Commit bd775c42 authored Mar 31, 2009 by KOSAKI Motohiro Committed by Linus Torvalds Apr 01, 2009

mm: add comment why mark_page_accessed() would be better than pte_mkyoung() in follow_page()



At first look, mark_page_accessed() in follow_page() seems a bit strange.
It seems pte_mkyoung() would be better consistent with other kernel code.

However, it is intentional. The commit log said:

    ------------------------------------------------
    commit 9e45f61d69be9024a2e6bef3831fb04d90fac7a8
    Author: akpm <akpm>
    Date:   Fri Aug 15 07:24:59 2003 +0000

    [PATCH] Use mark_page_accessed() in follow_page()

    Touching a page via follow_page() counts as a reference so we should be
    either setting the referenced bit in the pte or running mark_page_accessed().

    Altering the pte is tricky because we haven't implemented an atomic
    pte_mkyoung().  And mark_page_accessed() is better anyway because it has more
    aging state: it can move the page onto the active list.

    BKrev: 3f3c8acbplT8FbwBVGtth7QmnqWkIw
    ------------------------------------------------

The atomic issue is still true nowadays. adding comment help to understand
code intention and it would be better.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: clarify text]
Signed-off-by: KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hugh@veritas.com>
Cc: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

parent 9786bf84

mm/memory.c

+5 −0

Original line number	Diff line number	Diff line
		@@ -1151,6 +1151,11 @@ struct page follow_page(struct vm_area_struct vma, unsigned long address,
		if ((flags & FOLL_WRITE) &&
		!pte_dirty(pte) && !PageDirty(page))
		set_page_dirty(page);
		/*
		* pte_mkyoung() would be more correct here, but atomic care
		* is needed to avoid losing the dirty bit: it is easier to use
		* mark_page_accessed().
		*/
		mark_page_accessed(page);
		}
		unlock:

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