if (file){ ... } else if (vm_flags & VM_SHARED) { //ANON SHARED error = shmem_zero_setup(vma); if (error) goto free_vma; } else { //ANON PRIVATE vma_set_anonymous(vma); //set vma->vm_ops= NULL } To me this means that the VMA is PRIVATE ANON memory. The vma_is_anonymous function returns true when vm_ops == NULL. So my intentions were to more accurately describe what we are checking for. I could be wrong though thats why I started with an RFC :) There could be some aspect of COW that I dont fully understand. It is not something I've looked into much. Cheers, -- Nico