Re: [PATCH 0/5] mm: Switch gfp_t to unsigned long

From: Brendan Jackman

Date: Thu Mar 19 2026 - 14:41:10 EST


On Thu Mar 19, 2026 at 4:56 PM UTC, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2026 at 04:03:23PM +0000, Brendan Jackman wrote:
>> As pointed out by Vlastimil in [0], my proposal for __GFP_UNMAPPED is
>> probably not needed for 32-bit. This offers a way out of the GFP flag
>> scarcity so in preparation for this, flip gfp_t to be 64-bit on 64-bit
>> machines, while leaving it 32-bit on 32-bit machines.
>
> Ugh. This grows struct xarray:
>
> struct xarray {
> spinlock_t xa_lock;
> /* private: The rest of the data structure is not to be used directly. */
> gfp_t xa_flags;
> void __rcu * xa_head;
> };
>
> which grows a lot of key data structures.
>
> It would probably have been good for you to have run pahole before/after
> this change and diff the results.

I will paste the diff at the bottom. I _think_ all the problematic
expansions are downstream of struct xarray, but it's quite likely my
sense for problematic struct expansions is weak.

> Now, you're probably saying "But this makes no damn sense, why on earth
> is xa_flags of type gfp_t?" And the short answer is "because the radix
> tree has a ridiculous API". But you'll learn all about it with your
> new patch in this series which converts xa_flags from being gfp_t to a
> plain unsigned int ;-)

Hm... so Can We Just™ turn:

#define radix_tree_root xarray

... into ...

struct radix_tree_root {
struct xarray xarray;
gfp_t gfp;
};

...? Or do we actually need to find a way to keep the radix_tree_root
from growing too? If so, given that (IIUC?) the radix-tree API is soft
deprecated, I guess we can be pretty simple-minded about it and just
define a fixed set of the GFP flag values people use for this:

enum radix_tree_gfp {
RADIX_TREE_GFP_KERNEL,
...
RADIX_TREE_GFP_KERNEL_NOWARN,
};

const gfp_t radix_tree_gfps[] = {
[RADIX_TREE_GFP_KERNEL] = GFP_KERNEL,
...
[RADIX_TREE_GFP_KERNEL_NOWARN] = GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOWARN,
};

Would that make sense?

---

struct acpi_device_bus_id | +8
struct address_space | +16
struct amd_iommu_viommu | +16
struct auxiliary_device | +8
struct bdev_inode | +16
struct blkcg | +8
struct cgroup_subsys | +8
struct chain_allocator | +8
struct compact_control | +8
struct debugfs_inode_info | +16
struct dma_device | +8
struct dmar_domain | +8
struct drm_conn_prop_enum_list | +8
struct drm_device | +32
struct drm_file | +16
struct drm_i915_file_private | +24
struct drm_i915_gem_object | +24
struct drm_i915_private | +40
struct drm_master | +24
struct drm_mode_config | +24
struct dw_dma | +8
struct ethtool_netdev_state | +8
struct ext4_inode_info | +16
struct fsnotify_group | +8
struct gendisk | +8
struct hsu_dma | +8
struct hugetlbfs_inode_info | +16
struct i915_gem_context | +8
struct i915_gem_object_page_iter | +8
struct i915_perf | +8
struct ida | +8
struct idr | +8
struct ieee80211_if_nan | +8
struct ieee80211_local | +8
struct inet_connection_sock | +16
struct inet_sock | +16
struct inode | +16
struct inotify_group_private_data | +8
struct __intel_generic_device | +32
struct intel_gt | +24
struct intel_guc | +24
struct intel_iommu | +8
struct intel_uc | +24
struct iommufd_viommu | +8
struct iommu_group | +8
struct ipc_ids | +8
struct irq_domain | +8
struct iso_inode_info | +16
struct kernfs_root | +8
struct kmem_cache | +8
struct kvm | +32
struct kvm_arch | +24
struct kvm_mmu_memory_cache | +8
struct kvm_vcpu | +40
struct kvm_vcpu_arch | +40
struct loop_device | +8
struct mei_aux_device | +8
struct migration_target_control | +8
struct mqueue_inode_info | +16
struct msdos_inode_info | +16
struct msi_dev_domain | +8
struct msi_device_data | +8
struct net_devmem_dmabuf_binding | +8
struct netfs_inode | +16
struct netlink_sock | +16
struct nfs_inode | +16
struct nfs_net | +8
struct objpool_head | +8
struct oom_control | +8
struct p9_client | +16
struct partial_context | +8
struct phy_link_topology | +8
struct proc_inode | +16
struct protection_domain | +8
struct pts_fs_info | +8
struct raw6_sock | +64
struct regmap | +8
struct rethook | +8
struct rpc_inode | +16
struct sctp_sock | +16
struct serial_ctrl_device | +8
struct shmem_inode_info | +16
struct shrink_control | +8
struct snd_card | +16
struct sock | +16
struct swnode | +8
struct tcf_block | +8
struct tcf_idrinfo | +8
struct tcf_net | +8
struct tg3_dev_id | +4
struct thermal_zone_device | +8
struct trace_event_raw_dma_alloc_class | +8
struct trace_event_raw_dma_alloc_sgt | +8
struct tracefs_inode | +16
struct ttm_bo_swapout_walk | +8
struct v9fs_inode | +16
struct virtio_gpu_device | +16
struct virtio_pci_admin_vq | +8
struct virtio_pci_device | +8
struct vmap_block_queue | +8
struct worker_pool | +8
struct xarray | +8
struct xhci_stream_info | +8