Reproducer, assuming 2M of hugetlbfs available: Hugetlbfs mounted, size=2M and option user=testuser # mount | grep ^hugetlbfs hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,pagesize=2M,user=dan) # sysctl vm.nr_hugepages=1 vm.nr_hugepages = 1 # grep Huge /proc/meminfo AnonHugePages: 0 kB ShmemHugePages: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 1 HugePages_Free: 1 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB Hugetlb: 2048 kB Code: #include <sys/mman.h> #include <stddef.h> #define SIZE 2*1024*1024 int main() { void *ptr; ptr = mmap(NULL, SIZE, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_HUGETLB | MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0); madvise(ptr, SIZE, MADV_DONTDUMP); madvise(ptr, SIZE, MADV_DODUMP); } Compile and strace: mmap(NULL, 2097152, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_HUGETLB, -1, 0) = 0x7ff7c9200000 madvise(0x7ff7c9200000, 2097152, MADV_DONTDUMP) = 0 madvise(0x7ff7c9200000, 2097152, MADV_DODUMP) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument) hugetlbfs pages have VM_DONTEXPAND in the VmFlags driver pages based on author testing with analysis from Florian Weimer[1]. The inclusion of VM_DONTEXPAND into the VM_SPECIAL defination was a consequence of the large useage of VM_DONTEXPAND in device drivers. A consequence of [2] is that VM_DONTEXPAND marked pages are unable to be marked DODUMP. A user could quite legitimately madvise(MADV_DONTDUMP) their hugetlbfs memory for a while and later request that madvise(MADV_DODUMP) on the same memory. We correct this omission by allowing madvice(MADV_DODUMP) on hugetlbfs pages. [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52548260/madvisedodump-on-the-same-ptr-size-as-a-successful-madvisedontdump-fails-wit [2] commit 0103bd16fb90 ("mm: prepare VM_DONTDUMP for using in drivers") Fixes: 0103bd16fb90 ("mm: prepare VM_DONTDUMP for using in drivers") Reported-by: Kenneth Penza <kpenza@xxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Daniel Black <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Buglink: https://lists.launchpad.net/maria-discuss/msg05245.html Cc: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx Cc: Mike Kravetz <mike.kravetz@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Konstantin Khlebnikov <khlebnikov@xxxxxxxxxx> --- mm/madvise.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/mm/madvise.c b/mm/madvise.c index 972a9eaa898b..71d21df2a3f3 100644 --- a/mm/madvise.c +++ b/mm/madvise.c @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ static long madvise_behavior(struct vm_area_struct *vma, new_flags |= VM_DONTDUMP; break; case MADV_DODUMP: - if (new_flags & VM_SPECIAL) { + if (!is_vm_hugetlb_page(vma) && new_flags & VM_SPECIAL) { error = -EINVAL; goto out; } -- 2.19.0