[PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Suren Baghdasaryan]

In modern systems it's not unusual to have a system component monitoring
memory conditions of the system and tasked with keeping system memory
pressure under control. One way to accomplish that is to kill
non-essential processes to free up memory for more important ones.
Examples of this are Facebook's OOM killer daemon called oomd and
Android's low memory killer daemon called lmkd.
For such system component it's important to be able to free memory
quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately the time process takes to free
up its memory after receiving a SIGKILL might vary based on the state
of the process (uninterruptible sleep), size and OPP level of the core
the process is running. A mechanism to free resources of the target
process in a more predictable way would improve system's ability to
control its memory pressure.
Introduce process_mrelease system call that releases memory of a dying
process from the context of the caller. This way the memory is freed in
a more controllable way with CPU affinity and priority of the caller.
The workload of freeing the memory will also be charged to the caller.
The operation is allowed only on a dying process.

After previous discussions [1, 2, 3] the decision was made [4] to introduce
a dedicated system call to cover this use case.

The API is as follows,

          int process_mrelease(int pidfd, unsigned int flags);

        DESCRIPTION
          The process_mrelease() system call is used to free the memory of
          an exiting process.

          The pidfd selects the process referred to by the PID file
          descriptor.
          (See pidofd_open(2) for further information)

          The flags argument is reserved for future use; currently, this
          argument must be specified as 0.

        RETURN VALUE
          On success, process_mrelease() returns 0. On error, -1 is
          returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

        ERRORS
          EBADF  pidfd is not a valid PID file descriptor.

          EAGAIN Failed to release part of the address space.

          EINTR  The call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).

          EINVAL flags is not 0.

          EINVAL The memory of the task cannot be released because the
                 process is not exiting, the address space is shared
                 with another live process or there is a core dump in
                 progress.

          ENOSYS This system call is not supported, for example, without
                 MMU support built into Linux.

          ESRCH  The target process does not exist (i.e., it has terminated
                 and been waited on).

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20190411014353.113252-3-surenb@google.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201113173448.1863419-1-surenb@google.com/
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201124053943.1684874-3-surenb@google.com/
[4] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201223075712.GA4719@lst.de/

Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
---
changes in v5:
- Changed links, per David Hildenbrand and Michal Hocko
- Condensed the background section in the description, per David Hildenbrand
- Changed flags check, per David Hildenbrand
- Changed description for ENOSYS in the manual pages, per David Hildenbrand
- Changed wording from "SIGKILLed" to "exiting" process in the manual pages
description, per Michal Hocko
- Used find_lock_task_mm() to lock the task_struct, per Michal Hocko
- Added check for MMF_OOM_SKIP, per Michal Hocko

changes in v6:
- Changed MMF_OOM_SKIP handling by returning success, per Michal Hocko

 mm/oom_kill.c | 65 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 65 insertions(+)

diff --git a/mm/oom_kill.c b/mm/oom_kill.c
index c729a4c4a1ac..4f43ee79f663 100644
--- a/mm/oom_kill.c
+++ b/mm/oom_kill.c
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 #include <linux/sched/task.h>
 #include <linux/sched/debug.h>
 #include <linux/swap.h>
+#include <linux/syscalls.h>
 #include <linux/timex.h>
 #include <linux/jiffies.h>
 #include <linux/cpuset.h>
@@ -1141,3 +1142,67 @@ void pagefault_out_of_memory(void)
 	out_of_memory(&oc);
 	mutex_unlock(&oom_lock);
 }
+
+SYSCALL_DEFINE2(process_mrelease, int, pidfd, unsigned int, flags)
+{
+#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
+	struct mm_struct *mm = NULL;
+	struct task_struct *task;
+	unsigned int f_flags;
+	struct pid *pid;
+	long ret = 0;
+
+	if (flags)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
+	pid = pidfd_get_pid(pidfd, &f_flags);
+	if (IS_ERR(pid))
+		return PTR_ERR(pid);
+
+	task = get_pid_task(pid, PIDTYPE_PID);
+	if (!task) {
+		ret = -ESRCH;
+		goto put_pid;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * If the task is dying and in the process of releasing its memory
+	 * then get its mm.
+	 */
+	task = find_lock_task_mm(task);
+	if (!task) {
+		ret = -ESRCH;
+		goto put_pid;
+	}
+	if (task_will_free_mem(task) && (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD) == 0) {
+		mm = task->mm;
+		mmget(mm);
+	}
+	task_unlock(task);
+	if (!mm) {
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+		goto put_task;
+	}
+
+	if (test_bit(MMF_OOM_SKIP, &mm->flags))
+		goto put_mm;
+
+	if (mmap_read_lock_killable(mm)) {
+		ret = -EINTR;
+		goto put_mm;
+	}
+	if (!__oom_reap_task_mm(mm))
+		ret = -EAGAIN;
+	mmap_read_unlock(mm);
+
+put_mm:
+	mmput(mm);
+put_task:
+	put_task_struct(task);
+put_pid:
+	put_pid(pid);
+	return ret;
+#else
+	return -ENOSYS;
+#endif /* CONFIG_MMU */
+}
-- 
2.32.0.554.ge1b32706d8-goog

