]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/kernel/linux.git/commit
mm/hugetlb: allow overcommitting gigantic hugepages
authorUsama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Thu, 9 Oct 2025 17:24:31 +0000 (18:24 +0100)
committerAndrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Mon, 17 Nov 2025 01:28:00 +0000 (17:28 -0800)
commiteb02f14c4a2bf4c242d91c4a5d7fb57c3c0ad1b1
tree4dd00d224ad226d51477b5eb74cb91cd501b1e8b
parenta743e0af503a633e4ca68a100d9b2a1a071fe8ae
mm/hugetlb: allow overcommitting gigantic hugepages

Currently, gigantic hugepages cannot use the overcommit mechanism
(nr_overcommit_hugepages), forcing users to permanently reserve memory via
nr_hugepages even when pages might not be actively used.

The restriction was added in 2011 [1], which was before there was support
for reserving 1G hugepages at runtime.  Remove this blanket restriction on
gigantic hugepage overcommit.  This will bring the same benefits to
gigantic pages as hugepages:

- Memory is only taken out of regular use when actually needed
- Unused surplus pages can be returned to the system
- Better memory utilization, especially with CMA backing which can
  significantly increase the changes of hugepage allocation

Without this patch:
echo 3 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-1048576kB/nr_overcommit_hugepages
bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument

With this patch:
echo 3 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-1048576kB/nr_overcommit_hugepages
./mmap_hugetlb_test
Successfully allocated huge pages at address: 0x7f9d40000000

cat mmap_hugetlb_test.c
...
    unsigned long ALLOC_SIZE = 3 * (unsigned long) HUGE_PAGE_SIZE;
    addr = mmap(NULL,
                ALLOC_SIZE, // 3GB
                PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
                MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_HUGETLB | MAP_HUGE_1GB,
                -1,
                0);

    if (addr == MAP_FAILED) {
        fprintf(stderr, "mmap failed: %s\n", strerror(errno));
        return 1;
    }
    printf("Successfully allocated huge pages at address: %p\n", addr);
...

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20251009172433.4158118-2-usamaarif642@gmail.com
Link: https://git.zx2c4.com/linux-rng/commit/mm/hugetlb.c?id=adbe8726dc2a3805630d517270db17e3af86e526
Signed-off-by: Usama Arif <usamaarif642@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Reviewed-by: Kefeng Wang <wangkefeng.wang@huawei.com>
Acked-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Cc: Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>
Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>
Cc: SeongJae Park <sj@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
mm/hugetlb.c