Re: [PATCH 03/19] xfs: prevent deadlock trying to cover an active log

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@sandeen.net>]

On 10/14/13 5:17 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
> From: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com>
> 
> Recent analysis of a deadlocked XFS filesystem from a kernel
> crash dump indicated that the filesystem was stuck waiting for log
> space. The short story of the hang on the RHEL6 kernel is this:
> 
> 	- the tail of the log is pinned by an inode
> 	- the inode has been pushed by the xfsaild
> 	- the inode has been flushed to it's backing buffer and is
> 	  currently flush locked and hence waiting for backing
> 	  buffer IO to complete and remove it from the AIL
> 	- the backing buffer is marked for write - it is on the
> 	  delayed write queue
> 	- the inode buffer has been modified directly and logged
> 	  recently due to unlinked inode list modification
> 	- the backing buffer is pinned in memory as it is in the
> 	  active CIL context.
> 	- the xfsbufd won't start buffer writeback because it is
> 	  pinned
> 	- xfssyncd won't force the log because it sees the log as
> 	  needing to be covered and hence wants to issue a dummy
> 	  transaction to move the log covering state machine along.
> 
> Hence there is no trigger to force the CIL to the log and hence
> unpin the inode buffer and therefore complete the inode IO, remove
> it from the AIL and hence move the tail of the log along, allowing
> transactions to start again.
> 
> Mainline kernels also have the same deadlock, though the signature
> is slightly different - the inode buffer never reaches the delayed
> write lists because xfs_buf_item_push() sees that it is pinned and
> hence never adds it to the delayed write list that the xfsaild
> flushes.
> 
> There are two possible solutions here. The first is to simply force
> the log before trying to cover the log and so ensure that the CIL is
> emptied before we try to reserve space for the dummy transaction in
> the xfs_log_worker(). While this might work most of the time, it is
> still racy and is no guarantee that we don't get stuck in
> xfs_trans_reserve waiting for log space to come free. Hence it's not
> the best way to solve the problem.
> 
> The second solution is to modify xfs_log_need_covered() to be aware
> of the CIL. We only should be attempting to cover the log if there
> is no current activity in the log - covering the log is the process
> of ensuring that the head and tail in the log on disk are identical
> (i.e. the log is clean and at idle). Hence, by definition, if there
> are items in the CIL then the log is not at idle and so we don't
> need to attempt to cover it.
> 
> When we don't need to cover the log because it is active or idle, we
> issue a log force from xfs_log_worker() - if the log is idle, then
> this does nothing.  However, if the log is active due to there being
> items in the CIL, it will force the items in the CIL to the log and
> unpin them.
> 
> In the case of the above deadlock scenario, instead of
> xfs_log_worker() getting stuck in xfs_trans_reserve() attempting to
> cover the log, it will instead force the log, thereby unpinning the
> inode buffer, allowing IO to be issued and complete and hence
> removing the inode that was pinning the tail of the log from the
> AIL. At that point, everything will start moving along again. i.e.
> the xfs_log_worker turns back into a watchdog that can alleviate
> deadlocks based around pinned items that prevent the tail of the log
> from being moved...
> 
> Signed-off-by: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com>