[PATCH v6 2/2] mm: wire up syscall process_mrelease

[Suren Baghdasaryan]

Split off from prev patch in the series that implements the syscall.

Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
---
 arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl      | 2 ++
 arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl                  | 2 ++
 arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd.h             | 2 +-
 arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h           | 2 ++
 arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl       | 2 ++
 arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl       | 2 ++
 arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 2 ++
 arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n32.tbl   | 2 ++
 arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n64.tbl   | 2 ++
 arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_o32.tbl   | 2 ++
 arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl     | 2 ++
 arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl    | 2 ++
 arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl       | 2 ++
 arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl         | 2 ++
 arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl      | 2 ++
 arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl      | 1 +
 arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl      | 1 +
 arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl     | 2 ++
 include/linux/syscalls.h                    | 1 +
 include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h           | 4 +++-
 kernel/sys_ni.c                             | 1 +
 21 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index a17687ed4b51..605645eae04c 100644
--- a/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -486,3 +486,5 @@
 554	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 555	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 556	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 557 reserved for memfd_secret
+558	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl b/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl
index c5df1179fc5d..2f32eb8beca8 100644
--- a/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl
@@ -460,3 +460,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd.h
index 727bfc3be99b..3cb206aea3db 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd.h
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
 #define __ARM_NR_compat_set_tls		(__ARM_NR_COMPAT_BASE + 5)
 #define __ARM_NR_COMPAT_END		(__ARM_NR_COMPAT_BASE + 0x800)
 
-#define __NR_compat_syscalls		447
+#define __NR_compat_syscalls		449
 #endif
 
 #define __ARCH_WANT_SYS_CLONE
diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h
index 99ffcafc736c..0f49cdb180dd 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h
@@ -901,6 +901,8 @@ __SYSCALL(__NR_landlock_create_ruleset, sys_landlock_create_ruleset)
 __SYSCALL(__NR_landlock_add_rule, sys_landlock_add_rule)
 #define __NR_landlock_restrict_self 446
 __SYSCALL(__NR_landlock_restrict_self, sys_landlock_restrict_self)
+#define __NR_process_mrelease 448
+__SYSCALL(__NR_process_mrelease, sys_process_mrelease)
 
