MGLRU gives high priority to folios mapped in page tables. As a result, folio_set_active() is invoked for all folios read during page faults. In practice, however, readahead can bring in many folios that are never accessed via page tables. A previous attempt by Lei Liu proposed introducing a separate LRU for readahead[1] to make readahead pages easier to reclaim, but that approach is likely over-engineered. Before commit 4d5d14a01e2c ("mm/mglru: rework workingset protection"), folios with PG_active were always placed in the youngest generation, leading to over-protection and increased refaults. After that commit, PG_active folios are placed in the second youngest generation, which is still too optimistic given the presence of readahead. In contrast, the classic active/inactive scheme is more conservative. This patch switches to using folio_mark_accessed() and begins prefaulted file folios from the second oldest generation instead of active generations. We should also adjust the following accordingly: - WORKINGSET_ACTIVATE: aligned with setting active for refaulted workingset folios; - lru_gen_folio_seq(): place (pre)faulted file folios into the second oldest generation; - promote second-scanned folios to workingset in folio_check_references(): we now have to depend on folio_lru_refs() > 1, since we previously relied on PG_referenced being set during the first scan, but PG_referenced is now set earlier. On x86, running a kernel build inside a memcg with a 1GB memory limit using 20 threads. w/o patch: real 1m50.764s user 25m32.305s sys 4m0.012s pswpin: 1333245 pswpout: 4366443 pgpgin: 6962592 pgpgout: 17780712 swpout_zero: 1019603 swpin_zero: 14764 refault_file: 287794 refault_anon: 1347963 w/ patch: real 1m48.879s user 25m29.224s sys 3m37.421s pswpin: 568480 pswpout: 2322657 pgpgin: 4073416 pgpgout: 9613408 swpout_zero: 593275 swpin_zero: 9118 refault_file: 262505 refault_anon: 577550 active/inactive LRU: real 1m49.928s user 25m28.196s sys 3m40.740s pswpin: 463452 pswpout: 2309119 pgpgin: 4438856 pgpgout: 9568628 swpout_zero: 743704 swpin_zero: 7244 refault_file: 562555 refault_anon: 470694 Lance and Xueyuan made a huge contribution to this patch through testing. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20250916072226.220426-1-liulei.rjpt@vivo.com/ Signed-off-by: Barry Song (Xiaomi) Tested-by: Lance Yang Tested-by: Xueyuan Chen Cc: Pedro Falcato Cc: Kairui Song Cc: Qi Zheng Cc: Shakeel Butt Cc: wangzicheng Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan Cc: Lei Liu Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) Cc: Axel Rasmussen Cc: Yuanchu Xie Cc: Wei Xu Cc: Will Deacon Cc: Kalesh Singh --- -v3: * Fix 2nd pte-scanned promotion in folio_check_references(), per Kairui; * Restore anon folios behaviour in lru_gen_folio_seq(), per Kairui; -v2: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260525123205.51874-1-baohua@kernel.org/ * Fix WORKINGSET_ACTIVATE - workingset will be set to active during refault; * Avoid unconditional protecting anon folios in lru_gen_folio_seq(); * Also adjusted workingset set accordingly in folio_check_references(). -v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260418120233.7162-1-baohua@kernel.org/ -rfc was: [PATCH RFC] mm/mglru: lazily activate folios while folios are really mapped https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20260225212642.15219-1-21cnbao@gmail.com/ include/linux/mm_inline.h | 2 +- mm/swap.c | 16 +++++++++++++--- mm/vmscan.c | 6 +++++- mm/workingset.c | 10 ++++++---- 4 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/include/linux/mm_inline.h b/include/linux/mm_inline.h index a171070e15f0..a8430a7ae054 100644 --- a/include/linux/mm_inline.h +++ b/include/linux/mm_inline.h @@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ static inline unsigned long lru_gen_folio_seq(const struct lruvec *lruvec, (folio_test_dirty(folio) || folio_test_writeback(folio)))) gen = MIN_NR_GENS; else - gen = MAX_NR_GENS - folio_test_workingset(folio); + gen = MAX_NR_GENS - (folio_test_workingset(folio) || folio_test_referenced(folio)); return max(READ_ONCE(lrugen->max_seq) - gen + 1, READ_ONCE(lrugen->min_seq[type])); } diff --git a/mm/swap.c b/mm/swap.c index 5cc44f0de987..a44829dcde7a 100644 --- a/mm/swap.c +++ b/mm/swap.c @@ -509,10 +509,20 @@ void folio_add_lru(struct folio *folio) folio_test_unevictable(folio), folio); VM_BUG_ON_FOLIO(folio_test_lru(folio), folio); - /* see the comment in lru_gen_folio_seq() */ + /* + * For refaulted workingset folios, set PG_active so they + * can be added to active generations. + * For prefaulted file folios, folio_mark_accessed() sets + * PG_referenced so lru_gen_folio_seq() places them into + * the second oldest generation. + */ if (lru_gen_enabled() && !folio_test_unevictable(folio) && - lru_gen_in_fault() && !(current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC)) - folio_set_active(folio); + lru_gen_in_fault() && !(current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC)) { + if (folio_test_workingset(folio)) + folio_set_active(folio); + else if (!folio_test_referenced(folio)) + folio_mark_accessed(folio); + } folio_batch_add_and_move(folio, lru_add); } diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c index e452cb043d46..745a55a3f7de 100644 --- a/mm/vmscan.c +++ b/mm/vmscan.c @@ -848,7 +848,11 @@ static bool lru_gen_set_refs(struct folio *folio) return false; } - set_mask_bits(&folio->flags.f, LRU_REFS_FLAGS, BIT(PG_workingset)); + /* Promote on second access */ + if (folio_lru_refs(folio) > 1) + set_mask_bits(&folio->flags.f, LRU_REFS_FLAGS, BIT(PG_workingset)); + else + folio_mark_accessed(folio); return true; } #else diff --git a/mm/workingset.c b/mm/workingset.c index 07e6836d0502..f351798e723a 100644 --- a/mm/workingset.c +++ b/mm/workingset.c @@ -319,11 +319,13 @@ static void lru_gen_refault(struct folio *folio, void *shadow) atomic_long_add(delta, &lrugen->refaulted[hist][type][tier]); - /* see folio_add_lru() where folio_set_active() will be called */ - if (lru_gen_in_fault()) - mod_lruvec_state(lruvec, WORKINGSET_ACTIVATE_BASE + type, delta); - if (workingset) { + /* + * see folio_add_lru(), where folio_set_active() is + * called for workingset folios + */ + if (lru_gen_in_fault()) + mod_lruvec_state(lruvec, WORKINGSET_ACTIVATE_BASE + type, delta); folio_set_workingset(folio); mod_lruvec_state(lruvec, WORKINGSET_RESTORE_BASE + type, delta); } else -- 2.34.1