Re: mmotm 2010-03-09-19-15: Lot of scheduling while atomic warnings related to RCU

[Mel Gorman <mel@csn.ul.ie>]

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:29:22AM -0500, Neil Horman wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 11:46:00AM +0000, Mel Gorman wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 03:32:42PM -0500, Neil Horman wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 07:57:46PM +0000, Mel Gorman wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Mar 09, 2010 at 07:16:03PM -0800, akpm@linux-foundation.org wrote:
> > > > > The mm-of-the-moment snapshot 2010-03-09-19-15 has been uploaded to
> > > > > 
> > > > >    http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/mmotm/
> > > > > 
> > > > > and will soon be available at
> > > > > 
> > > > >    git://zen-kernel.org/kernel/mmotm.git
> > > > > 
> > > > > It contains the following patches against 2.6.34-rc1:
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > With preempt and sleeping spinlock debugging on, I'm seeing a lot of warnings
> > > > about scheduling while atomic. Starts off with messages like
> > > > 
> > > > [    0.572278] BUG: scheduling while atomic: swapper/1/0x00000002
> > > > [    0.576004] 1 lock held by swapper/1:
> > > > [    0.580002]  #0:  (rcu_read_lock){.+.+.+}, at: [<ffffffff811b6950>] kobject_uevent_env+0x363/0x4d0
> > > > [    0.600001] Modules linked in:
> > > > [    0.608003] Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.34-rc1-mm1-vanilla #1
> > > > [    0.612001] Call Trace:
> > > > [    0.616005]  [<ffffffff810727fe>] ?  __debug_show_held_locks+0x22/0x24
> > > > [    0.620005]  [<ffffffff810395ed>] __schedule_bug+0x77/0x7c
> > > > [    0.624004]  [<ffffffff812f4cc5>] schedule+0xcc/0x723
> > > > [    0.628003]  [<ffffffff812f55b6>] schedule_timeout+0x2d/0x28d
> > > > [    0.632003]  [<ffffffff8107315d>] ? mark_held_locks+0x4d/0x6b
> > > > [    0.636004]  [<ffffffff812f81e9>] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irq+0x30/0x5d
> > > > [    0.640003]  [<ffffffff810733de>] ?  trace_hardirqs_on_caller+0x110/0x134
> > > > [    0.644003]  [<ffffffff812f4a0f>] wait_for_common+0xdc/0x152
> > > > [    0.648003]  [<ffffffff8103a43b>] ? default_wake_function+0x0/0x14
> > > > [    0.652004]  [<ffffffff812f4b28>] wait_for_completion+0x1d/0x1f
> > > > [    0.656004]  [<ffffffff8105cdf0>] call_usermodehelper_exec+0xad/0xfa
> > > > [    0.660004]  [<ffffffff81068429>] ?  prepare_usermodehelper_creds+0x136/0x168
> > > > [    0.664003]  [<ffffffff811b6a37>] kobject_uevent_env+0x44a/0x4d0
> > > > [    0.668003]  [<ffffffff811b6950>] ? kobject_uevent_env+0x363/0x4d0
> > > > [    0.672003]  [<ffffffff811b6ac8>] kobject_uevent+0xb/0xd
> > > > [    0.676002]  [<ffffffff811b5e65>] kset_register+0x37/0x3f
> > > > [    0.680004]  [<ffffffff8123239a>] bus_register+0x11f/0x2b1
> > > > [    0.684005]  [<ffffffff8175973e>] platform_bus_init+0x2c/0x44
> > > > [    0.688003]  [<ffffffff817597b9>] driver_init+0x1d/0x29
> > > > [    0.692004]  [<ffffffff8172c69b>] kernel_init+0x12e/0x1e3
> > > > [    0.696003]  [<ffffffff81003be4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
> > > > [    0.700004]  [<ffffffff812f8794>] ? restore_args+0x0/0x30
> > > > [    0.704003]  [<ffffffff8172c56d>] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x1e3
> > > > [    0.708002]  [<ffffffff81003be0>] ? kernel_thread_helper+0x0/0x10
> > > > 
> > > > There are a lot of warnings along these lines during boot. This system did
> > > > boot *eventually* but it was in obvious trouble. The warnings appear to
> > > > be all around kobject_uevent_env acquiring the RCU lock and then going to
> > > > sleep. Most likely candidate problem patches in mmotm are
> > > > 
> > > > sysctl-fix-up-remaining-references-to-uevent_helper
> > > > sysctl-fix-up-remaining-references-to-uevent_helper-fix
> > > > 
> > > > But there are also a whole host of other sysctl-related changes around RCU in
> > > > there. The changelog implies that these patches are part of some long-lived
> > > > review process so I didn't delve too deeply. The people most likely to be