 /*
  * Please add new compat syscalls above this comment and update
diff --git a/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 6d07742c57b8..9bf45f2be966 100644
--- a/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -367,3 +367,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 541bc1b3a8f9..f1f98ee6c82d 100644
--- a/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -446,3 +446,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index a176faca2927..da49ddd4bb54 100644
--- a/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -452,3 +452,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n32.tbl b/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n32.tbl
index c2d2e19abea8..56c8d3cf42ed 100644
--- a/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n32.tbl
+++ b/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n32.tbl
@@ -385,3 +385,5 @@
 444	n32	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	n32	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	n32	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	n32	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n64.tbl b/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n64.tbl
index ac653d08b1ea..1ca7bc337932 100644
--- a/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n64.tbl
+++ b/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_n64.tbl
@@ -361,3 +361,5 @@
 444	n64	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	n64	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	n64	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	n64	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_o32.tbl b/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_o32.tbl
index 253f2cd70b6b..fd3a9df60ec2 100644
--- a/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_o32.tbl
+++ b/arch/mips/kernel/syscalls/syscall_o32.tbl
@@ -434,3 +434,5 @@
 444	o32	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	o32	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	o32	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	o32	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index e26187b9ab87..040df1b7a589 100644
--- a/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -444,3 +444,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index aef2a290e71a..d8ebd7d37c0f 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -526,3 +526,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 64d51ab5a8b4..57233ace30cb 100644
--- a/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -449,3 +449,5 @@
 444  common	landlock_create_ruleset	sys_landlock_create_ruleset	sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445  common	landlock_add_rule	sys_landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446  common	landlock_restrict_self	sys_landlock_restrict_self	sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448  common	process_mrelease	sys_process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index e0a70be77d84..2f6e95eb4690 100644
--- a/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -449,3 +449,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 603f5a821502..42fc2906215d 100644
--- a/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -492,3 +492,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl
index ce763a12311c..661a03bcfbd1 100644
--- a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl
+++ b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl
@@ -452,3 +452,4 @@
 445	i386	landlock_add_rule	sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	i386	landlock_restrict_self	sys_landlock_restrict_self
 447	i386	memfd_secret		sys_memfd_secret
+448	i386	process_mrelease	sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl
index f6b57799c1ea..807b6a1de8e8 100644
--- a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl
+++ b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl
@@ -369,6 +369,7 @@
 445	common	landlock_add_rule	sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self	sys_landlock_restrict_self
 447	common	memfd_secret		sys_memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease	sys_process_mrelease
 
 #
 # Due to a historical design error, certain syscalls are numbered differently
diff --git a/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 235d67d6ceb4..f4384951f393 100644
--- a/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -417,3 +417,5 @@
 444	common	landlock_create_ruleset		sys_landlock_create_ruleset
 445	common	landlock_add_rule		sys_landlock_add_rule
 446	common	landlock_restrict_self		sys_landlock_restrict_self
+# 447 reserved for memfd_secret
+448	common	process_mrelease		sys_process_mrelease
diff --git a/include/linux/syscalls.h b/include/linux/syscalls.h
index 69c9a7010081..00bc170a50f0 100644
--- a/include/linux/syscalls.h
+++ b/include/linux/syscalls.h
@@ -915,6 +915,7 @@ asmlinkage long sys_mincore(unsigned long start, size_t len,
 asmlinkage long sys_madvise(unsigned long start, size_t len, int behavior);
 asmlinkage long sys_process_madvise(int pidfd, const struct iovec __user *vec,
 			size_t vlen, int behavior, unsigned int flags);
+asmlinkage long sys_process_mrelease(int pidfd, unsigned int flags);
 asmlinkage long sys_remap_file_pages(unsigned long start, unsigned long size,
 			unsigned long prot, unsigned long pgoff,
 			unsigned long flags);
diff --git a/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h b/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h
index a9d6fcd95f42..14c8fe863c6d 100644
--- a/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h
+++ b/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h
@@ -877,9 +877,11 @@ __SYSCALL(__NR_landlock_restrict_self, sys_landlock_restrict_self)
 #define __NR_memfd_secret 447
 __SYSCALL(__NR_memfd_secret, sys_memfd_secret)
 #endif
+#define __NR_process_mrelease 448
+__SYSCALL(__NR_process_mrelease, sys_process_mrelease)
 
 #undef __NR_syscalls
-#define __NR_syscalls 448
+#define __NR_syscalls 449
 
 /*
  * 32 bit systems traditionally used different
diff --git a/kernel/sys_ni.c b/kernel/sys_ni.c
index 30971b1dd4a9..18a9c2cde767 100644
--- a/kernel/sys_ni.c
+++ b/kernel/sys_ni.c
@@ -289,6 +289,7 @@ COND_SYSCALL(munlockall);
 COND_SYSCALL(mincore);
 COND_SYSCALL(madvise);
 COND_SYSCALL(process_madvise);
+COND_SYSCALL(process_mrelease);
 COND_SYSCALL(remap_file_pages);
 COND_SYSCALL(mbind);
 COND_SYSCALL_COMPAT(mbind);
-- 
2.32.0.554.ge1b32706d8-goog

