Re: [patch 1/3] ipc/sem: fix -rt livelock

[Manfred Spraul <manfred@colorfullife.com>]

Hi Mike,

On 09/13/2013 08:12 AM, Mike Galbraith wrote:
> goto again loop can and does induce livelock in -rt.  Remove it.
>
> spin_unlock_wait(lock) in -rt kernels takes/releases the lock in question, so
> all it takes to create a self perpetuating loop is for one task to start the
> ball rolling by taking the array lock, other tasks see this, and react by
> take/release/retry endlessly.
I think your code inherits the race I just sent to you:
The test of complex_count must be after spin_is_locked().

http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=137919453307294

Could you check that?
Or alternatively: Is my proposed sem_lock() function -rt friendly?


>   		locknum = -1;
> +
> +		if (nsops == 1 && !sma->complex_count) {
> +			sem = sma->sem_base + sops->sem_num;
> +			spin_lock(&sem->lock);
> +			spin_unlock(&sma->sem_perm.lock);
> +			locknum = sops->sem_num;
> +		}
A clever idea:
If the decision that the slow path must be used proves to be a false 
alarm, switch back to the fast path.
You can even move that block further up and skip the loop over all 
per-semaphore arrays.

--
     Manfred