-fix-wrong-linux-mm-list-address-in-deprecation-warnings.patch
mm-memcontrol-drop-unused-cpu-argument-from-flush_nmi_stats.patch
mm-memcontrol-factor-out-memcg-kmem-uncharge-sequence.patch
mm-memcg-v1-make-mem_cgroup_oom_notify_cb-return-void.patch
mm-memcg-stop-reclaim-when-a-limit-update-is-superseded.patch