FAILED: patch "[PATCH] memcg: move LRU size accounting on reparenting instead of" failed to apply to 7.2-stable tree

The patch below does not apply to the 7.2-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit id to <[email protected]>.

To reproduce the conflict and resubmit, you may use the following commands:

git fetch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/ linux-7.2.y
git checkout FETCH_HEAD
git cherry-pick -x 0e0ac326c511d514817cc7b6d7741afd59098ce2
# <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
git commit -s
git send-email --to '<[email protected]>' --in-reply-to '2026090956-reorder-flypaper-cf1a@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 7.2.y' 'HEAD^..'

Possible dependencies:

thanks,

greg k-h

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From 0e0ac326c511d514817cc7b6d7741afd59098ce2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shakeel Butt <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2026 19:47:07 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] memcg: move LRU size accounting on reparenting instead of
copying it

When a memory cgroup is offlined its LRU folios are reparented to the parent. lruvec_reparent_lru() splices the child's lists into the parent's and credits the parent with the child's per-zone lru_zone_size[], but never clears the child's copy, so the size is copied rather than moved. lru_gen_reparent_memcg() does the same for MGLRU.

The parent is left correct, credited with exactly the folios it took over. The stale value sits on the child and nothing will correct it:
folio->memcg_data now resolves to the parent, so every later update_lru_size() for those folios goes there.

Dying cgroups are not freed immediately and mem_cgroup_iter() still walks them, so shrink_lruvec() keeps being called on them. get_scan_count() reads the phantom counter through lruvec_lru_size() and the scan loop then grinds through nr[] in SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX steps against an empty list, for as long as the dead cgroup lives. Under MGLRU the MGLRU scanner runs instead, but count_shadow_nodes() sums all of NR_LRU_LISTS through lruvec_lru_size() and over-budgets the shadow node limit just the same.

On one 251 GiB host a sweep of every mz->lru_zone_size[] found 380 counters describing folios on no list at all: 124777314 pages, 476 GiB, 1.89x the machine's RAM, across 57 cgroups. All were on memcgs with CSS_DYING set and CSS_ONLINE clear, and parent/child pairs reported byte-identical sizes.

LRU_UNEVICTABLE needs its size moved too. Its list is deliberately not spliced because lruvec_init() poisons the head - the unevictable LRU is imaginary and folios are never threaded on it - but the size is kept by lruvec_add_folio()/lruvec_del_folio() and those folios account to the parent from here on.

This depends on commit bf4ade7dbd76 ("memcg: keep folio's objcg same as its node") and must not be backported ahead of it. Without that invariant a folio's objcg can belong to another node, so a folio already spliced onto the parent's list can still resolve to the child's lruvec until the objcg's node is reparented in a later iteration of memcg_reparent_objcgs(); clearing the child's counter early then lets lruvec_del_folio() underflow it and trip the WARN_ONCE()/VM_BUG_ON() in mem_cgroup_update_lru_size().

index 59c477120b9a..c02dcea9c03c 100644
@@ -1130,7 +1130,16 @@ static void lruvec_reparent_lru(struct lruvec *child_lruvec,
 	for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, NODE_DATA(nid), zid, MAX_NR_ZONES - 1) {
 		unsigned long size = mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid);
 
+		if (!size)
+			continue;
+
+		/*
+		 * The folios are accounted to the parent from now on, so the
+		 * size has to be moved, not just copied. Leaving it behind
+		 * makes the dying child describe folios it no longer owns.
+		 */
 		mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(parent_lruvec, lru, zid, size);
+		mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid, -(long)size);
 	}
 }
 

index b569eeca590d..73a81b4a3e16 100644
@@ -4635,7 +4635,12 @@ void lru_gen_reparent_memcg(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, struct mem_cgroup *parent,
 		for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, NODE_DATA(nid), zid, MAX_NR_ZONES - 1) {
 			unsigned long size = mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid);
 