Reviewed-by: Eric Sandeen <sandeen@redhat.com>

> ---
>  fs/xfs/xfs_log.c      | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
>  fs/xfs/xfs_log_cil.c  | 14 ++++++++++++++
>  fs/xfs/xfs_log_priv.h | 10 ++++------
>  3 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c
> index a2dea108..613ed94 100644
> --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c
> +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c
> @@ -1000,27 +1000,34 @@ xfs_log_space_wake(
>  }
>  
>  /*
> - * Determine if we have a transaction that has gone to disk
> - * that needs to be covered. To begin the transition to the idle state
> - * firstly the log needs to be idle (no AIL and nothing in the iclogs).
> - * If we are then in a state where covering is needed, the caller is informed
> - * that dummy transactions are required to move the log into the idle state.
> + * Determine if we have a transaction that has gone to disk that needs to be
> + * covered. To begin the transition to the idle state firstly the log needs to
> + * be idle. That means the CIL, the AIL and the iclogs needs to be empty before
> + * we start attempting to cover the log.
>   *
> - * Because this is called as part of the sync process, we should also indicate
> - * that dummy transactions should be issued in anything but the covered or
> - * idle states. This ensures that the log tail is accurately reflected in
> - * the log at the end of the sync, hence if a crash occurrs avoids replay
> - * of transactions where the metadata is already on disk.
> + * Only if we are then in a state where covering is needed, the caller is
> + * informed that dummy transactions are required to move the log into the idle
> + * state.
> + *
> + * If there are any items in the AIl or CIL, then we do not want to attempt to
> + * cover the log as we may be in a situation where there isn't log space
> + * available to run a dummy transaction and this can lead to deadlocks when the
> + * tail of the log is pinned by an item that is modified in the CIL.  Hence
> + * there's no point in running a dummy transaction at this point because we
> + * can't start trying to idle the log until both the CIL and AIL are empty.
>   */
>  int
>  xfs_log_need_covered(xfs_mount_t *mp)
>  {
> -	int		needed = 0;
>  	struct xlog	*log = mp->m_log;
> +	int		needed = 0;
>  
>  	if (!xfs_fs_writable(mp))
>  		return 0;
>  
> +	if (!xlog_cil_empty(log))
> +		return 0;
> +
>  	spin_lock(&log->l_icloglock);
>  	switch (log->l_covered_state) {
>  	case XLOG_STATE_COVER_DONE:
> @@ -1029,14 +1036,17 @@ xfs_log_need_covered(xfs_mount_t *mp)
>  		break;
>  	case XLOG_STATE_COVER_NEED:
>  	case XLOG_STATE_COVER_NEED2:
> -		if (!xfs_ail_min_lsn(log->l_ailp) &&
> -		    xlog_iclogs_empty(log)) {
> -			if (log->l_covered_state == XLOG_STATE_COVER_NEED)
> -				log->l_covered_state = XLOG_STATE_COVER_DONE;
> -			else
> -				log->l_covered_state = XLOG_STATE_COVER_DONE2;
> -		}
> -		/* FALLTHRU */
> +		if (xfs_ail_min_lsn(log->l_ailp))
> +			break;
> +		if (!xlog_iclogs_empty(log))
> +			break;
> +
> +		needed = 1;
> +		if (log->l_covered_state == XLOG_STATE_COVER_NEED)
> +			log->l_covered_state = XLOG_STATE_COVER_DONE;
> +		else
> +			log->l_covered_state = XLOG_STATE_COVER_DONE2;
> +		break;
>  	default:
>  		needed = 1;
>  		break;
> diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_log_cil.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_log_cil.c
> index cfe9797..da8524e77 100644
> --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_log_cil.c
> +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_log_cil.c
> @@ -711,6 +711,20 @@ xlog_cil_push_foreground(
>  	xlog_cil_push(log);
>  }
>  
> +bool
> +xlog_cil_empty(
> +	struct xlog	*log)
> +{
> +	struct xfs_cil	*cil = log->l_cilp;
> +	bool		empty = false;
> +
> +	spin_lock(&cil->xc_push_lock);
> +	if (list_empty(&cil->xc_cil))
> +		empty = true;
> +	spin_unlock(&cil->xc_push_lock);
> +	return empty;
> +}
> +
>  /*
>   * Commit a transaction with the given vector to the Committed Item List.
>   *
> diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_log_priv.h b/fs/xfs/xfs_log_priv.h
> index 136654b..f80cff2 100644
> --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_log_priv.h
> +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_log_priv.h
> @@ -514,12 +514,10 @@ xlog_assign_grant_head(atomic64_t *head, int cycle, int space)
>  /*
>   * Committed Item List interfaces
>   */
> -int
> -xlog_cil_init(struct xlog *log);
> -void
> -xlog_cil_init_post_recovery(struct xlog *log);
> -void
> -xlog_cil_destroy(struct xlog *log);
> +int	xlog_cil_init(struct xlog *log);
> +void	xlog_cil_init_post_recovery(struct xlog *log);
> +void	xlog_cil_destroy(struct xlog *log);
> +bool	xlog_cil_empty(struct xlog *log);
>  
>  /*
>   * CIL force routines
> 

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