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[David Hildenbrand]

On 04.08.21 20:50, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
> In modern systems it's not unusual to have a system component monitoring
> memory conditions of the system and tasked with keeping system memory
> pressure under control. One way to accomplish that is to kill
> non-essential processes to free up memory for more important ones.
> Examples of this are Facebook's OOM killer daemon called oomd and
> Android's low memory killer daemon called lmkd.
> For such system component it's important to be able to free memory
> quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately the time process takes to free
> up its memory after receiving a SIGKILL might vary based on the state
> of the process (uninterruptible sleep), size and OPP level of the core
> the process is running. A mechanism to free resources of the target
> process in a more predictable way would improve system's ability to
> control its memory pressure.
> Introduce process_mrelease system call that releases memory of a dying
> process from the context of the caller. This way the memory is freed in
> a more controllable way with CPU affinity and priority of the caller.
> The workload of freeing the memory will also be charged to the caller.
> The operation is allowed only on a dying process.
> 
> After previous discussions [1, 2, 3] the decision was made [4] to introduce
> a dedicated system call to cover this use case.
> 
> The API is as follows,
> 
>            int process_mrelease(int pidfd, unsigned int flags);
> 
>          DESCRIPTION
>            The process_mrelease() system call is used to free the memory of
>            an exiting process.
> 
>            The pidfd selects the process referred to by the PID file
>            descriptor.
>            (See pidofd_open(2) for further information)
> 
>            The flags argument is reserved for future use; currently, this
>            argument must be specified as 0.
> 
>          RETURN VALUE
>            On success, process_mrelease() returns 0. On error, -1 is
>            returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
> 
>          ERRORS
>            EBADF  pidfd is not a valid PID file descriptor.
> 
>            EAGAIN Failed to release part of the address space.
> 
>            EINTR  The call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).
> 
>            EINVAL flags is not 0.
> 
>            EINVAL The memory of the task cannot be released because the
>                   process is not exiting, the address space is shared
>                   with another live process or there is a core dump in
>                   progress.
> 
>            ENOSYS This system call is not supported, for example, without
>                   MMU support built into Linux.
> 
>            ESRCH  The target process does not exist (i.e., it has terminated
>                   and been waited on).
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20190411014353.113252-3-surenb@google.com/
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201113173448.1863419-1-surenb@google.com/
> [3] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201124053943.1684874-3-surenb@google.com/
> [4] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201223075712.GA4719@lst.de/
> 

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>


-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Andrew Morton]

On Wed,  4 Aug 2021 11:50:03 -0700 Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com> wrote:

> In modern systems it's not unusual to have a system component monitoring
> memory conditions of the system and tasked with keeping system memory
> pressure under control. One way to accomplish that is to kill
> non-essential processes to free up memory for more important ones.
> Examples of this are Facebook's OOM killer daemon called oomd and
> Android's low memory killer daemon called lmkd.
> For such system component it's important to be able to free memory
> quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately the time process takes to free
> up its memory after receiving a SIGKILL might vary based on the state
> of the process (uninterruptible sleep), size and OPP level of the core
> the process is running. A mechanism to free resources of the target
> process in a more predictable way would improve system's ability to
> control its memory pressure.
> Introduce process_mrelease system call that releases memory of a dying
> process from the context of the caller. This way the memory is freed in
> a more controllable way with CPU affinity and priority of the caller.
> The workload of freeing the memory will also be charged to the caller.
> The operation is allowed only on a dying process.
> 
> After previous discussions [1, 2, 3] the decision was made [4] to introduce
> a dedicated system call to cover this use case.
> 
> The API is as follows,
> 
>           int process_mrelease(int pidfd, unsigned int flags);
> 
>         DESCRIPTION
>           The process_mrelease() system call is used to free the memory of
>           an exiting process.
> 
>           The pidfd selects the process referred to by the PID file
>           descriptor.
>           (See pidofd_open(2) for further information)

