Re: [PATCH v1] mm/page_alloc: clear pages in alloc_contig_pages() with init_on_alloc=1 or __GFP_ZERO

From: David Hildenbrand
Date: Wed Nov 11 2020 - 05:05:33 EST


On 11.11.20 10:58, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
On 11/11/20 10:06 AM, David Hildenbrand wrote:
On 11.11.20 09:47, Michal Hocko wrote:
On Tue 10-11-20 20:32:40, David Hildenbrand wrote:
commit 6471384af2a6 ("mm: security: introduce init_on_alloc=1 and
init_on_free=1 boot options") resulted with init_on_alloc=1 in all pages
leaving the buddy via alloc_pages() and friends to be
initialized/cleared/zeroed on allocation.

However, the same logic is currently not applied to
alloc_contig_pages(): allocated pages leaving the buddy aren't cleared
with init_on_alloc=1 and init_on_free=0. Let's also properly clear
pages on that allocation path and add support for __GFP_ZERO.

AFAIR we do not have any user for __GFP_ZERO right? Not that this is

Sorry, I had extended information under "---" but accidentally
regenerated the patch before sending it out.

__GFP_ZERO is not used yet. It's intended to be used in
https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20201029162718.29910-1-david@xxxxxxxxxx
and I can move that change into a separate patch if desired.

harmful but it is better to call that explicitly because a missing
implementation would be a real problem and as such a bug fix.

I am also not sure handling init_on_free at the higher level is good.
As we have discussed recently the primary point of this feature is to
add clearing at very few well defined entry points rather than spill it over
many places. In this case the entry point for the allocator is
__isolate_free_page which removes pages from the page allocator. I
haven't checked how much this is used elsewhere but I would expect
init_on_alloc to be handled there.

Well, this is the entry point to our range allocator, which lives in
page_alloc.c - used by actual high-level allocators (CMA, gigantic
pages, etc). It's just a matter of taste where we want to have that
handling exactly inside our allocator.

I agree alloc_contig_range() is fine as an entry point.

Thanks, let's see if Michal insists of having this somewhere inside isolate_freepages_range() instead.

--
Thanks,

David / dhildenb