+			if (!size)
+				continue;
+
+			/* Move the accounting, do not duplicate it. */
 			mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(parent_lruvec, lru, zid, size);
+			mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid, -(long)size);
 		}
 	}
 }

From: Shakeel Butt <[email protected]>

[ Upstream commit 0e0ac326c511d514817cc7b6d7741afd59098ce2 ]

When a memory cgroup is offlined its LRU folios are reparented to the parent. lruvec_reparent_lru() splices the child's lists into the parent's and credits the parent with the child's per-zone lru_zone_size[], but never clears the child's copy, so the size is copied rather than moved. lru_gen_reparent_memcg() does the same for MGLRU.

The parent is left correct, credited with exactly the folios it took over. The stale value sits on the child and nothing will correct it:
folio->memcg_data now resolves to the parent, so every later update_lru_size() for those folios goes there.

Dying cgroups are not freed immediately and mem_cgroup_iter() still walks them, so shrink_lruvec() keeps being called on them. get_scan_count() reads the phantom counter through lruvec_lru_size() and the scan loop then grinds through nr[] in SWAP_CLUSTER_MAX steps against an empty list, for as long as the dead cgroup lives. Under MGLRU the MGLRU scanner runs instead, but count_shadow_nodes() sums all of NR_LRU_LISTS through lruvec_lru_size() and over-budgets the shadow node limit just the same.

On one 251 GiB host a sweep of every mz->lru_zone_size[] found 380 counters describing folios on no list at all: 124777314 pages, 476 GiB, 1.89x the machine's RAM, across 57 cgroups. All were on memcgs with CSS_DYING set and CSS_ONLINE clear, and parent/child pairs reported byte-identical sizes.

LRU_UNEVICTABLE needs its size moved too. Its list is deliberately not spliced because lruvec_init() poisons the head - the unevictable LRU is imaginary and folios are never threaded on it - but the size is kept by lruvec_add_folio()/lruvec_del_folio() and those folios account to the parent from here on.

This depends on commit bf4ade7dbd76 ("memcg: keep folio's objcg same as its node") and must not be backported ahead of it. Without that invariant a folio's objcg can belong to another node, so a folio already spliced onto the parent's list can still resolve to the child's lruvec until the objcg's node is reparented in a later iteration of memcg_reparent_objcgs(); clearing the child's counter early then lets lruvec_del_folio() underflow it and trip the WARN_ONCE()/VM_BUG_ON() in mem_cgroup_update_lru_size().

---
 mm/swap.c   | 9 +++++++++
 mm/vmscan.c | 5 +++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

index 588f50d8f1a8c..1a87e56bdcc52 100644
@@ -1153,7 +1153,16 @@ static void lruvec_reparent_lru(struct lruvec *child_lruvec,
 	for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, NODE_DATA(nid), zid, MAX_NR_ZONES - 1) {
 		unsigned long size = mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid);
 
+		if (!size)
+			continue;
+
+		/*
+		 * The folios are accounted to the parent from now on, so the
+		 * size has to be moved, not just copied. Leaving it behind
+		 * makes the dying child describe folios it no longer owns.
+		 */
 		mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(parent_lruvec, lru, zid, size);
+		mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid, -(long)size);
 	}
 }
 

index ee3efc6213f49..8781dbcdb99a6 100644
@@ -4554,7 +4554,12 @@ void lru_gen_reparent_memcg(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, struct mem_cgroup *parent,
 		for_each_managed_zone_pgdat(zone, NODE_DATA(nid), zid, MAX_NR_ZONES - 1) {
 			unsigned long size = mem_cgroup_get_zone_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid);
 
+			if (!size)
+				continue;
+
+			/* Move the accounting, do not duplicate it. */
 			mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(parent_lruvec, lru, zid, size);
+			mem_cgroup_update_lru_size(child_lruvec, lru, zid, -(long)size);
 		}
 	}
 }

2.53.0