I did s/pidofd_open/pidfd_open/

> 
>           The flags argument is reserved for future use; currently, this
>           argument must be specified as 0.
> 
>         RETURN VALUE
>           On success, process_mrelease() returns 0. On error, -1 is
>           returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
> 
>         ERRORS
>           EBADF  pidfd is not a valid PID file descriptor.
> 
>           EAGAIN Failed to release part of the address space.
> 
>           EINTR  The call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).
> 
>           EINVAL flags is not 0.
> 
>           EINVAL The memory of the task cannot be released because the
>                  process is not exiting, the address space is shared
>                  with another live process or there is a core dump in
>                  progress.
> 
>           ENOSYS This system call is not supported, for example, without
>                  MMU support built into Linux.
> 
>           ESRCH  The target process does not exist (i.e., it has terminated
>                  and been waited on).
> 
> ...
>
>  mm/oom_kill.c | 65 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 65 insertions(+)

The code is nice and simple.

Can we get a test suite into tools/testing/selftests?

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Suren Baghdasaryan]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2021 at 3:50 PM Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed,  4 Aug 2021 11:50:03 -0700 Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com> wrote:
>
> > In modern systems it's not unusual to have a system component monitoring
> > memory conditions of the system and tasked with keeping system memory
> > pressure under control. One way to accomplish that is to kill
> > non-essential processes to free up memory for more important ones.
> > Examples of this are Facebook's OOM killer daemon called oomd and
> > Android's low memory killer daemon called lmkd.
> > For such system component it's important to be able to free memory
> > quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately the time process takes to free
> > up its memory after receiving a SIGKILL might vary based on the state
> > of the process (uninterruptible sleep), size and OPP level of the core
> > the process is running. A mechanism to free resources of the target
> > process in a more predictable way would improve system's ability to
> > control its memory pressure.
> > Introduce process_mrelease system call that releases memory of a dying
> > process from the context of the caller. This way the memory is freed in
> > a more controllable way with CPU affinity and priority of the caller.
> > The workload of freeing the memory will also be charged to the caller.
> > The operation is allowed only on a dying process.
> >
> > After previous discussions [1, 2, 3] the decision was made [4] to introduce
> > a dedicated system call to cover this use case.
> >
> > The API is as follows,
> >
> >           int process_mrelease(int pidfd, unsigned int flags);
> >
> >         DESCRIPTION
> >           The process_mrelease() system call is used to free the memory of
> >           an exiting process.
> >
> >           The pidfd selects the process referred to by the PID file
> >           descriptor.
> >           (See pidofd_open(2) for further information)
>
> I did s/pidofd_open/pidfd_open/

Thanks!

>
> >
> >           The flags argument is reserved for future use; currently, this
> >           argument must be specified as 0.
> >
> >         RETURN VALUE
> >           On success, process_mrelease() returns 0. On error, -1 is
> >           returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
> >
> >         ERRORS
> >           EBADF  pidfd is not a valid PID file descriptor.
> >
> >           EAGAIN Failed to release part of the address space.
> >
> >           EINTR  The call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).
> >
> >           EINVAL flags is not 0.
> >
> >           EINVAL The memory of the task cannot be released because the
> >                  process is not exiting, the address space is shared
> >                  with another live process or there is a core dump in
> >                  progress.
> >
> >           ENOSYS This system call is not supported, for example, without
> >                  MMU support built into Linux.
> >
> >           ESRCH  The target process does not exist (i.e., it has terminated
> >                  and been waited on).
> >
> > ...
> >
> >  mm/oom_kill.c | 65 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  1 file changed, 65 insertions(+)
>
> The code is nice and simple.
>
> Can we get a test suite into tools/testing/selftests?

Let me take a stab at it.
Thanks!

