mm/memcg: move mem_cgroup_init() ahead of cgroup_init()

Patch series "Use kmem_cache for memcg alloc", v3.

(willy tldr: "you've gone from allocating 8 objects per 32KiB to
allocating 13 objects per 32KiB, a 62% improvement in memory consumption"
[1])


The mem_cgroup_alloc function creates mem_cgroup struct and it's
associated structures including mem_cgroup_per_node.  Through detailed
analysis on our test machine (Arm64, 16GB RAM, 6.6 kernel, 1 NUMA node,
memcgv2 with nokmem,nosocket,cgroup_disable=pressure), we can observe the
memory allocation for these structures using the following shell commands:

  # Enable tracing
  echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/kmem/kmalloc/enable
  echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/tracing_on
  cat /sys/kernel/tracing/trace_pipe | grep kmalloc | grep mem_cgroup

  # Trigger allocation if cgroup subtree do not enable memcg
  echo +memory > /sys/fs/cgroup/cgroup.subtree_control

Ftrace Output:

  # mem_cgroup struct allocation
  sh-6312    [000] ..... 58015.698365: kmalloc:
    call_site=mem_cgroup_css_alloc+0xd8/0x5b4
    ptr=000000003e4c3799 bytes_req=2312 bytes_alloc=4096
    gfp_flags=GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO node=-1 accounted=false

  # mem_cgroup_per_node allocation
  sh-6312    [000] ..... 58015.698389: kmalloc:
    call_site=mem_cgroup_css_alloc+0x1d8/0x5b4
    ptr=00000000d798700c bytes_req=2896 bytes_alloc=4096
    gfp_flags=GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO node=0 accounted=false

Key Observations:

  1. Both structures use kmalloc with requested sizes between 2KB-4KB
  2. Allocation alignment forces 4KB slab usage due to pre-defined sizes
     (64B, 128B,..., 2KB, 4KB, 8KB)
  3. Memory waste per memcg instance:
      Base struct: 4096 - 2312 = 1784 bytes
      Per-node struct: 4096 - 2896 = 1200 bytes
      Total waste: 2984 bytes (1-node system)
      NUMA scaling: (1200 + 8) * nr_node_ids bytes

So, it's a little waste.

This patchset introduces dedicated kmem_cache:
  Patch2 - mem_cgroup kmem_cache - memcg_cachep
  Patch3 - mem_cgroup_per_node kmem_cache - memcg_pn_cachep

The benefits of this change can be observed with the following tracing
commands:

  # Enable tracing
  echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/kmem/kmem_cache_alloc/enable
  echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/tracing_on
  cat /sys/kernel/tracing/trace_pipe | grep kmem_cache_alloc | grep mem_cgroup
  # In another terminal:
  echo +memory > /sys/fs/cgroup/cgroup.subtree_control


The output might now look like this:

  # mem_cgroup struct allocation
  sh-9827     [000] .....   289.513598: kmem_cache_alloc:
    call_site=mem_cgroup_css_alloc+0xbc/0x5d4 ptr=00000000695c1806
    bytes_req=2312 bytes_alloc=2368 gfp_flags=GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO node=-1
    accounted=false
  # mem_cgroup_per_node allocation
  sh-9827     [000] .....   289.513602: kmem_cache_alloc:
    call_site=mem_cgroup_css_alloc+0x1b8/0x5d4 ptr=000000002989e63a
    bytes_req=2896 bytes_alloc=2944 gfp_flags=GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO node=0
    accounted=false

This indicates that the `mem_cgroup` struct now requests 2312 bytes and is
allocated 2368 bytes, while `mem_cgroup_per_node` requests 2896 bytes and
is allocated 2944 bytes.  The slight increase in allocated size is due to
`SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN` in the `kmem_cache`.

