This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled mm, page_alloc: fix potential false positive in __zone_watermark_ok to the 4.9-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: mm-page_alloc-fix-potential-false-positive-in-__zone_watermark_ok.patch and it can be found in the queue-4.9 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From b050e3769c6b4013bb937e879fc43bf1847ee819 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2017 17:38:30 -0800 Subject: mm, page_alloc: fix potential false positive in __zone_watermark_ok From: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx> commit b050e3769c6b4013bb937e879fc43bf1847ee819 upstream. Since commit 97a16fc82a7c ("mm, page_alloc: only enforce watermarks for order-0 allocations"), __zone_watermark_ok() check for high-order allocations will shortcut per-migratetype free list checks for ALLOC_HARDER allocations, and return true as long as there's free page of any migratetype. The intention is that ALLOC_HARDER can allocate from MIGRATE_HIGHATOMIC free lists, while normal allocations can't. However, as a side effect, the watermark check will then also return true when there are pages only on the MIGRATE_ISOLATE list, or (prior to CMA conversion to ZONE_MOVABLE) on the MIGRATE_CMA list. Since the allocation cannot actually obtain isolated pages, and might not be able to obtain CMA pages, this can result in a false positive. The condition should be rare and perhaps the outcome is not a fatal one. Still, it's better if the watermark check is correct. There also shouldn't be a performance tradeoff here. Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20171102125001.23708-1-vbabka@xxxxxxx Fixes: 97a16fc82a7c ("mm, page_alloc: only enforce watermarks for order-0 allocations") Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx> Acked-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@xxxxxxx> Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: David Rientjes <rientjes@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- mm/page_alloc.c | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) --- a/mm/page_alloc.c +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c @@ -2821,9 +2821,6 @@ bool __zone_watermark_ok(struct zone *z, if (!area->nr_free) continue; - if (alloc_harder) - return true; - for (mt = 0; mt < MIGRATE_PCPTYPES; mt++) { if (!list_empty(&area->free_list[mt])) return true; @@ -2835,6 +2832,9 @@ bool __zone_watermark_ok(struct zone *z, return true; } #endif + if (alloc_harder && + !list_empty(&area->free_list[MIGRATE_HIGHATOMIC])) + return true; } return false; } Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from vbabka@xxxxxxx are queue-4.9/mm-mmap.c-do-not-blow-on-prot_none-map_fixed-holes-in-the-stack.patch queue-4.9/cma-fix-calculation-of-aligned-offset.patch queue-4.9/mm-page_alloc-fix-potential-false-positive-in-__zone_watermark_ok.patch