mm/damon/modules: detect and use fresh status

DAMON modules including DAMON_RECLAIM, DAMON_LRU_SORT and DAMON_STAT commonly expose the kdamond running status via their parameters. Under certain scenarios including wrong user inputs and memory allocation failures, those parameter values can be stale. It can confuse users. For DAMON_RECLAIM and DAMON_LRU_SORT, it even makes the kdamond unable to be restarted before the system reboot.

The problem comes from the fact that there are multiple events for the status changes and it is difficult to follow up all the scenarios. Fix the issue by detecting and using the status on demand, instead of using a cached status that is difficult to be updated.

Patches 1-3 fix the bugs in DAMON_RECLAIM, DAMON_LRU_SORT and DAMON_STAT in the order.

Changes from RFC v2
- rfc v2: https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]
- Set kdamond_pid set callbacks.
- Support multiple enabled parameters setup on boot commandline.
- Acknowledge the third patch was discovered by Sashiko.
Changes from v2
- v2: https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]
- Add RFC tag back, for sashiko review.
- Detect and use fresh status instead of trying to catch up all scenarios.
- Change Liew from the responsible author to a credit-deserved co-developer.
- Move authorship responsibility to SJ.
- Add DAMON_STAT fix.
- RFC of the fix was posted separately
(https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]), and only commit message wordsmithing is added in this version.
Changes from RFC
- rfc: https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]
- Remove RFC tag.
- Remove 'damon_thread_status' structure and damon_update_thread_status() (SJ pointed out this was too much extension of core API for a problem that can be fixed more simply).
- Add a fallback in damon_{lru_sort, reclaim}_turn() 'N' path. If damon_stop() fails but kdamond is not running, forcefully reset the parameters.
- Reset 'enabled' and 'kdamond_pid' when damon_commit_ctx() fails in damon_{lru_sort, reclaim}_apply_parameters() (kdamond will terminate eventually in this case).

SeongJae Park (3):
mm/damon/reclaim: detect and use fresh enabled and kdamond_pid values mm/damon/lru_sort: detect and use fresh enabled and kdamond_pid values mm/damon/stat: detect and use fresh enabled value

 mm/damon/lru_sort.c | 85 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 mm/damon/reclaim.c  | 85 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 mm/damon/stat.c     | 30 ++++++++++------
 3 files changed, 130 insertions(+), 70 deletions(-)

base-commit: 710b7b26c423290803f447f5ed2fb264e91cda56

2.47.3

DAMON_RECLAIM updates 'enabled' and 'kdamond_pid' parameter values, which represents the running status of its kdamond, when the user explicitly requests start/stop of the kdamond. The kdamond can, however, be stopped in events other than the explicit user request in the following three events.

1. ctx->regions_score_histogram allocation failure at beginning of the execution,
2. damon_commit_ctx() failure due to invalid user input, and
3. damon_commit_ctx() failure due to its internal allocation failures.

Hence, if the kdamond is stopped by the above three events, the values of the status parameters can be stale. Users could show the stale values and be confused. This is already bad, but the real consequence is worse. DAMON_RECLAIM avoids unnecessary damon_start() and damon_stop() calls based on the 'enabled' parameter value. And the update of 'enabled' parameter value depends on the damon_start() and damon_stop() call results. Hence, once the kdamond has stopped by the unintentional events, the user cannot restart the kdamond before the system reboot. For example, the issue can be reproduced via below steps.

