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+.. _split_page_table_lock:
+
+=====================
+Split page table lock
+=====================
+
+Originally, mm->page_table_lock spinlock protected all page tables of the
+mm_struct. But this approach leads to poor page fault scalability of
+multi-threaded applications due high contention on the lock. To improve
+scalability, split page table lock was introduced.
+
+With split page table lock we have separate per-table lock to serialize
+access to the table. At the moment we use split lock for PTE and PMD
+tables. Access to higher level tables protected by mm->page_table_lock.
+
+There are helpers to lock/unlock a table and other accessor functions:
+
+ - pte_offset_map_lock()
+	maps pte and takes PTE table lock, returns pointer to the taken
+	lock;
+ - pte_unmap_unlock()
+	unlocks and unmaps PTE table;
+ - pte_alloc_map_lock()
+	allocates PTE table if needed and take the lock, returns pointer
+	to taken lock or NULL if allocation failed;
+ - pte_lockptr()
+	returns pointer to PTE table lock;
+ - pmd_lock()
+	takes PMD table lock, returns pointer to taken lock;
+ - pmd_lockptr()
+	returns pointer to PMD table lock;
+
+Split page table lock for PTE tables is enabled compile-time if
+CONFIG_SPLIT_PTLOCK_CPUS (usually 4) is less or equal to NR_CPUS.
+If split lock is disabled, all tables are guarded by mm->page_table_lock.
+
+Split page table lock for PMD tables is enabled, if it's enabled for PTE
+tables and the architecture supports it (see below).
+
+Hugetlb and split page table lock
+=================================
+
+Hugetlb can support several page sizes. We use split lock only for PMD
+level, but not for PUD.
+
+Hugetlb-specific helpers:
+
+ - huge_pte_lock()
+	takes pmd split lock for PMD_SIZE page, mm->page_table_lock
+	otherwise;
+ - huge_pte_lockptr()
+	returns pointer to table lock;
+
+Support of split page table lock by an architecture
+===================================================
+
+There's no need in special enabling of PTE split page table lock: everything
+required is done by pgtable_pte_page_ctor() and pgtable_pte_page_dtor(), which
+must be called on PTE table allocation / freeing.
+
+Make sure the architecture doesn't use slab allocator for page table
+allocation: slab uses page->slab_cache for its pages.
+This field shares storage with page->ptl.
+
+PMD split lock only makes sense if you have more than two page table
+levels.
+
+PMD split lock enabling requires pgtable_pmd_page_ctor() call on PMD table
+allocation and pgtable_pmd_page_dtor() on freeing.
+
+Allocation usually happens in pmd_alloc_one(), freeing in pmd_free() and
+pmd_free_tlb(), but make sure you cover all PMD table allocation / freeing
+paths: i.e X86_PAE preallocate few PMDs on pgd_alloc().
+
+With everything in place you can set CONFIG_ARCH_ENABLE_SPLIT_PMD_PTLOCK.
+
+NOTE: pgtable_pte_page_ctor() and pgtable_pmd_page_ctor() can fail -- it must
+be handled properly.
+
+page->ptl
+=========
+
+page->ptl is used to access split page table lock, where 'page' is struct
+page of page containing the table. It shares storage with page->private
+(and few other fields in union).
+
+To avoid increasing size of struct page and have best performance, we use a
+trick:
+
+ - if spinlock_t fits into long, we use page->ptr as spinlock, so we
+   can avoid indirect access and save a cache line.
+ - if size of spinlock_t is bigger then size of long, we use page->ptl as
+   pointer to spinlock_t and allocate it dynamically. This allows to use
+   split lock with enabled DEBUG_SPINLOCK or DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC, but costs
+   one more cache line for indirect access;
+
+The spinlock_t allocated in pgtable_pte_page_ctor() for PTE table and in
+pgtable_pmd_page_ctor() for PMD table.
+
+Please, never access page->ptl directly -- use appropriate helper.