Re: [PATCH v5 34/38] mm: eliminate VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS check in lru_gen_look_around()

From: David Hildenbrand (Arm)

Date: Mon Oct 12 2026 - 15:10:00 EST


On 10/9/26 20:04, Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) wrote:
> A fixed or non-mm-managed mapping is one which sets VMA_PFNMAP_BIT,
> VMA_MIXEDMAP_BIT or VMA_DONTEXPAND_BIT, which is precisely what
> VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS tests for other than VMA_IO_BIT, which is safe to drop as
> mm-managed mappings may not set it.
>
> Using these predicates rather than VMA_SPECIAL_FLAGS makes the check
> self-documenting and helps eliminate the confusion around 'special' flags.
>
> No functional change intended.
>
> Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> mm/vmscan.c | 4 ++--
> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> index 3b318efa2916..7adffe8182b3 100644
> --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> @@ -4418,8 +4418,8 @@ bool lru_gen_look_around(struct page_vma_mapped_walk *pvmw, unsigned int nr)
> if (spin_is_contended(pvmw->ptl))
> return true;
>
> - /* exclude special VMAs containing anon pages from COW */
> - if (vma->vm_flags & VM_SPECIAL)
> + /* exclude fixed and non-mm-managed VMAs containing anon pages from COW */
> + if (!vma_is_mm_managed(vma) || vma_is_fixed_mapping(vma))
> return true;

If you keep the droppable thing out there you can just use

vma_is_mm_backed() here I think.

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand (Arm) <david@xxxxxxxxxx>

--
Cheers,

David