Without `SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN`, the allocation might appear as:

  # mem_cgroup struct allocation
  sh-9269     [003] .....    80.396366: kmem_cache_alloc:
    call_site=mem_cgroup_css_alloc+0xbc/0x5d4 ptr=000000005b12b475
    bytes_req=2312 bytes_alloc=2312 gfp_flags=GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO node=-1
    accounted=false

  # mem_cgroup_per_node allocation
  sh-9269     [003] .....    80.396411: kmem_cache_alloc:
    call_site=mem_cgroup_css_alloc+0x1b8/0x5d4 ptr=00000000f347adc6
    bytes_req=2896 bytes_alloc=2896 gfp_flags=GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO node=0
    accounted=false

While the `bytes_alloc` now matches the `bytes_req`, this patchset
defaults to using `SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN` as it is generally considered more
beneficial for performance.  Please let me know if there are any issues or
if I've misunderstood anything.

This patchset also move mem_cgroup_init ahead of cgroup_init() due to
cgroup_init() will allocate root_mem_cgroup, but each initcall invoke
after cgroup_init, so if each kmem_cache do not prepare, we need testing
NULL before use it.


This patch (of 3):

When cgroup_init() creates root_mem_cgroup through css_alloc callback,
some critical resources might not be fully initialized, forcing later
operations to perform conditional checks for resource availability.

This patch move mem_cgroup_init() to address the init order, it invoke
before cgroup_init, so, compare to subsys_initcall, it can use to prepare
some key resources before root_mem_cgroup alloc.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/aAsRCj-niMMTtmK8@casper.infradead.org [1]
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250425031935.76411-1-link@vivo.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250425031935.76411-2-link@vivo.com
Signed-off-by: Huan Yang <link@vivo.com>
Suggested-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Acked-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Cc: Francesco Valla <francesco@valla.it>
Cc: guoweikang <guoweikang.kernel@gmail.com>
Cc: Huang Shijie <shijie@os.amperecomputing.com>
Cc: KP Singh <kpsingh@kernel.org>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
Cc: Muchun Song <muchun.song@linux.dev>
Cc: "Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>
Cc: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Cc: Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk>
Cc: Raul E Rangel <rrangel@chromium.org>
Cc: Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>
Cc: "Uladzislau Rezki (Sony)" <urezki@gmail.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>

3 files changed, 7 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/memcontrol.h b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
index ac1b003ee5b8..9ed75f82b858 100644
--- a/include/linux/memcontrol.h
+++ b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
@@ -1057,6 +1057,7 @@ static inline u64 cgroup_id_from_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
 	return id;
 }
 
+extern int mem_cgroup_init(void);
 #else /* CONFIG_MEMCG */
 
 #define MEM_CGROUP_ID_SHIFT	0
@@ -1472,6 +1473,8 @@ static inline u64 cgroup_id_from_mm(struct mm_struct *mm)
 {
 	return 0;
 }
+
+static inline int mem_cgroup_init(void) { return 0; }
 #endif /* CONFIG_MEMCG */
 
 /*
diff --git a/init/main.c b/init/main.c
index 7f0a2a3dbd29..782320da2e88 100644
--- a/init/main.c
+++ b/init/main.c
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 #include <linux/writeback.h>
 #include <linux/cpu.h>
 #include <linux/cpuset.h>
+#include <linux/memcontrol.h>
 #include <linux/cgroup.h>
 #include <linux/efi.h>
 #include <linux/tick.h>
@@ -1087,6 +1088,7 @@ void start_kernel(void)
 	nsfs_init();
 	pidfs_init();
 	cpuset_init();
+	mem_cgroup_init();
 	cgroup_init();
 	taskstats_init_early();
 	delayacct_init();
diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index e17e0a9ceee0..dcb07a52b4ed 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -5042,14 +5042,14 @@ static int __init cgroup_memory(char *s)
 __setup("cgroup.memory=", cgroup_memory);
 
 /*
- * subsys_initcall() for memory controller.
+ * Memory controller init before cgroup_init() initialize root_mem_cgroup.
  *
  * Some parts like memcg_hotplug_cpu_dead() have to be initialized from this
  * context because of lock dependencies (cgroup_lock -> cpu hotplug) but
  * basically everything that doesn't depend on a specific mem_cgroup structure
  * should be initialized from here.
  */
-static int __init mem_cgroup_init(void)
+int __init mem_cgroup_init(void)
 {
 	int cpu;
 
@@ -5070,7 +5070,6 @@ static int __init mem_cgroup_init(void)
 
 	return 0;
 }
-subsys_initcall(mem_cgroup_init);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SWAP
 /**