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Shakeel Butt]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2021 at 11:50 AM Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com> wrote:
>
> In modern systems it's not unusual to have a system component monitoring
> memory conditions of the system and tasked with keeping system memory
> pressure under control. One way to accomplish that is to kill
> non-essential processes to free up memory for more important ones.
> Examples of this are Facebook's OOM killer daemon called oomd and
> Android's low memory killer daemon called lmkd.
> For such system component it's important to be able to free memory
> quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately the time process takes to free
> up its memory after receiving a SIGKILL might vary based on the state
> of the process (uninterruptible sleep), size and OPP level of the core
> the process is running. A mechanism to free resources of the target
> process in a more predictable way would improve system's ability to
> control its memory pressure.
> Introduce process_mrelease system call that releases memory of a dying
> process from the context of the caller. This way the memory is freed in
> a more controllable way with CPU affinity and priority of the caller.
> The workload of freeing the memory will also be charged to the caller.
> The operation is allowed only on a dying process.
>
> After previous discussions [1, 2, 3] the decision was made [4] to introduce
> a dedicated system call to cover this use case.
>
> The API is as follows,
>
>           int process_mrelease(int pidfd, unsigned int flags);
>
>         DESCRIPTION
>           The process_mrelease() system call is used to free the memory of
>           an exiting process.
>
>           The pidfd selects the process referred to by the PID file
>           descriptor.
>           (See pidofd_open(2) for further information)
>
>           The flags argument is reserved for future use; currently, this
>           argument must be specified as 0.
>
>         RETURN VALUE
>           On success, process_mrelease() returns 0. On error, -1 is
>           returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
>
>         ERRORS
>           EBADF  pidfd is not a valid PID file descriptor.
>
>           EAGAIN Failed to release part of the address space.
>
>           EINTR  The call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).
>
>           EINVAL flags is not 0.
>
>           EINVAL The memory of the task cannot be released because the
>                  process is not exiting, the address space is shared
>                  with another live process or there is a core dump in
>                  progress.
>
>           ENOSYS This system call is not supported, for example, without
>                  MMU support built into Linux.
>
>           ESRCH  The target process does not exist (i.e., it has terminated
>                  and been waited on).
>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20190411014353.113252-3-surenb@google.com/
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201113173448.1863419-1-surenb@google.com/
> [3] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201124053943.1684874-3-surenb@google.com/
> [4] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-api/20201223075712.GA4719@lst.de/
>
> Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>

Reviewed-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeelb@google.com>

Next I wanna see cgroup.procs giving me pidfds.

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Michal Hocko]

On Wed 04-08-21 11:50:03, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
[...]
> +SYSCALL_DEFINE2(process_mrelease, int, pidfd, unsigned int, flags)
> +{
> +#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
> +	struct mm_struct *mm = NULL;
> +	struct task_struct *task;
> +	unsigned int f_flags;
> +	struct pid *pid;
> +	long ret = 0;
> +
> +	if (flags)
> +		return -EINVAL;
> +
> +	pid = pidfd_get_pid(pidfd, &f_flags);
> +	if (IS_ERR(pid))
> +		return PTR_ERR(pid);
> +
> +	task = get_pid_task(pid, PIDTYPE_PID);
> +	if (!task) {
> +		ret = -ESRCH;
> +		goto put_pid;
> +	}
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * If the task is dying and in the process of releasing its memory
> +	 * then get its mm.
> +	 */
> +	task = find_lock_task_mm(task);

You want a different task_struct because the returned one might be
different from the given one and you already hold a reference which you
do not want to leak

> +	if (!task) {
> +		ret = -ESRCH;
> +		goto put_pid;
> +	}
> +	if (task_will_free_mem(task) && (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD) == 0) {
> +		mm = task->mm;
> +		mmget(mm);
> +	}
> +	task_unlock(task);
> +	if (!mm) {
> +		ret = -EINVAL;
> +		goto put_task;
> +	}
> +
> +	if (test_bit(MMF_OOM_SKIP, &mm->flags))
> +		goto put_mm;

This is too late to check for MMF_OOM_SKIP. task_will_free_mem will fail
with the flag being set. I believe you want something like the
following:

	p = find_lock_task_mm(task);
	mm = p->mm;

	/* The work has been done already */
	if (test_bit(MMF_OOM_SKIP, &mm->flags)) {
		task_unlock(p);	
		goto put_task;
	}

	i
	if (!task_will_free_mem(p)) {
		task_unlock(p);	
		goto put_task;
	}

	mmget(mm);
	task_unlock(p);


> +
> +	if (mmap_read_lock_killable(mm)) {
> +		ret = -EINTR;
> +		goto put_mm;
> +	}
> +	if (!__oom_reap_task_mm(mm))
> +		ret = -EAGAIN;
> +	mmap_read_unlock(mm);
> +
> +put_mm:
> +	mmput(mm);
> +put_task:
> +	put_task_struct(task);
> +put_pid:
> +	put_pid(pid);
> +	return ret;
> +#else
> +	return -ENOSYS;
> +#endif /* CONFIG_MMU */
> +}
> -- 
> 2.32.0.554.ge1b32706d8-goog

