[PATCH] fs: hide file and bfile caches behind runtime const machinery

From: Mateusz Guzik

Date: Sat Mar 28 2026 - 13:37:47 EST


s/cachep/cache/ for consistency with namei and dentry caches.

Signed-off-by: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/file.c | 2 +-
fs/file_table.c | 31 +++++++++++++++++++------------
include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 4 +++-
3 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/file.c b/fs/file.c
index 384c83ce768d..2c81c0b162d0 100644
--- a/fs/file.c
+++ b/fs/file.c
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ static struct fdtable *alloc_fdtable(unsigned int slots_wanted)
/*
* Check if the allocation size would exceed INT_MAX. kvmalloc_array()
* and kvmalloc() will warn if the allocation size is greater than
- * INT_MAX, as filp_cachep objects are not __GFP_NOWARN.
+ * INT_MAX, as filp_cache objects are not __GFP_NOWARN.
*
* This can happen when sysctl_nr_open is set to a very high value and
* a process tries to use a file descriptor near that limit. For example,
diff --git a/fs/file_table.c b/fs/file_table.c
index aaa5faaace1e..c40ec1be2899 100644
--- a/fs/file_table.c
+++ b/fs/file_table.c
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@

#include <linux/atomic.h>

+#include <asm/runtime-const.h>
+
#include "internal.h"

/* sysctl tunables... */
@@ -38,8 +40,10 @@ static struct files_stat_struct files_stat = {
};

/* SLAB cache for file structures */
-static struct kmem_cache *filp_cachep __ro_after_init;
-static struct kmem_cache *bfilp_cachep __ro_after_init;
+static struct kmem_cache *__filp_cache __ro_after_init;
+#define filp_cache runtime_const_ptr(__filp_cache)
+static struct kmem_cache *__bfilp_cache __ro_after_init;
+#define bfilp_cache runtime_const_ptr(__bfilp_cache)

static struct percpu_counter nr_files __cacheline_aligned_in_smp;

@@ -74,9 +78,9 @@ static inline void file_free(struct file *f)
put_cred(f->f_cred);
if (unlikely(f->f_mode & FMODE_BACKING)) {
path_put(backing_file_user_path(f));
- kmem_cache_free(bfilp_cachep, backing_file(f));
+ kmem_cache_free(bfilp_cache, backing_file(f));
} else {
- kmem_cache_free(filp_cachep, f);
+ kmem_cache_free(filp_cache, f);
}
}

@@ -234,13 +238,13 @@ struct file *alloc_empty_file(int flags, const struct cred *cred)
goto over;
}

- f = kmem_cache_alloc(filp_cachep, GFP_KERNEL);
+ f = kmem_cache_alloc(filp_cache, GFP_KERNEL);
if (unlikely(!f))
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);

error = init_file(f, flags, cred);
if (unlikely(error)) {
- kmem_cache_free(filp_cachep, f);
+ kmem_cache_free(filp_cache, f);
return ERR_PTR(error);
}

@@ -268,13 +272,13 @@ struct file *alloc_empty_file_noaccount(int flags, const struct cred *cred)
struct file *f;
int error;

- f = kmem_cache_alloc(filp_cachep, GFP_KERNEL);
+ f = kmem_cache_alloc(filp_cache, GFP_KERNEL);
if (unlikely(!f))
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);

error = init_file(f, flags, cred);
if (unlikely(error)) {
- kmem_cache_free(filp_cachep, f);
+ kmem_cache_free(filp_cache, f);
return ERR_PTR(error);
}

@@ -295,13 +299,13 @@ struct file *alloc_empty_backing_file(int flags, const struct cred *cred)
struct backing_file *ff;
int error;

- ff = kmem_cache_alloc(bfilp_cachep, GFP_KERNEL);
+ ff = kmem_cache_alloc(bfilp_cache, GFP_KERNEL);
if (unlikely(!ff))
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);

error = init_file(&ff->file, flags, cred);
if (unlikely(error)) {
- kmem_cache_free(bfilp_cachep, ff);
+ kmem_cache_free(bfilp_cache, ff);
return ERR_PTR(error);
}

@@ -593,14 +597,17 @@ void __init files_init(void)
.freeptr_offset = offsetof(struct file, f_freeptr),
};

- filp_cachep = kmem_cache_create("filp", sizeof(struct file), &args,
+ __filp_cache = kmem_cache_create("filp", sizeof(struct file), &args,
SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC |
SLAB_ACCOUNT | SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU);
+ runtime_const_init(ptr, __filp_cache);

args.freeptr_offset = offsetof(struct backing_file, bf_freeptr);
- bfilp_cachep = kmem_cache_create("bfilp", sizeof(struct backing_file),
+ __bfilp_cache = kmem_cache_create("bfilp", sizeof(struct backing_file),
&args, SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN | SLAB_PANIC |
SLAB_ACCOUNT | SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU);
+ runtime_const_init(ptr, __bfilp_cache);
+
percpu_counter_init(&nr_files, 0, GFP_KERNEL);
}

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index 1e1580febe4b..4f8e734c4336 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -975,7 +975,9 @@
RUNTIME_CONST(shift, d_hash_shift) \
RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, dentry_hashtable) \
RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __dentry_cache) \
- RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __names_cache)
+ RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __names_cache) \
+ RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __filp_cache) \
+ RUNTIME_CONST(ptr, __bfilp_cache)

/* Alignment must be consistent with (kunit_suite *) in include/kunit/test.h */
#define KUNIT_TABLE() \
--
2.48.1