docs: update THP documentation to clarify sysfs "never" setting

Rather confusingly, setting all Transparent Huge Page sysfs settings to
"never" does not in fact result in THP being globally disabled.

Rather, it results in khugepaged being disabled, but one can still obtain
THP pages using madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE).

This is something that has remained poorly documented for some time, and
it is likely the received wisdom of most users of THP that never does, in
fact, mean never.

It is therefore important to highlight, very clearly, that this is not the
case.

[lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com: update transhuge page to mention MADV_COLLAPSE]
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/d54d1dfb-f06d-4979-983b-73998f05867e@lucifer.local
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250721155530.75944-1-lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com
Signed-off-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Acked-by: SeongJae Park <sj@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Reviewed-by: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com>
Reviewed-by: Barry Song <baohua@kernel.org>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com>
Cc: Mariano Pache <npache@redhat.com>
Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst
index dff8d5985f0f2e60f4aa1b7a936396dd6002db77..370fba1134606297466b3f80a1138b79d1b49d43 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ sysfs
 Global THP controls
 -------------------
 
-Transparent Hugepage Support for anonymous memory can be entirely disabled
+Transparent Hugepage Support for anonymous memory can be disabled
 (mostly for debugging purposes) or only enabled inside MADV_HUGEPAGE
 regions (to avoid the risk of consuming more memory resources) or enabled
 system wide. This can be achieved per-supported-THP-size with one of::
@@ -119,6 +119,11 @@ system wide. This can be achieved per-supported-THP-size with one of::
 where <size> is the hugepage size being addressed, the available sizes
 for which vary by system.
 
+.. note:: Setting "never" in all sysfs THP controls does **not** disable
+          Transparent Huge Pages globally. This is because ``madvise(...,
+          MADV_COLLAPSE)`` ignores these settings and collapses ranges to
+          PMD-sized huge pages unconditionally.
+
 For example::
 
        echo always >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/hugepages-2048kB/enabled
@@ -187,7 +192,9 @@ madvise
        behaviour.
 
 never
-       should be self-explanatory.
+       should be self-explanatory. Note that ``madvise(...,
+       MADV_COLLAPSE)`` can still cause transparent huge pages to be
+       obtained even if this mode is specified everywhere.
 
 By default kernel tries to use huge, PMD-mappable zero page on read
 page fault to anonymous mapping. It's possible to disable huge zero
@@ -378,7 +385,9 @@ always
     Attempt to allocate huge pages every time we need a new page;
 
 never
-    Do not allocate huge pages;
+    Do not allocate huge pages. Note that ``madvise(..., MADV_COLLAPSE)``
+    can still cause transparent huge pages to be obtained even if this mode
+    is specified everywhere;
 
 within_size
     Only allocate huge page if it will be fully within i_size.
@@ -434,7 +443,9 @@ inherit
     have enabled="inherit" and all other hugepage sizes have enabled="never";
 
 never
-    Do not allocate <size> huge pages;
+    Do not allocate <size> huge pages. Note that ``madvise(...,
+    MADV_COLLAPSE)`` can still cause transparent huge pages to be obtained
+    even if this mode is specified everywhere;
 
 within_size
     Only allocate <size> huge page if it will be fully within i_size.