diff --git a/include/linux/gfp.h b/include/linux/gfp.h
index c29e9d347bc697125e6eb02fe2ca0b033cbf83fa..f8041f9de31efc998916537889dd559b9fc375cb 100644
--- a/include/linux/gfp.h
+++ b/include/linux/gfp.h
@@ -237,9 +237,11 @@ struct vm_area_struct;
  *   are expected to be movable via page reclaim or page migration. Typically,
  *   pages on the LRU would also be allocated with GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE.
  *
- * GFP_TRANSHUGE is used for THP allocations. They are compound allocations
- *   that will fail quickly if memory is not available and will not wake
- *   kswapd on failure.
+ * GFP_TRANSHUGE and GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT are used for THP allocations. They are
+ *   compound allocations that will generally fail quickly if memory is not
+ *   available and will not wake kswapd/kcompactd on failure. The _LIGHT
+ *   version does not attempt reclaim/compaction at all and is by default used
+ *   in page fault path, while the non-light is used by khugepaged.
  */
 #define GFP_ATOMIC	(__GFP_HIGH|__GFP_ATOMIC|__GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM)
 #define GFP_KERNEL	(__GFP_RECLAIM | __GFP_IO | __GFP_FS)
@@ -254,9 +256,9 @@ struct vm_area_struct;
 #define GFP_DMA32	__GFP_DMA32
 #define GFP_HIGHUSER	(GFP_USER | __GFP_HIGHMEM)
 #define GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE	(GFP_HIGHUSER | __GFP_MOVABLE)
-#define GFP_TRANSHUGE	((GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE | __GFP_COMP | \
-			 __GFP_NOMEMALLOC | __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN) & \
-			 ~__GFP_RECLAIM)
+#define GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT	((GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE | __GFP_COMP | \
+			 __GFP_NOMEMALLOC | __GFP_NOWARN) & ~__GFP_RECLAIM)
+#define GFP_TRANSHUGE	(GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT | __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM)
 
 /* Convert GFP flags to their corresponding migrate type */
 #define GFP_MOVABLE_MASK (__GFP_RECLAIMABLE|__GFP_MOVABLE)
diff --git a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
index 43cedbf0c759e5074871baf4d600ab5f3e2bb3e8..5a81ab48a2fb2921328e098c388e77d58a765147 100644
--- a/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
+++ b/include/trace/events/mmflags.h
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 #define __def_gfpflag_names						\
 	{(unsigned long)GFP_TRANSHUGE,		"GFP_TRANSHUGE"},	\
+	{(unsigned long)GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT,	"GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT"}, \
 	{(unsigned long)GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE,	"GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE"},\
 	{(unsigned long)GFP_HIGHUSER,		"GFP_HIGHUSER"},	\
 	{(unsigned long)GFP_USER,		"GFP_USER"},		\
diff --git a/mm/huge_memory.c b/mm/huge_memory.c
index 8f0cd35345dc78ee25d26e4bede40d6f55b72f1f..2373f0a7d3405bb869ac4a3a4be175289af38114 100644
--- a/mm/huge_memory.c
+++ b/mm/huge_memory.c
@@ -539,23 +539,26 @@ static int __do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page(struct fault_env *fe, struct page *page,
 }
 
