On 14 Sep 2026, at 11:11, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:

> On 9/14/26 16:44, Zi Yan wrote:
>> On 14 Sep 2026, at 9:26, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
>>
>>> On 9/14/26 04:24, Zi Yan wrote:
>>>> After the changes of the prior commits, page/folio->private != NULL is now
>>>> equivalent to checking PG_private.
>>>>
>>>> Stop checking PG_private on pages and folios and use page/folio->private
>>>> instead, except swapcache and hugetlb folios, because the former uses a
>>>> field (swp_entry_t swap) overlapping with ->private and the latter sets its
>>>> flags in ->private. Exclude swapcache and hugetlb when the code is meant to
>>>> check PG_private only. PG_swapcache and folio->swap.val cannot be set/clear
>>>> as a whole, so excluding swapcache with folio_test_swapcache() is not
>>>> reliable. Instead, use folio_test_swapbacked(), since PG_swapbacked is
>>>> stable when a folio is added to/removed from swapcache. Add a helper,
>>>> folio_has_attached_private(), for this check.
>>>>
>>>> folio_expected_ref_count() can be called without folio lock, so annotate
>>>> folio_test_private() with data_race() to avoid triggering race condition
>>>> checks. While at it, annotate folio->mapping too. Add data_race()
>>>> annotation for other lockless callers too.
>>>
>>> Shouldn't we just move the data_race() into folio_has_attached_private() and
>>> document there, that it can be called without the folio lock as well? 
>>> Having the
>>> data_race in multiple callers looks odd.
>>
>> Not all callers call it without holding a lock. Before the patch series,
>> it is fine for lockless reads because PagePrivate() is an atomic operation.
>> But after the patch series, lockless reads can cause data tearing of
>> folio->private. I think I need to add this to avoid the confusion.
> Okay, but we should just keep that complexity internally.
>
> E.g., just teach folio_test_private/PagePrivate about the data_race, because
> that's exactly what worked before even with data races.

Makes sense. Will update folio_test_private() and PagePrivate() and get rid
of callers’ data_race().

Best Regards,
Yan, Zi

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