> > > > involved based on comments in the changelog are cc'd.
> > > > 
> > > > -- 
> > > > Mel Gorman
> > > > Part-time Phd Student                          Linux Technology Center
> > > > University of Limerick                         IBM Dublin Software Lab
> > > > 
> > > Yeah, its probably this chunk:
> > > diff -puN
> > > lib/kobject_uevent.c~sysctl-fix-up-remaining-references-to-uevent_helper-fix
> > > lib/kobject_uevent.c
> > > ---
> > > a/lib/kobject_uevent.c~sysctl-fix-up-remaining-references-to-uevent_helper-fix
> > > +++ a/lib/kobject_uevent.c
> > > @@ -273,10 +273,11 @@ int kobject_uevent_env(struct kobject *k
> > >  #endif
> > > 
> > >         /* call uevent_helper, usually only enabled during early boot */
> > > +       rcu_read_lock();
> > >         helper = rcu_dereference(uevent_helper);
> > >         if (helper[0])
> > >                 retval = uevent_call_helper(subsystem, env);
> > > -
> > > +       rcu_read_unlock();
> > >  exit:
> > >         kfree(devpath);
> > >         kfree(env);
> > > _
> > > 
> > > My bad, I'm not sure why I didn't catch that, I tested using lots of module
> > > loads/unloads while changing uevent_helper.  Anywho, should be easy to fix,
> > > Mel, can you modify the code to copy helper to a private variable, then unlock
> > > the rcu read side prior to calling uevent_call_helper?  I imagine that would be
> > > the best fix.
> > > 
> > 
> > I am missing why it is even necessary to dereference this string. helper
> > is not passed to uevent_call_helper() and it makes a proper copy of the
> > string. Why not just make the empty-string check on the copy like the
> > following?
> > 
> > ==== CUT HERE ====
> > kobject: Do not call uevent_helper with RCU lock held
> > 
> > With sleep debugging enabled, the call to uevent_helper spews warnings
> > all over the console because the RCU lock is held when the process goes to
> > sleep. The RCU lock is only held so that the system is sure that
> > uevent_helper is not an empty string.
> > 
> > As uevent_call_helper() already makes a proper copy of the uevent_helper
> > string, this patch changes when and where the empty-string check is
> > made so that the check is made against the copy. Assuming the helper
> > exists, it is then called without the RCU lock held.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mel@csn.ul.ie>
> > ---
> >  lib/kobject_uevent.c |   13 +++++++------
> >  1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/lib/kobject_uevent.c b/lib/kobject_uevent.c
> > index a7520d0..f411457 100644
> > --- a/lib/kobject_uevent.c
> > +++ b/lib/kobject_uevent.c
> > @@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ static int uevent_call_helper(const char *subsystem, struct kobj_uevent_env *env
> >  	if (!helper)
> >  		return -ENOMEM;
> >  
> > +	if (!helper[0]) {
> > +		retval = -EINVAL;
> > +		goto error;
> > +	}
> > +
> >  	retval = -E2BIG;
> >  	argv[0] = helper;
> >  	argv[1] = (char *)subsystem;
> > @@ -126,7 +131,6 @@ int kobject_uevent_env(struct kobject *kobj, enum kobject_action action,
> >  	struct kset *kset;
> >  	const struct kset_uevent_ops *uevent_ops;
> >  	u64 seq;
> > -	const char *helper;
> >  	int i = 0;
> >  	int retval = 0;
> >  
> > @@ -273,11 +277,8 @@ int kobject_uevent_env(struct kobject *kobj, enum kobject_action action,
> >  #endif
> >  
> >  	/* call uevent_helper, usually only enabled during early boot */
> > -	rcu_read_lock();
> > -	helper = rcu_dereference(uevent_helper);
> > -	if (helper[0])
> > -		retval = uevent_call_helper(subsystem, env);
> > -	rcu_read_unlock();
> > +	retval = uevent_call_helper(subsystem, env);
> > +
> >  exit:
> >  	kfree(devpath);
> >  	kfree(env);
> > 
> 
> We could, but all the rcu string copy stuff got trashed, so we've got to re-diff
> this all anyway.  I'll probalby do exactly what you're suggesting as I fix this
> all up though.
> 

Grand. I'm going to ignore this for the moment so and will keep an eye
out for it in the future.

Thanks

-- 
Mel Gorman
Part-time Phd Student                          Linux Technology Center
University of Limerick                         IBM Dublin Software Lab