 /*
- * If THP is set to always then directly reclaim/compact as necessary
- * If set to defer then do no reclaim and defer to khugepaged
+ * If THP defrag is set to always then directly reclaim/compact as necessary
+ * If set to defer then do only background reclaim/compact and defer to khugepaged
  * If set to madvise and the VMA is flagged then directly reclaim/compact
+ * When direct reclaim/compact is allowed, don't retry except for flagged VMA's
  */
 static inline gfp_t alloc_hugepage_direct_gfpmask(struct vm_area_struct *vma)
 {
-	gfp_t reclaim_flags = 0;
-
-	if (test_bit(TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE_DEFRAG_REQ_MADV_FLAG, &transparent_hugepage_flags) &&
-	    (vma->vm_flags & VM_HUGEPAGE))
-		reclaim_flags = __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM;
-	else if (test_bit(TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE_DEFRAG_KSWAPD_FLAG, &transparent_hugepage_flags))
-		reclaim_flags = __GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM;
-	else if (test_bit(TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE_DEFRAG_DIRECT_FLAG, &transparent_hugepage_flags))
-		reclaim_flags = __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM;
-
-	return GFP_TRANSHUGE | reclaim_flags;
+	bool vma_madvised = !!(vma->vm_flags & VM_HUGEPAGE);
+
+	if (test_bit(TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE_DEFRAG_REQ_MADV_FLAG,
+				&transparent_hugepage_flags) && vma_madvised)
+		return GFP_TRANSHUGE;
+	else if (test_bit(TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE_DEFRAG_KSWAPD_FLAG,
+						&transparent_hugepage_flags))
+		return GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT | __GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM;
+	else if (test_bit(TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE_DEFRAG_DIRECT_FLAG,
+						&transparent_hugepage_flags))
+		return GFP_TRANSHUGE | (vma_madvised ? 0 : __GFP_NORETRY);
+
+	return GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT;
 }
 
 /* Caller must hold page table lock. */
diff --git a/mm/khugepaged.c b/mm/khugepaged.c
index d1423d790f6d496366fd50d4ac1d06825e81ad40..79c52d0061af591b0417e5d67462f49fda8ac632 100644
--- a/mm/khugepaged.c
+++ b/mm/khugepaged.c
@@ -694,7 +694,7 @@ static bool khugepaged_scan_abort(int nid)
 /* Defrag for khugepaged will enter direct reclaim/compaction if necessary */
 static inline gfp_t alloc_hugepage_khugepaged_gfpmask(void)
 {
-	return GFP_TRANSHUGE | (khugepaged_defrag() ? __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM : 0);
+	return khugepaged_defrag() ? GFP_TRANSHUGE : GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT;
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
diff --git a/mm/migrate.c b/mm/migrate.c
index ed0268268e93f5eac48c02be4737cea269c0fa5a..f7ee04a5ae27a2934de9fab746667597bffafef3 100644
--- a/mm/migrate.c
+++ b/mm/migrate.c
@@ -1934,7 +1934,7 @@ int migrate_misplaced_transhuge_page(struct mm_struct *mm,
 		goto out_dropref;
 
 	new_page = alloc_pages_node(node,
-		(GFP_TRANSHUGE | __GFP_THISNODE) & ~__GFP_RECLAIM,
+		(GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT | __GFP_THISNODE),
 		HPAGE_PMD_ORDER);
 	if (!new_page)
 		goto out_fail;
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index c42ec374df96940d71bddb0da1119f130b2ab0ee..09ba674878977b70e0a8adb1ebd66fabcb2d99f1 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -3556,11 +3556,9 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
 			/*
 			 * Looks like reclaim/compaction is worth trying, but
 			 * sync compaction could be very expensive, so keep
-			 * using async compaction, unless it's khugepaged
-			 * trying to collapse.
+			 * using async compaction.
 			 */
-			if (!(current->flags & PF_KTHREAD))
-				migration_mode = MIGRATE_ASYNC;
+			migration_mode = MIGRATE_ASYNC;
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c b/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c
index b1d491c2e7047c5ba7ef1dac4f86db697f8a4c19..fdde1bd3e3062bbf266ef165eb4dce8512f4d9b3 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-kmem.c
@@ -608,6 +608,7 @@ static const struct {
 	const char *compact;
 } gfp_compact_table[] = {
 	{ "GFP_TRANSHUGE",		"THP" },
+	{ "GFP_TRANSHUGE_LIGHT",	"THL" },
 	{ "GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE",	"HUM" },
 	{ "GFP_HIGHUSER",		"HU" },
 	{ "GFP_USER",			"U" },