Callers of find_get_pages(), or its wrapper pagevec_lookup() - notably truncate_inode_pages_range() - stop looking further when it returns 0. But if an interrupt comes just after its radix_tree_gang_lookup_slot(), especially if we have preemptible RCU enabled, isn't it conceivable that all 14 pages returned could be removed from the page cache by shrink_page_list(), before find_get_pages() gets to process them? So causing it to return 0 although there may be plenty more pages beyond. Make find_get_pages() and find_get_pages_tag() check for this unlikely case, and restart should it occur; but callers of find_get_pages_contig() have no such expectation, it's okay for that to return 0 early. I have not seen this in practice, just worried by the possibility. Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx> --- mm/filemap.c | 14 ++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+) --- 2.6.38-rc6/mm/filemap.c 2011-01-18 22:04:56.000000000 -0800 +++ linux/mm/filemap.c 2011-02-23 16:06:19.000000000 -0800 @@ -800,6 +800,13 @@ repeat: pages[ret] = page; ret++; } + + /* + * If all entries were removed before we could secure them, + * try again, because callers stop trying once 0 is returned. + */ + if (unlikely(!ret && nr_found)) + goto restart; rcu_read_unlock(); return ret; } @@ -909,6 +916,13 @@ repeat: pages[ret] = page; ret++; } + + /* + * If all entries were removed before we could secure them, + * try again, because callers stop trying once 0 is returned. + */ + if (unlikely(!ret && nr_found)) + goto restart; rcu_read_unlock(); if (ret) -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxx For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Fight unfair telecom internet charges in Canada: sign http://stopthemeter.ca/ Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx";> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>