[PATCH v3 0/6] elf: THP-aware load segment alignment

WANG Rui wangrui@loongson.cn
Fri Feb 27 13:23:28 GMT 2026


Changes since [v2]:
  * Refactor THP detection into a new generic hugepages abstraction,
    moving helpers out of malloc-hugepages.
  * Add a new tunable, `glibc.elf.hugetlb`, to control THP-aware ELF
    segment alignment.
  * Move the Linux implementation of `_dl_map_segment_align` to
    sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/, making it generic for Linux (including
    32-bit) and avoiding wordsize-64-specific overrides.
  * Use `static inline` instead of `static __always_inline`.

Changes since [v1]:
  * Fix CI build failure (-Wunused-function).

This patch series introduces a small extension point in the ELF loader to allow
architecture-specific adjustment of load segment alignment, and uses it to
improve Transparent Huge Page (THP) usage on Linux.

Patch 1 moves Transparent Huge Page helpers into a new generic hugepages
abstraction, so THP mode detection and default huge page size probing can be
shared between malloc and the dynamic loader. There is no functional change.

Patch 2 removes a redundant declaration of `_dl_map_segments` from
dl-load.h, avoiding `-Wunused-function` build failures and keeping the
prototype colocated with its definition.

Patch 3 adds a new helper, `_dl_map_segment_align`, which is called when
determining the maximum alignment for ELF load segments. The generic
implementation is a no-op and preserves existing behavior.

Patch 4 introduces a new tunable, `glibc.elf.hugetlb`, which controls
THP-aware alignment of ELF loadable segments. By default, the value is 0
and existing behavior is preserved.

Patch 5 provides a Linux implementation of `_dl_map_segment_align` that
opportunistically aligns large, suitably aligned, non-writable `PT_LOAD`
segments to the system’s default THP page size when THP is configured to
be used unconditionally and the tunable is enabled.

Patch 6 enables this behavior by default on LoongArch64 Linux and defines
the default THP page size (32MB), matching the architecture’s PMD huge page
geometry.

[v2]: https://sourceware.org/pipermail/libc-alpha/2026-February/175394.html
[v1]: https://sourceware.org/pipermail/libc-alpha/2026-February/175359.html

WANG Rui (6):
  hugepages: Move THP helpers to generic hugepages abstraction
  elf: Remove redundant _dl_map_segments declaration from dl-load.h
  elf: Introduce _dl_map_segment_align hook for segment alignment tuning
  tunables: Add glibc.elf.hugetlb tunable for THP-aware segment
    alignment
  elf: Align large load segments to PMD huge page size for THP
  loongarch: Enable THP-aligned load segments by default on 64-bit

 elf/dl-load.c                                 |  4 +
 elf/dl-load.h                                 |  5 +-
 elf/dl-tunables.list                          |  7 ++
 malloc/malloc.c                               | 23 +++---
 manual/tunables.texi                          | 24 ++++++
 sysdeps/generic/Makefile                      |  8 +-
 sysdeps/generic/dl-map-segment-align.h        | 26 +++++++
 sysdeps/generic/hugepages.c                   | 31 ++++++++
 sysdeps/generic/hugepages.h                   | 35 +++++++++
 sysdeps/generic/malloc-hugepages.c            |  8 +-
 sysdeps/generic/malloc-hugepages.h            | 15 +---
 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/Makefile              |  1 +
 .../sysv/linux/aarch64/malloc-hugepages.h     |  2 +-
 .../unix/sysv/linux/dl-map-segment-align.c    | 63 +++++++++++++++
 .../unix/sysv/linux/dl-map-segment-align.h    | 27 +++++++
 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/hugepages.c           | 77 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../unix/sysv/linux/loongarch/cpu-features.c  |  6 ++
 .../loongarch/lp64/dl-map-segment-align.h     | 22 ++++++
 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/malloc-hugepages.c    | 59 +-------------
 19 files changed, 353 insertions(+), 90 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/generic/dl-map-segment-align.h
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/generic/hugepages.c
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/generic/hugepages.h
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/dl-map-segment-align.c
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/dl-map-segment-align.h
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/hugepages.c
 create mode 100644 sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/loongarch/lp64/dl-map-segment-align.h

-- 
2.53.0



More information about the Libc-alpha mailing list