Re: [PATCH] mm/page_alloc: let the highest memory node recover from hopeless state

[Johannes Weiner]

On Mon, Oct 19, 2026 at 02:48:50PM -0400, Gregory Price (Meta) wrote:
> free_frozen_page_commit() clears a hopeless node's kswapd failures once
> its zone recovers above the high watermark, but only if another memory
> node exists for allocations to fall back to.
> 
> The test `next_memory_node(nid) < MAX_NUMNODES` finds only memory nodes
> with a higher id. The highest-numbered memory node therefore never
> recovers on this path, and its kswapd stays disabled until reclaim on
> that node makes progress and balances it, or demotion is re-enabled.

This seems to be the express goal in the commit referenced by
Fixes:. Can you explain why this premise was wrong?

The patch in question also only added another re-wake event. It didn't
remove one. How can it be at fault for kswapd getting stuck?

> In many cases, direct reclaim many never fully run against a lower
> node (CXL/kmem), and that means its kswapd can end up full disabled
> in rare situations.
> 
> To reproduce, fill the highest memory node with bound, non-THP anonymous
> memory and no swap until kswapd gives up, then free it: /proc/zoneinfo
> keeps showing node_unreclaimable 1 for that node. A lower node recovers.

> Count the memory nodes instead. Adding first_memory_node != nid to the
> existing test would also work, but a count says directly what the check
> means: some other memory node exists.

I don't understand what "having more than one node in the system"
means for re-igniting kswapd on this one node.

Generally I don't understand what the heck we're trying to do with all
these patches against the hopeless state code. It shouldn't be that
hard, right?? If kswapd on a node failed for whatever reason, let it
sleep until direct reclaim makes forward progress, or other frees
(unmap, etc.) put the node back above the high watermarks (which means
enough of the unreclaimable pages were freed to justify a new wakeup
in the future to attempt reclaim against new pages).