+ memcg-move-lru-size-accounting-on-reparenting-instead-of-copying-it.patch added to mm-unstable branch

The patch titled
     Subject: memcg: move LRU size accounting on reparenting instead of copying it
has been added to the -mm mm-unstable branch.  Its filename is
     memcg-move-lru-size-accounting-on-reparenting-instead-of-copying-it.patch

This patch will shortly appear at
     https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/memcg-move-lru-size-accounting-on-reparenting-instead-of-copying-it.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: Shakeel Butt <[email protected]>
Subject: memcg: move LRU size accounting on reparenting instead of copying it
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2026 19:47:07 -0700

When a memory cgroup is offlined its LRU folios are reparented to the
parent.  lruvec_reparent_lru() splices the child's lists into the
parent's and credits the parent with the child's per-zone
lru_zone_size[], but never clears the child's copy, so the size is
copied rather than moved.  lru_gen_reparent_memcg() does the same for
MGLRU.

The parent is left correct, credited with exactly the folios it took
over.  The stale value sits on the child and nothing will correct it:
folio->memcg_data now resolves to the parent, so every later
update_lru_size() for those folios goes there.

Dying cgroups are not freed immediately and mem_cgroup_iter() still
walks them, so shrink_lruvec() keeps being called on them.
get_scan_count() reads the phantom counter through lruvec_lru_size() and
the scan loop then grinds through nr[] in SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX steps against
an empty list, for as long as the dead cgroup lives.  Under MGLRU the
MGLRU scanner runs instead, but count_shadow_nodes() sums all of
NR_LRU_LISTS through lruvec_lru_size() and over-budgets the shadow node
limit just the same.

On one 251 GiB host a sweep of every mz->lru_zone_size[] found 380
counters describing folios on no list at all: 124777314 pages, 476 GiB,
1.89x the machine's RAM, across 57 cgroups.  All were on memcgs with
CSS_DYING set and CSS_ONLINE clear, and parent/child pairs reported
byte-identical sizes.

LRU_UNEVICTABLE needs its size moved too.  Its list is deliberately not
spliced because lruvec_init() poisons the head - the unevictable LRU is
imaginary and folios are never threaded on it - but the size is kept by
lruvec_add_folio()/lruvec_del_folio() and those folios account to the
parent from here on.

This depends on commit bf4ade7dbd76 ("memcg: keep folio's objcg same as
its node") and must not be backported ahead of it.  Without that
invariant a folio's objcg can belong to another node, so a folio already
spliced onto the parent's list can still resolve to the child's lruvec
until the objcg's node is reparented in a later iteration of
memcg_reparent_objcgs(); clearing the child's counter early then lets
lruvec_del_folio() underflow it and trip the WARN_ONCE()/VM_BUG_ON() in
mem_cgroup_update_lru_size().

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]
Fixes: 07a6e9a2c199 ("mm: vmscan: prepare for reparenting traditional LRU folios")
Fixes: f304652609ea ("mm: vmscan: prepare for reparenting MGLRU folios")
Signed-off-by: Shakeel Butt <[email protected]>
Acked-by: Michal Hocko <[email protected]>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <[email protected]>
Cc: Roman Gushchin <[email protected]>
Cc: Muchun Song <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]> # After: bf4ade7dbd76: memcg: keep folio's objcg same as its node
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
---

 mm/folio.c  |    9 +++++++++
 mm/vmscan.c |    5 +++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

--- a/mm/folio.c~memcg-move-lru-size-accounting-on-reparenting-instead-of-copying-it
+++ a/mm/folio.c
@@ -1130,7 +1130,16 @@ static void lruvec_reparent_lru(struct l
 	for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, NODE_DATA(nid), zid, MAX_NR_ZONES - 1) {
 		unsigned long size = mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid);
 
+		if (!size)
+			continue;
+
+		/*
+		 * The folios are accounted to the parent from now on, so the
+		 * size has to be moved, not just copied. Leaving it behind
+		 * makes the dying child describe folios it no longer owns.
+		 */
 		mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(parent_lruvec, lru, zid, size);
+		mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid, -(long)size);
 	}
 }
 
--- a/mm/vmscan.c~memcg-move-lru-size-accounting-on-reparenting-instead-of-copying-it
+++ a/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -4635,7 +4635,12 @@ void lru_gen_reparent_memcg(struct mem_c
 		for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, NODE_DATA(nid), zid, MAX_NR_ZONES - 1) {
 			unsigned long size = mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid);
 
+			if (!size)
+				continue;
+
+			/* Move the accounting, do not duplicate it. */
 			mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(parent_lruvec, lru, zid, size);
+			mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid, -(long)size);
 		}
 	}
 }
_

Patches currently in -mm which might be from [email protected] are

memcg-make-the-v1-soft-limit-knob-inert.patch
memcg-bypass-the-reclaim-and-oom-killer-for-dying-tasks-once-oom_reaper-is-done.patch
memcg-move-lru-size-accounting-on-reparenting-instead-of-copying-it.patch