Re: [PATCH v2] x86: mm: Do not use set_{pud,pmd}_safe when splitting the large page

[Dave Hansen]

On 4/15/19 7:55 AM, Singh, Brijesh wrote:
>  static unsigned long __meminit
>  phys_pte_init(pte_t *pte_page, unsigned long paddr, unsigned long paddr_end,
> -	      pgprot_t prot)
> +	      pgprot_t prot, bool safe)
>  {
>  	unsigned long pages = 0, paddr_next;
>  	unsigned long paddr_last = paddr_end;
> @@ -432,7 +463,7 @@ phys_pte_init(pte_t *pte_page, unsigned long paddr, unsigned long paddr_end,
>  					     E820_TYPE_RAM) &&
>  			    !e820__mapped_any(paddr & PAGE_MASK, paddr_next,
>  					     E820_TYPE_RESERVED_KERN))
> -				set_pte_safe(pte, __pte(0));
> +				__set_pte(pte, __pte(0), safe);
>  			continue;
>  		}

The changelog is great, btw.

But, I'm not a big fan of propagating the 'safe' nomenclature.  Could
we, at least, call it 'overwrite_safe' or something if we're going to
have a variable name?  Or even, 'new_entries_only' or something that
actually conveys meaning?

Because, just reading it, I always wonder "why do we have an unsafe
variant, that's stupid" every time. :)

> +#define DEFINE_ENTRY(type1, type2, safe)			\
> +static inline void __set_##type1(type1##_t *arg1,		\
> +			type2##_t arg2, bool safe)		\
> +{								\
> +	if (safe)						\
> +		set_##type1##_safe(arg1, arg2);			\
> +	else							\
> +		set_##type1(arg1, arg2);			\
> +}

While I appreciate the brevity that these macros allow, I detest their
ability to thwart cscope and grep.  I guess it's just one file, but it
does make me grumble a bit.

Also, can we do better than "__"?  Aren't these specific to
initialization, and only for the kernel?  Maybe we should call them
meminit_set_pte() or kern_set_pte() or something so make it totally
clear to the reader that they're new.


> -		kernel_physical_mapping_init(__pa(vaddr & pmask),
> -					     __pa((vaddr_end & pmask) + psize),
> -					     split_page_size_mask);
> +		kernel_physical_mapping_change(__pa(vaddr & pmask),
> +					       __pa((vaddr_end & pmask) + psize),
> +					       split_page_size_mask);

BTW, this hunk is really nice the way that the new naming makes it more
intuitive what's going on.  My only nit w9uld be that we now have two
very similarly-named functions with different TLB-flushing requirements.

Could we please include a comment at this site that reminds us that we
owe a TLB flush after this?