Re: Flushing whole page instead of exact address for ptrace

[Michal Simek <monstr@monstr.eu>]

Hi,

Michal Simek wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have found one problem when I debug multithread application on 
> Microblaze. Let me describe what I discovered.
> 
> GDB has internal timeout which is setup to value 3. Which should mean if 
> GDB sends packet and doesn't receive answer for it then after 3 internal 
> timeouts GDB announces "Ignoring packet error, continuing..." and then 
> fail. (communication is done over TCP).
> 
> In any older version we could debug multithread application that's why
> I bisected all new patches which I have added to the kernel and I 
> identify that the problem is caused by my patch.
> 
> microblaze: Implement flush_dcache_page macro
> sha1(79e87830faf22ca636b1a1d8f4deb430ea6e1c8b)
> 
> I had to implemented flush_dcache_page macro for new systems with 
> write-back(WB) cache which is important for several components (for 
> example jffs2 rootfs) to get it work on WB.
> BTW: For systems with write-through(WT) caches I don't need to implement 
> this macro because flushing is done automatically.
> 
> Then I replaced macro on WT by udelay loop to find out if the problem is 
> time dependent. I tested it on two hw designs(on the same HZ and cache 
> size) with two different network IPs/drivers (one with DMA and second 
> without) and I found that system with dma network driver can spend more 
> time on dcache flushing before GDB timeout happens because TCP 
> communication is faster. Which means that the problem also depends on 
> cpu speed and cache configuration - size, cache line length.
> 
> Then I traced kernel part and I was focused why this macro is causing 
> this problem.
> 
> GDB sends symbol-lookup command (qSymbol) and I see a lot of kernel 
> ptrace PEEKTEXT requests. I parse it and here is calling sequence.
> 
> (kernel/ptrace.c) sys_ptrace -> 
> (arch/microblaze/kernel/ptrace.c)arch_ptrace -> 
> (kernel/ptrace.c)ptrace_request -> generic_ptrace_peek/poke data/text -> 
> (mm/memory.c) access_process_vm -> get_user_pages -> __get_user_pages -> 
> flush_dcache_page
> 
> Function access_process_vm calls __get_user_pages which doesn't work 
> with buffer len (which is for PEEK/POKE TEXT/DATA just 32 bit - for 
> 32bit Microblaze) but only with start and PAGE size. There is also 
> called flush_dcache_page macro which takes more time than in past, 
> because was empty. Macro flushes whole page but it is necessary, for 
> this case, just flush one address if is called from ptrace.
> 
> What is the best way how to ensure that there will be flush only address 
> instead of whole page for ptrace requests?
> I think that there shouldn't be a reason to flush whole page for ptraces.
> 
> Please correct me if I am wrong somewhere.

Any suggestions?
Michal



-- 
Michal Simek, Ing. (M.Eng)
w: www.monstr.eu p: +42-0-721842854
Maintainer of Linux kernel 2.6 Microblaze Linux - http://www.monstr.eu/fdt/
Microblaze U-BOOT custodian