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From: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>, Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>, Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>,
	David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>,
	Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
	Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>, Marco Elver <elver@google.com>,
	GONG Ruiqi <gongruiqi@huaweicloud.com>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	kernel-team@meta.com
Subject: [PATCH v2 5/6] mm/slab: Support disabling KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES at boot
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:09:09 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <617bbfdce4fb2689c2510f0cd7f9adbb3ab8edfa.1793253633.git.chris@chrisdown.name> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <cover.1793253633.git.chris@chrisdown.name>

KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES creates several copies of each normal kmalloc
cache and spreads allocations across them. That costs a fair bit of
memory: Harry measured about 18 MiB more slab memory after boot on a 64
CPU, 64 GiB VM, mostly from under-used slabs [1]. Like SLAB_BUCKETS, it
can only be chosen at build time.

Add a kmalloc_partition= early parameter, enabled by default on kernels
built with CONFIG_KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES=y. When it's off, the copies
alias the normal caches rather than being created.

Let's leave kmalloc_type() unchanged since each index simply resolves to
the same cache when partitioning is off.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/179312451613.474906.1475329637924619088@kernel.org [1]
Signed-off-by: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
---
 .../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt         |  7 +++++++
 mm/Kconfig                                    |  5 +++++
 mm/slab_common.c                              | 19 ++++++++++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index de2fd6963a16..6633a553a79c 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -3054,6 +3054,13 @@ Kernel parameters
 			Configure the RouterBoard 532 series on-chip
 			Ethernet adapter MAC address.
 
+	kmalloc_partition= [MM,EARLY]
+			Format: <bool>
+			Enable or disable kmalloc cache partitioning on
+			kernels built with CONFIG_KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES=y.
+			Ignored without that option.
+			Default: on.
+
 	kmemleak=	[KNL,EARLY] Boot-time kmemleak enable/disable
 			Valid arguments: on, off
 			Default: on
diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index 48078c1fd26f..b90b3915fcd5 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -266,6 +266,11 @@ config KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES
 	  limited degree of memory and CPU overhead that relates to hardware
 	  and system workload.
 
+	  The partitioning can be disabled at boot with the
+	  "kmalloc_partition=0" kernel parameter, in which case the copies
+	  are not created and all normal kmalloc allocations use the
+	  regular kmalloc caches.
+
 choice
 	prompt "Partitioned slab cache mode"
 	depends on KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES
diff --git a/mm/slab_common.c b/mm/slab_common.c
index 9fe48da12010..5391149a2eed 100644
--- a/mm/slab_common.c
+++ b/mm/slab_common.c
@@ -781,6 +781,16 @@ unsigned long random_kmalloc_seed __ro_after_init;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(random_kmalloc_seed);
 #endif
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES
+static bool kmalloc_partition_enabled __ro_after_init = true;
+
+static int __init setup_kmalloc_partition(char *str)
+{
+	return kstrtobool(str, &kmalloc_partition_enabled);
+}
+early_param("kmalloc_partition", setup_kmalloc_partition);
+#endif
+
 /*
  * Conversion table for small slabs sizes / 8 to the index in the
  * kmalloc array. This is necessary for slabs < 192 since we have non power
@@ -1013,8 +1023,15 @@ new_kmalloc_cache(int idx, enum kmalloc_cache_type type)
 	}
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES
-	if (type >= KMALLOC_PARTITION_START && type <= KMALLOC_PARTITION_END)
+	if (!kmalloc_partition_enabled) {
+		/* Use the normal caches, which have already been created. */
+		if (type > KMALLOC_PARTITION_START && type <= KMALLOC_PARTITION_END) {
+			kmalloc_caches[type][idx] = kmalloc_caches[KMALLOC_NORMAL][idx];
+			return;
+		}
+	} else if (type >= KMALLOC_PARTITION_START && type <= KMALLOC_PARTITION_END) {
 		flags |= SLAB_NO_MERGE;
+	}
 #endif
 
 	/*
-- 
2.54.0


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-10-29  6:09 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-10-29  6:07 [PATCH v2 0/6] mm/slab: Support selecting slab hardening features " Chris Down
2026-10-29  6:07 ` [PATCH v2 1/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED by default Chris Down
2026-10-29  6:07 ` [PATCH v2 2/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM " Chris Down
2026-10-29  6:08 ` [PATCH v2 3/6] mm/slab: Support disabling SLAB_BUCKETS at boot Chris Down
2026-10-29  6:08 ` [PATCH v2 4/6] slub_kunit: Add a test for the slab_buckets boot parameter Chris Down
2026-10-29  6:09 ` Chris Down [this message]
2026-10-29  6:09 ` [PATCH v2 6/6] slub_kunit: Add a test for the kmalloc_partition " Chris Down

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