Re: [PATCH 02/12] mm/sparse: refactor sparse_sections_init()

From: David Hildenbrand (Arm)

Date: Thu Sep 10 2026 - 10:39:23 EST


On 9/10/26 15:29, Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 09, 2026 at 03:32:55PM +0200, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
>> memory_present() really identifies+prepares all early sections so the
>> initialization in sparse_init() can properly iterating them to
>> initialize metadata.
>>
>> Let's just inline memory_present() into sparse_sections_init() and
>> cleaning up the code a bit while at it: make it clear that we are operating
>> on pfns.
>>
>> Note that we call set_section_nid() now only if the section
>> was not already created earlier. Now, there is no more inconsistency
>> between what we (temporarily) store in ms->section_mem_map and what
>> we store in our section->nid array.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> In general please keep move/refactor steps separate. It makes it harder to
> review when two things are going on at one time.
>
> But I guess in this case the diff wouldn't be that different.

Yeah, I actually want back and forth here and decided to keep it simple.

>
> Anyway seems reasonable so:
>
> Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks!

>
>> ---
>> mm/sparse.c | 41 +++++++++++++++++------------------------
>> 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/mm/sparse.c b/mm/sparse.c
>> index 6a6d258862904..36e3d854febc5 100644
>> --- a/mm/sparse.c
>> +++ b/mm/sparse.c
>> @@ -179,22 +179,27 @@ static inline unsigned long first_present_section_nr(void)
>> return next_present_section_nr(-1);
>> }
>>
>> -/* Record a memory area against a node. */
>> -static void __init memory_present(int nid, unsigned long start, unsigned long end)
>> +void __init sparse_sections_init(void)
>> {
>> - unsigned long pfn;
>> + unsigned long pfn, start_pfn, end_pfn;
>> + int i, nid;
>> +
>> + sparse_extreme_init();
>>
>> - start &= PAGE_SECTION_MASK;
>> - mminit_validate_memmodel_limits(&start, &end);
>> - for (pfn = start; pfn < end; pfn += PAGES_PER_SECTION) {
>> - unsigned long section_nr = pfn_to_section_nr(pfn);
>> - struct mem_section *ms;
>> + for_each_mem_pfn_range(i, MAX_NUMNODES, &start_pfn, &end_pfn, &nid) {
>> + start_pfn &= PAGE_SECTION_MASK;
>> + mminit_validate_memmodel_limits(&start_pfn, &end_pfn);
>>
>> - sparse_index_init(section_nr, nid);
>> - set_section_nid(section_nr, nid);
>> + for (pfn = start_pfn; pfn < end_pfn; pfn += PAGES_PER_SECTION) {
>> + unsigned long section_nr = pfn_to_section_nr(pfn);
>> + struct mem_section *ms;
>>
>> - ms = __nr_to_section(section_nr);
>> - if (!ms->section_mem_map) {
>> + sparse_index_init(section_nr, nid);
>> + ms = __nr_to_section(section_nr);
>> + if (ms->section_mem_map)
>> + continue;
>> +
>> + set_section_nid(section_nr, nid);
>
> So the main change seems to be calling set_section_nid() only if
> !ms->section_mem_map (and obv. calculating ms earlier), as described in the
> commit msg.

Yes! I also played with having that in a standalone patch but judged that it's
not really worth it. I can move it to a separate patch if you think it would be
better!

--
Cheers,

David