Motivation. We had some discussions about having possibility to kvfree() an object that does not contain any rcu_head inside its allocated memory. Basically to have a simple interface like: <snip> void *ptr = kvmalloc(some_bytes, GFP_KERNEL); if (ptr) kvfree_rcu(ptr); <snip> For example, please have a look at recent ext4 topic https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/2/19/1372 due to lack of the interface that is in question, the ext4 specific workaround has been introduced to kvfree() after a grace period: <snip> void ext4_kvfree_array_rcu(void *to_free) { struct ext4_rcu_ptr *ptr = kzalloc(sizeof(*ptr), GFP_KERNEL); if (ptr) { ptr->ptr = to_free; call_rcu(&ptr->rcu, ext4_rcu_ptr_callback); return; } synchronize_rcu(); kvfree(ptr); } <snip> Also, as Joel Fernandes mentioned and proposed we also can have kfree_rcu() headless variant. Actually with this series it is capable of doing that, but there is missing one thing. The kfree_rcu() macro is eligible to be called with two arguments only. So it should be updated similar way as it has been done for kvfree_rcu(). In that case we can update many places in the kernel where people do not embed the rcu_head into their stuctures for some reason and do like: <snip> synchronize_rcu(); kfree(p); <snip> <snip> urezki@pc636:~/data/ssd/coding/linux-rcu$ find ./ -name "*.c" | xargs grep -C 1 -rn "synchronize_rcu" | grep kfree ./arch/x86/mm/mmio-mod.c-314- kfree(found_trace); ./kernel/module.c-3910- kfree(mod->args); ./kernel/trace/ftrace.c-5078- kfree(direct); ./kernel/trace/ftrace.c-5155- kfree(direct); ./kernel/trace/trace_probe.c-1087- kfree(link); ./fs/nfs/sysfs.c-113- kfree(old); ./fs/ext4/super.c-1701- kfree(old_qname); ./net/ipv4/gre.mod.c-36- { 0xfc3fcca2, "kfree_skb" }, ./net/core/sysctl_net_core.c-143- kfree(cur); ./drivers/crypto/nx/nx-842-pseries.c-1010- kfree(old_devdata); ./drivers/misc/vmw_vmci/vmci_context.c-692- kfree(notifier); ./drivers/misc/vmw_vmci/vmci_event.c-213- kfree(s); ./drivers/infiniband/core/device.c:2162: * synchronize_rcu before the netdev is kfreed, so we ./drivers/infiniband/hw/hfi1/sdma.c-1337- kfree(dd->per_sdma); ./drivers/net/ethernet/myricom/myri10ge/myri10ge.c-3582- kfree(mgp->ss); ./drivers/net/ethernet/myricom/myri10ge/myri10ge.mod.c-156- { 0x37a0cba, "kfree" }, ./drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/fpga/tls.c:286: synchronize_rcu(); /* before kfree(flow) */ ./drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlxsw/core.c-1504- kfree(rxl_item); ./drivers/net/ethernet/chelsio/cxgb4/cxgb4_main.c-6648- kfree(adapter->mbox_log); ./drivers/net/ethernet/chelsio/cxgb4/cxgb4_main.c-6650- kfree(adapter); ./drivers/block/drbd/drbd_receiver.c-3804- kfree(old_net_conf); ./drivers/block/drbd/drbd_receiver.c-4176- kfree(old_disk_conf); ./drivers/block/drbd/drbd_state.c-2074- kfree(old_conf); ./drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c-1689- kfree(old_disk_conf); ./drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c-2522- kfree(old_net_conf); ./drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c-2935- kfree(old_disk_conf); ./drivers/mfd/dln2.c-178- kfree(i); ./drivers/staging/fwserial/fwserial.c-2122- kfree(peer); <snip> Uladzislau Rezki (Sony) (7): rcu/tree: simplify KFREE_BULK_MAX_ENTR macro rcu/tree: maintain separate array for vmalloc ptrs rcu/tree: introduce expedited_drain flag rcu/tree: support reclaim for head-less object rcu/tiny: move kvfree_call_rcu() out of header rcu/tiny: support reclaim for head-less object rcu: support headless variant in the kvfree_rcu() include/linux/rcupdate.h | 38 ++++- include/linux/rcutiny.h | 6 +- kernel/rcu/tiny.c | 161 +++++++++++++++++++++ kernel/rcu/tree.c | 294 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------- 4 files changed, 407 insertions(+), 92 deletions(-) -- 2.20.1