    # cd /sys/module/damon_reclaim/parameters
    #
    # # start DAMON_RECLAIM
    # echo Y > enabled
    # ps -ef | grep kdamond
    root         806       2  0 17:53 ?        00:00:00 [kdamond.0]
    root         808     803  0 17:53 pts/4    00:00:00 grep kdamond
    #
    # # commit wrong input to stop kdamond withou explicit stop request
    # echo 3 > addr_unit
    # echo Y > commit_inputs
    bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument
    #
    # # confirm kdamond is stopped
    # ps -ef | grep kdamond
    root         811     803  0 17:53 pts/4    00:00:00 grep kdamond
    #
    # # users casn now show stable status
    # cat enabled
    Y
    # cat kdamond_pid
    806
    #
    # # even after fixing the wrong parameter,
    # # kdamond cannot be restarted.
    # echo 1 > addr_unit
    # echo Y > enabled
    # ps -ef | grep kdamond
    root         815     803  0 17:54 pts/4    00:00:00 grep kdamond

The problem will only rarely happen in real and common setups for the following reasons. The allocation failures are unlikely in such setups since those allocations are arguably too small to fail. Also sane users on real production environments may not commit wrong input parameters. But once it happens, the consequence is quite bad. And the bug is a bug.

The issue stems from the fact that there are multiple events that can change the status, and following all the events is challenging. Dynamically detect and use the fresh status for the parameters when those are requested.

---
 mm/damon/reclaim.c | 85 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)

index 86da147786583..fe7fce26cf6ce 100644
@@ -144,15 +144,6 @@ static unsigned long addr_unit __read_mostly = 1;
 static bool skip_anon __read_mostly;
 module_param(skip_anon, bool, 0600);
 
-/*
- * PID of the DAMON thread
- *
- * If DAMON_RECLAIM is enabled, this becomes the PID of the worker thread.
- * Else, -1.
- */
-static int kdamond_pid __read_mostly = -1;
-module_param(kdamond_pid, int, 0400);
-
 static struct damos_stat damon_reclaim_stat;
 DEFINE_DAMON_MODULES_DAMOS_STATS_PARAMS(damon_reclaim_stat,
 		reclaim_tried_regions, reclaimed_regions, quota_exceeds);

@@ -288,12 +279,8 @@ static int damon_reclaim_turn(bool on)
 {
 	int err;
 
-	if (!on) {
-		err = damon_stop(&ctx, 1);
-		if (!err)
-			kdamond_pid = -1;
-		return err;
-	}
+	if (!on)
+		return damon_stop(&ctx, 1);
 
 	err = damon_reclaim_apply_parameters();
 	if (err)

@@ -302,9 +289,6 @@ static int damon_reclaim_turn(bool on)
 	err = damon_start(&ctx, 1, true);
 	if (err)
 		return err;
-	kdamond_pid = damon_kdamond_pid(ctx);
-	if (kdamond_pid < 0)
-		return kdamond_pid;
 	return damon_call(ctx, &call_control);
 }
 

@@ -332,42 +316,83 @@ module_param_cb(addr_unit, &addr_unit_param_ops, &addr_unit, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(addr_unit,
 	"Scale factor for DAMON_RECLAIM to ops address conversion (default: 1)");
 
+static bool damon_reclaim_enabled(void)
+{
+	if (!ctx)
+		return false;
+	return damon_is_running(ctx);
+}
+
 static int damon_reclaim_enabled_store(const char *val,
 		const struct kernel_param *kp)
 {
-	bool is_enabled = enabled;
-	bool enable;
 	int err;
 
-	err = kstrtobool(val, &enable);
+	err = kstrtobool(val, &enabled);
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
-	if (is_enabled == enable)
+	if (damon_reclaim_enabled() == enabled)
 		return 0;
 
 	/* Called before init function.  The function will handle this. */
 	if (!damon_initialized())
-		goto set_param_out;
+		return 0;
 
-	err = damon_reclaim_turn(enable);
-	if (err)
-		return err;
+	return damon_reclaim_turn(enabled);
+}
 
-set_param_out:
-	enabled = enable;
-	return err;
+static int damon_reclaim_enabled_load(char *buffer,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	return sprintf(buffer, "%c\n", damon_reclaim_enabled() ? 'Y' : 'N');
 }
 
 static const struct kernel_param_ops enabled_param_ops = {
 	.set = damon_reclaim_enabled_store,
-	.get = param_get_bool,
+	.get = damon_reclaim_enabled_load,
 };
 
 module_param_cb(enabled, &enabled_param_ops, &enabled, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(enabled,
 	"Enable or disable DAMON_RECLAIM (default: disabled)");
 
