[RFC] Add GNU_PROPERTY_1_NEEDED_THP_ON_[READ_ONLY_SEGMENTS|MALLOC]
Project / Subsystem
glibc / glibc
Date
2026-04-17
Proposer
H.J. Lu <[email protected]>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
6/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Adding new GNU properties increases complexity but provides finer-grained control.
- • Opting into THP can improve performance in some cases but may degrade it in others.
- • The `NEEDED` suffix is questioned; alternatives are `OPTIONAL`, `DESIRED`, or no suffix.
All attributes
- project
- glibc
- subsystem
- glibc
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- CAMe9rOqExArVw7g2UHpn9EWSZwD1Lx1Nx0ZCLJTBCe04om2-NA@mail.gmail.com
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- [RFC] Add GNU_PROPERTY_1_NEEDED_THP_ON_[READ_ONLY_SEGMENTS|MALLOC]
- headline
- Propose Fine-Grained THP Control via GNU Properties
- tldr
- Adds GNU properties to allow per-application control of Transparent Huge Pages (THP) on read-only segments and in malloc.
- stakes
- THP can improve performance but also cause latency spikes and memory waste; this proposal gives developers more control.
- proposer
- H.J. Lu <[email protected]>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- 6
- sentiment_rationale
- Some concern about the naming of the new properties.
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Adding new GNU properties increases complexity but provides finer-grained control.
- • Opting into THP can improve performance in some cases but may degrade it in others.
- • The `NEEDED` suffix is questioned; alternatives are `OPTIONAL`, `DESIRED`, or no suffix.
- series_id
- —
- series_role
- standalone
- series_parts
- []
- tags
-
- • THP
- • performance
- • memory
- • linker
- • properties
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-04-17T00:00:00.000Z
[RFC] Add GNU_PROPERTY_1_NEEDED_THP_ON_[READ_ONLY_SEGMENTS|MALLOC]
H.J. Lu proposes adding GNU_PROPERTY_1_NEEDED_THP_ON_READ_ONLY_SEGMENTS and GNU_PROPERTY_1_NEEDED_THP_ON_MALLOC to allow applications to opt-in to THP usage. The goal is to give developers more control over THP, which has trade-offs, especially for databases. The naming of the properties is under debate.