[PATCH v2 0/6] chmem/lsmem: dynamic (de)configuration of memory

Sumanth Korikkar <[email protected]> Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:38:00 +0200
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.util-linux
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi all,

Patchset extends chmem and lsmem with support for dynamically configuring and
deconfiguring hotpluggable memory blocks on s390, including per-block
memmap-on-memory handling.

On s390, the memmap-on-memory feature was
introduced to ensure that the struct page array (metadata) for hotpluggable
standby memory can be allocated from the memory block itself. This allowed
hot-add operations even under memory pressure, especially in systems with an
imbalance between boot-time online memory and standby memory.

The original implementation had few limitations:
* All hotpluggable standby memory was added at boot, making blocks
  visible for online/offline operations earlier.
* The use of memmap-on-memory was global and static, decided at boot
  time. Either all standby blocks used it, or none of them did.
* memmap-on-memory choice could not be changed at runtime, limiting
  flexibility.

The s390 kernel (linux-next) ff18dcb19aab ("s390/sclp: Add support for
dynamic (de)configuration of memory") no longer pre-adds all standby
memory at boot. Instead, users must explicitly configure a block before
it can be used for online/offline actions.  At configuration time, users
can dynamically decide whether to use optional memmap-on-memory for each
memory block, where value of 1 allocates metadata (such as struct pages
array) from the hotplug memory itself, enabling hot-add operations even
under memory pressure. A value of 0 stores metadata in regular system
memory and enables continuous physical memory across memory blocks.

Kernel changes for dynamic (de)configuration of memory (available on
linux-next):
https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/log/drivers/s390/char/sclp_mem.c

The kernel sysfs interface provides configuration and memmap-on-memory toggling:
echo 1 > /sys/firmware/memory/memoryX/config – configure block
echo 0 > /sys/firmware/memory/memoryX/config – deconfigure block
echo 1 > /sys/firmware/memory/memoryX/memmap_on_memory – enable memmap-on-memory
echo 0 > /sys/firmware/memory/memoryX/memmap_on_memory – disable memmap-on-memory

Patchset teaches chmem and lsmem to make use of these interfaces, mirroring
existing online/offline semantics:

chmem -c 128M -m 1 : configure memory with memmap-on-memory
chmem -g 128M : deconfigure memory
chmem -e 128M : configure (if supported by architecture) and online memory
chmem -d 128M : offline and deconfigure memory (if supported by
architecture)
lsmem -o RANGE,SIZE,STATE,BLOCK,CONFIGURED,MEMMAP-ON-MEMORY

memmap-on-memory can only be toggled when a block is in a deconfigured state,
and is supported via the --configure option.

v2 (Thanks Karel):
* lsmem:
  * Use _PATH_SYS_MEMMAP_PARM instead of const char *path.
  * Use N_()/_() in get_memmap_mode()/printf().
  * Improve skip_memconfig_column().
  * Check /sys/firmware/memory/memory0 existance before read_basic_info(). 
    The latter can run after column setup. Doing so reduces
    ul_path_access(lsmem->sysmemconfig, F_OK, 'memory0') calls to just one.
* chmem:
  * Rename chmem_memmap_on_memory_option_enabled() to chmem_memmap_enabled().
  * Improve configure check in warn().
  * Optimization in chmem_set_memmap_on_memory().
  * Remove "\n" in warn().
  * Add _() when printing info.

Sumanth Korikkar (6):
  lsmem: display global memmap on memory parameter
  lsmem: add support to display dynamic (de)configuration of memory
  chmem: add support for dynamic (de)configuration of hotplug memory
  chmem: add chmem documentation for dynamic (de)configuration of memory
  lsmem: add doc for dynamic (de)configuration and memmap-on-memory
    support
  lsmem,chmem: add configure/deconfigure bash completion options

 bash-completion/chmem  |   3 +
 bash-completion/lsmem  |   2 +-
 sys-utils/chmem.8.adoc |  47 +++++-
 sys-utils/chmem.c      | 371 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 sys-utils/lsmem.1.adoc |  46 ++++-
 sys-utils/lsmem.c      | 136 +++++++++++++--
 6 files changed, 555 insertions(+), 50 deletions(-)

-- 
2.41.0