+static int damon_reclaim_kdamond_pid_store(const char *val,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	/*
+	 * kdamond_pid is read-only, but kernel command line could write it.
+	 * Do nothing here.
+	 */
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int damon_reclaim_kdamond_pid_load(char *buffer,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	int kdamond_pid = -1;
+
+	if (ctx) {
+		kdamond_pid = damon_kdamond_pid(ctx);
+		if (kdamond_pid < 0)
+			kdamond_pid = -1;
+	}
+	return sprintf(buffer, "%d\n", kdamond_pid);
+}
+
+static const struct kernel_param_ops kdamond_pid_param_ops = {
+	.set = damon_reclaim_kdamond_pid_store,
+	.get = damon_reclaim_kdamond_pid_load,
+};
+
+/*
+ * PID of the DAMON thread
+ *
+ * If DAMON_RECLAIM is enabled, this becomes the PID of the worker thread.
+ * Else, -1.
+ */
+module_param_cb(kdamond_pid, &kdamond_pid_param_ops, NULL, 0400);
+
 static int __init damon_reclaim_init(void)
 {
 	int err;

2.47.3

On Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:57:57 +0000 [email protected] wrote:

TL; DR: no blocker for this patch.

Good catch, but not the fault of this patch. I will separately work on it.

Sashiko-claiming issue cannot happen. Read below for more details.

Sysfs writes are protected by kernel_param_lock, so such concurrent user inputs cannot happen.

Good finding, but the bug was there even before this patch, so no blocker of this patch. I will separately work on the bug.

Thanks,
SJ

[...]

DAMON_LRU_SORT updates 'enabled' and 'kdamond_pid' parameter values, which represents the running status of its kdamond, when the user explicitly requests start/stop of the kdamond. The kdamond can, however, be stopped in events other than the explicit user request in the following three events.

1. ctx->regions_score_histogram allocation failure at beginning of the execution,
2. damon_commit_ctx() failure due to invalid user input, and
3. damon_commit_ctx() failure due to its internal allocation failures.

Hence, if the kdamond is stopped by the above three events, the values of the status parameters can be stale. Users could show the stale values and be confused. This is already bad, but the real consequence is worse. DAMON_LRU_SORT avoids unnecessary damon_start() and damon_stop() calls based on the 'enabled' parameter value. And the update of 'enabled' parameter value depends on the damon_start() and damon_stop() call results. Hence, once the kdamond has stopped by the unintentional events, the user cannot restart the kdamond before the system reboot. For example, the issue can be reproduced via below steps.

    # cd /sys/module/damon_lru_sort/parameters
    #
    # # start DAMON_LRU_SORT
    # echo Y > enabled
    # ps -ef | grep kdamond
    root         806       2  0 17:53 ?        00:00:00 [kdamond.0]
    root         808     803  0 17:53 pts/4    00:00:00 grep kdamond
    #
    # # commit wrong input to stop kdamond withou explicit stop request
    # echo 3 > addr_unit
    # echo Y > commit_inputs
    bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument
    #
    # # confirm kdamond is stopped
    # ps -ef | grep kdamond
    root         811     803  0 17:53 pts/4    00:00:00 grep kdamond
    #
    # # users casn now show stable status
    # cat enabled
    Y
    # cat kdamond_pid
    806
    #
    # # even after fixing the wrong parameter,
    # # kdamond cannot be restarted.
    # echo 1 > addr_unit
    # echo Y > enabled
    # ps -ef | grep kdamond
    root         815     803  0 17:54 pts/4    00:00:00 grep kdamond

The problem will only rarely happen in real and common setups for the following reasons. The allocation failures are unlikely in such setups since those allocations are arguably too small to fail. Also sane users on real production environments may not commit wrong input parameters. But once it happens, the consequence is quite bad. And the bug is a bug.