-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Suren Baghdasaryan]

On Thu, Aug 5, 2021 at 12:10 AM Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed 04-08-21 11:50:03, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
> [...]
> > +SYSCALL_DEFINE2(process_mrelease, int, pidfd, unsigned int, flags)
> > +{
> > +#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
> > +     struct mm_struct *mm = NULL;
> > +     struct task_struct *task;
> > +     unsigned int f_flags;
> > +     struct pid *pid;
> > +     long ret = 0;
> > +
> > +     if (flags)
> > +             return -EINVAL;
> > +
> > +     pid = pidfd_get_pid(pidfd, &f_flags);
> > +     if (IS_ERR(pid))
> > +             return PTR_ERR(pid);
> > +
> > +     task = get_pid_task(pid, PIDTYPE_PID);
> > +     if (!task) {
> > +             ret = -ESRCH;
> > +             goto put_pid;
> > +     }
> > +
> > +     /*
> > +      * If the task is dying and in the process of releasing its memory
> > +      * then get its mm.
> > +      */
> > +     task = find_lock_task_mm(task);
>
> You want a different task_struct because the returned one might be
> different from the given one and you already hold a reference which you
> do not want to leak

Ah, right. I was looking at the task locking and find_lock_task_mm()
handles that but I missed the task pinning part. Will fix.

>
> > +     if (!task) {
> > +             ret = -ESRCH;
> > +             goto put_pid;
> > +     }
> > +     if (task_will_free_mem(task) && (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD) == 0) {
> > +             mm = task->mm;
> > +             mmget(mm);
> > +     }
> > +     task_unlock(task);
> > +     if (!mm) {
> > +             ret = -EINVAL;
> > +             goto put_task;
> > +     }
> > +
> > +     if (test_bit(MMF_OOM_SKIP, &mm->flags))
> > +             goto put_mm;
>
> This is too late to check for MMF_OOM_SKIP. task_will_free_mem will fail
> with the flag being set. I believe you want something like the
> following:
>
>         p = find_lock_task_mm(task);
>         mm = p->mm;
>
>         /* The work has been done already */
>         if (test_bit(MMF_OOM_SKIP, &mm->flags)) {
>                 task_unlock(p);
>                 goto put_task;
>         }
>
>         i
>         if (!task_will_free_mem(p)) {
>                 task_unlock(p);
>                 goto put_task;
>         }
>
>         mmget(mm);
>         task_unlock(p);
>

I see. Let me update the patch and will ask Andrew to remove the
previous version from mm tree.
Thanks for reviewing and pointing out the issues!

>
> > +
> > +     if (mmap_read_lock_killable(mm)) {
> > +             ret = -EINTR;
> > +             goto put_mm;
> > +     }
> > +     if (!__oom_reap_task_mm(mm))
> > +             ret = -EAGAIN;
> > +     mmap_read_unlock(mm);
> > +
> > +put_mm:
> > +     mmput(mm);
> > +put_task:
> > +     put_task_struct(task);
> > +put_pid:
> > +     put_pid(pid);
> > +     return ret;
> > +#else
> > +     return -ENOSYS;
> > +#endif /* CONFIG_MMU */
> > +}
> > --
> > 2.32.0.554.ge1b32706d8-goog
>
> --
> Michal Hocko
> SUSE Labs

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[David Hildenbrand]

> 
> I see. Let me update the patch and will ask Andrew to remove the
> previous version from mm tree.

No need to ask. Just resend and Andrew will (usually) replace the old 
version automatically :)


-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb

Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] mm: introduce process_mrelease system call

[Suren Baghdasaryan]

On Thu, Aug 5, 2021 at 8:31 AM David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I see. Let me update the patch and will ask Andrew to remove the
> > previous version from mm tree.
>
> No need to ask. Just resend and Andrew will (usually) replace the old
> version automatically :)

Done: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/20210805170859.2389276-1-surenb@google.com
Thanks!

>
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> David / dhildenb
>