Re: BUG: workqueue lockup - SRCU schedules work on not-online CPUs during size transition

[Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com>]

On Thu, Apr 09, 2026 at 10:22:00AM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 09, 2026 at 03:08:45PM +0200, Vasily Gorbik wrote:
> > Commit 61bbcfb50514 ("srcu: Push srcu_node allocation to GP when
> > non-preemptible") defers srcu_node tree allocation when called under
> > raw spinlock, putting SRCU through ~6 transitional grace periods
> > (SRCU_SIZE_ALLOC to SRCU_SIZE_BIG). During this transition srcu_gp_end()
> > uses mask = ~0, which makes srcu_schedule_cbs_snp() call queue_work_on()
> > for every possible CPU. Since rcu_gp_wq is WQ_PERCPU, work targets
> > per-CPU pools directly - pools for not-online CPUs have no workers,
> > work accumulates, workqueue lockup detector fires.
> > 
> > Before 61bbcfb50514, GFP_ATOMIC allocation went straight to
> > SRCU_SIZE_BIG, the mask = ~0 path was never reached.
> > 
> > Affects systems with convert_to_big active (auto when nr_cpu_ids >= 128)
> > and possible CPUs > online CPUs. Hit on s390 LPAR (76 online, 400 possible),
> > where possible CPUs > online CPUs is the usual case.
> > Also reproducible on x86 KVM --smp 16,maxcpus=255 (CONFIG_NR_CPUS=256)
> > or simply -smp 1,maxcpus=2 with srcutree.convert_to_big=1
> > or --smp 16,maxcpus=64 with srcutree.big_cpu_lim=32 (CONFIG_NR_CPUS=64)
> > 
> > s390 log (76 online CPUs, 400 possible, all pools 76-399 stuck):
> > 
> >   BUG: workqueue lockup - pool cpus=76 node=0 flags=0x4 nice=0 stuck for 1842s!
> >   BUG: workqueue lockup - pool cpus=77 node=0 flags=0x4 nice=0 stuck for 1842s!
> >   ...
> >   BUG: workqueue lockup - pool cpus=399 node=0 flags=0x4 nice=0 stuck for 1842s!
> >   Showing busy workqueues and worker pools:
> >   workqueue rcu_gp: flags=0x108
> >     pwq 306: cpus=76 node=0 flags=0x4 nice=0 active=3 refcnt=4
> >       pending: 3*srcu_invoke_callbacks
> >     pwq 310: cpus=77 node=0 flags=0x4 nice=0 active=3 refcnt=4
> >       pending: 3*srcu_invoke_callbacks
> >     ...
> >     pwq 1598: cpus=399 node=0 flags=0x4 nice=0 active=3 refcnt=4
> >       pending: 3*srcu_invoke_callbacks
> > 
> > Not sure if replacing mask = ~0 with something derived from
> > cpu_online_mask would be racy in that context.
> > 
> > [1] https://lore.kernel.org/rcu/acRho9L4zA2MRuxc@tardis.local
> > [2] https://lore.kernel.org/rcu/fe28d664-3872-40f6-83c6-818627ad5b7d@paulmck-laptop
> 
> This was a pre-existing bug, but the change made it much more likely
> to happen.

Yes, indeed.

> Does the alleged (and untested) fix below do the trick?  The theory is
> that if a given CPU has ever been fully online, it has workqueues set up.
> Directly checking whether a CPU is currently online is vulnerable to a CPU
> piling up lots of SRCU callbacks, then going offline.  So we do need to
> be prepared to invoke SRCU callbacks for CPUs that are currently offline.

Yes, tested on s390 LPAR (76 online, 400 possible) as well as
on x86 KVM with --smp 16,maxcpus=255 and CONFIG_NR_CPUS=256
no more workqueue lockup in both cases.

Thank you!

Tested-by: Vasily Gorbik <gor@linux.ibm.com>

> diff --git a/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c b/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c
> index 0d01cd8c4b4a7..e68ee7f69e1fc 100644
> --- a/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c
> +++ b/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c
> @@ -898,7 +898,7 @@ static void srcu_schedule_cbs_snp(struct srcu_struct *ssp, struct srcu_node *snp
>  	int cpu;
>  
>  	for (cpu = snp->grplo; cpu <= snp->grphi; cpu++) {
> -		if (!(mask & (1UL << (cpu - snp->grplo))))
> +		if (!(mask & (1UL << (cpu - snp->grplo))) || !rcu_cpu_beenfullyonline(cpu))
>  			continue;
>  		srcu_schedule_cbs_sdp(per_cpu_ptr(ssp->sda, cpu), delay);
>  	}