The issue stems from the fact that there are multiple events that can change the status, and following all the events is challenging. Dynamically detect and use the fresh status for the parameters when those are requested.

---
 mm/damon/lru_sort.c | 85 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)

index 554559d729760..8494040b1ee48 100644
@@ -161,15 +161,6 @@ module_param(monitor_region_end, ulong, 0600);
  */
 static unsigned long addr_unit __read_mostly = 1;
 
-/*
- * PID of the DAMON thread
- *
- * If DAMON_LRU_SORT is enabled, this becomes the PID of the worker thread.
- * Else, -1.
- */
-static int kdamond_pid __read_mostly = -1;
-module_param(kdamond_pid, int, 0400);
-
 static struct damos_stat damon_lru_sort_hot_stat;
 DEFINE_DAMON_MODULES_DAMOS_STATS_PARAMS(damon_lru_sort_hot_stat,
 		lru_sort_tried_hot_regions, lru_sorted_hot_regions,

@@ -386,12 +377,8 @@ static int damon_lru_sort_turn(bool on)
 {
 	int err;
 
-	if (!on) {
-		err = damon_stop(&ctx, 1);
-		if (!err)
-			kdamond_pid = -1;
-		return err;
-	}
+	if (!on)
+		return damon_stop(&ctx, 1);
 
 	err = damon_lru_sort_apply_parameters();
 	if (err)

@@ -400,9 +387,6 @@ static int damon_lru_sort_turn(bool on)
 	err = damon_start(&ctx, 1, true);
 	if (err)
 		return err;
-	kdamond_pid = damon_kdamond_pid(ctx);
-	if (kdamond_pid < 0)
-		return kdamond_pid;
 	return damon_call(ctx, &call_control);
 }
 

@@ -430,42 +414,83 @@ module_param_cb(addr_unit, &addr_unit_param_ops, &addr_unit, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(addr_unit,
 	"Scale factor for DAMON_LRU_SORT to ops address conversion (default: 1)");
 
+static bool damon_lru_sort_enabled(void)
+{
+	if (!ctx)
+		return false;
+	return damon_is_running(ctx);
+}
+
 static int damon_lru_sort_enabled_store(const char *val,
 		const struct kernel_param *kp)
 {
-	bool is_enabled = enabled;
-	bool enable;
 	int err;
 
-	err = kstrtobool(val, &enable);
+	err = kstrtobool(val, &enabled);
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
-	if (is_enabled == enable)
+	if (damon_lru_sort_enabled() == enabled)
 		return 0;
 
 	/* Called before init function.  The function will handle this. */
 	if (!damon_initialized())
-		goto set_param_out;
+		return 0;
 
-	err = damon_lru_sort_turn(enable);
-	if (err)
-		return err;
+	return damon_lru_sort_turn(enabled);
+}
 
-set_param_out:
-	enabled = enable;
-	return err;
+static int damon_lru_sort_enabled_load(char *buffer,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	return sprintf(buffer, "%c\n", damon_lru_sort_enabled() ? 'Y' : 'N');
 }
 
 static const struct kernel_param_ops enabled_param_ops = {
 	.set = damon_lru_sort_enabled_store,
-	.get = param_get_bool,
+	.get = damon_lru_sort_enabled_load,
 };
 
 module_param_cb(enabled, &enabled_param_ops, &enabled, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(enabled,
 	"Enable or disable DAMON_LRU_SORT (default: disabled)");
 
