Re: [PATCH v7 2/5] binder: Make shrinker rely solely on per-VMA lock

[Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Mon, Aug 31, 2026 at 01:30:53PM -0700, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
> From: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
> 
> tl;dr: lock_vma_under_rcu() is already a trylock. No need to do both
> it and mmap_read_trylock().
> 
> Long Version:
> 
> == Background ==
> 
> Historically, binder used an mmap_read_trylock() in its shrinker code.
> This ensures that reclaim is not blocked on an mmap_lock. Commit
> 95bc2d4a9020 ("binder: use per-vma lock in page reclaiming") added
> support for the per-VMA lock, but left mmap_read_trylock() as a
> fallback.
> 
> This was presumably because the per-VMA locking can fail for several
> reasons and most (all?) lock_vma_under_rcu() callers have a fallback
> to mmap_read_trylock().
> 
> == Problem ==
> 
> The fallback is not worth the complexity here. lock_vma_under_rcu() is
> essentially already a non-blocking trylock. The main reason it fails
> is also the reason mmap_read_trylock() fails: something is holding
> mmap_write_lock().
> 
> The only remedy for a collision with mmap_write_lock() is to wait,
> which this code can not do. So the "fallback" after
> lock_vma_under_rcu() failure is not really a fallback: it is really
> likely to just be retrying in vain. That retry in an of itself isn't
> horrible. But it adds complexity.
> 
> == Solution ==
> 
> Now that per-VMA locks are universally available, lock_vma_under_rcu()
> will not persistently fail. Rely on it alone and simplify the code.
> The removal of the fallback does not affect NOMMU case because binder
> driver depends on CONFIG_MMU.
> 
> While at it we also make the handling of the cases where the original
> binder VMA is gone consistent. There are two cases to consider when
> Binder VMA is gone:
> 1. there is no VMA at that location anymore.
> 2. there is now another unrelated VMA at that location.
> 
> Before this change we handle case 1 by having the shrinker proceed to
> free the page, and just skip the zap_vma_range() call. And we handle
> case 2 by having the shrinker return LRU_SKIP. While either behavior
> is acceptable, we need to handle them in a consistent way. Handle both
> cases by freeing the page without touching the VMA (skipping the
> zap_vma_range()).
> 
> Full disclosure: I originally tried to do this with
> lock_vma_under_rcu_wait(), but it did not fit well with the mmap_lock
> trylock semantics. Claude caught this in a review and suggested the
> approach in this path. It seemed sane to me. So, Suggesed-by: Claude,
> I guess.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
> Cc: Liam R. Howlett <Liam.Howlett@oracle.com>
> Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
> Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
> Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
> Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
> Cc: Arve Hjønnevåg <arve@android.com>
> Cc: Todd Kjos <tkjos@android.com>
> Cc: Christian Brauner <christian@brauner.io>
> Cc: Carlos Llamas <cmllamas@google.com>
> Cc: Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@google.com>
> Cc: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
> Cc: David Ahern <dsahern@kernel.org>
> Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
> Reviewed-by: Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@google.com>
> Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>
> Acked-by: Carlos Llamas <cmllamas@google.com>
> ---
>  drivers/android/binder_alloc.c | 46 ++++++++++++++++------------------

This file will be going away (along with the other binder .c files) for
7.4-rc1, so I don't object to this getting into other trees now, just
note that it will not be needed if you wait a release cycle :)

thanks,

greg k-h