+static int damon_lru_sort_kdamond_pid_store(const char *val,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	/*
+	 * kdamond_pid is read-only, but kernel command line could write it.
+	 * Do nothing here.
+	 */
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int damon_lru_sort_kdamond_pid_load(char *buffer,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	int kdamond_pid = -1;
+
+	if (ctx) {
+		kdamond_pid = damon_kdamond_pid(ctx);
+		if (kdamond_pid < 0)
+			kdamond_pid = -1;
+	}
+	return sprintf(buffer, "%d\n", kdamond_pid);
+}
+
+static const struct kernel_param_ops kdamond_pid_param_ops = {
+	.set = damon_lru_sort_kdamond_pid_store,
+	.get = damon_lru_sort_kdamond_pid_load,
+};
+
+/*
+ * PID of the DAMON thread
+ *
+ * If DAMON_LRU_SORT is enabled, this becomes the PID of the worker thread.
+ * Else, -1.
+ */
+module_param_cb(kdamond_pid, &kdamond_pid_param_ops, NULL, 0400);
+
 static int __init damon_lru_sort_init(void)
 {
 	int err;

2.47.3

TL; DR: no blocker for this patch.

Good finding, but the bug is not caused by this patch. I will separately work on the bug.

Thanks,
SJ

[...]

DAMON_STAT updates 'enabled' parameter value, which represents the running status of its kdamond, when the user explicitly requests start/stop of the kdamond. The kdamond can, however, be stopped even if the user explicitly requested the stop, if ctx->regions_score_histogram allocation failure at beginning of the execution of the kdamond. Hence, if the kdamond is stopped by the allocation failure, the value of the parameter can be stale.

Users could show the stale value and be confused. The problem will only rarely happen in real and common setups because the allocation is arguably too small to fail. Also, unlike the similar bugs that are now fixed in DAMON_RECLAIM and DAMON_LRU_SORT, kdamond can be restarted in this case, because DAMON_STAT force-updates the enabled parameter value for user inputs. The bug is a bug, though.

The issue stems from the fact that there are multiple events that can change the status, and following all the events is challenging. Dynamically detect and use the fresh status for the parameters when those are requested.

The issue was dicovered [1] by Sashiko.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]

---
 mm/damon/stat.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

index 99ba346f9e325..3951b762cbddf 100644
@@ -19,14 +19,17 @@
 static int damon_stat_enabled_store(
 		const char *val, const struct kernel_param *kp);
 
+static int damon_stat_enabled_load(char *buffer,
+		const struct kernel_param *kp);
+
 static const struct kernel_param_ops enabled_param_ops = {
 	.set = damon_stat_enabled_store,
-	.get = param_get_bool,
+	.get = damon_stat_enabled_load,
 };
 
 static bool enabled __read_mostly = IS_ENABLED(
 	CONFIG_DAMON_STAT_ENABLED_DEFAULT);
-module_param_cb(enabled, &enabled_param_ops, &enabled, 0600);
+module_param_cb(enabled, &enabled_param_ops, NULL, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(enabled, "Enable of disable DAMON_STAT");
 
 static unsigned long estimated_memory_bandwidth __read_mostly;

@@ -273,17 +276,23 @@ static void damon_stat_stop(void)
 	damon_stat_context = NULL;
 }
 
+static bool damon_stat_enabled(void)
+{
+	if (!damon_stat_context)
+		return false;
+	return damon_is_running(damon_stat_context);
+}
+
 static int damon_stat_enabled_store(
 		const char *val, const struct kernel_param *kp)
 {
-	bool is_enabled = enabled;
 	int err;
 
 	err = kstrtobool(val, &enabled);
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
-	if (is_enabled == enabled)
+	if (damon_stat_enabled() == enabled)
 		return 0;
 
 	if (!damon_initialized())

@@ -293,16 +302,17 @@ static int damon_stat_enabled_store(
 		 */
 		return 0;
 
-	if (enabled) {
-		err = damon_stat_start();
-		if (err)
-			enabled = false;
-		return err;
-	}
+	if (enabled)
+		return damon_stat_start();
 	damon_stat_stop();
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static int damon_stat_enabled_load(char *buffer, const struct kernel_param *kp)
+{
+	return sprintf(buffer, "%c\n", damon_stat_enabled() ? 'Y' : 'N');
+}
+
 static int __init damon_stat_init(void)
 {
 	int err = 0;

2.47.3

That's wrong. Refer to my previous reply [1] for more details.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/[email protected]

Thanks,
SJ

[...]