[PATCH] writeback: guard against jiffies wraparound on inode->dirtied_when checks

[PATCH] writeback: guard against jiffies wraparound on inode->dirtied_when checks

[Jeff Layton]

The dirtied_when value on an inode is supposed to represent the first
time that an inode has one of its pages dirtied. This value is in units
of jiffies. It's used in several places in the writeback code to
determine when to write out an inode.

The problem is that these checks assume that dirtied_when is updated
periodically. If an inode is continuously being used for I/O it can be
persistently marked as dirty and will continue to age. Once the time
difference between dirtied_when and the jiffies value it is being
compared to is greater than or equal to half the maximum of the jiffies
type, the logic of the time_*() macros inverts and the opposite of what
is needed is returned. On 32-bit architectures that's just under 25 days
(assuming HZ == 1000).

As the least-recently dirtied inode, it'll end up being the first one
that pdflush will try to write out. sync_sb_inodes does this check:

	/* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
 	if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
 		break;

...but now dirtied_when appears to be in the future. sync_sb_inodes
bails out without attempting to write any dirty inodes. When this
occurs, pdflush will stop writing out inodes for this superblock.
Nothing can unwedge it until jiffies moves out of the problematic
window.

This patch fixes this problem by changing the checks against
dirtied_when to also check whether it appears to be in the future. If it
does, then we consider the value to be far in the past.

This should shrink the problematic window of time to such a small period
as not to matter.

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@intel.com>
Acked-by: Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>
---
 fs/fs-writeback.c |   11 +++++++----
 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/fs-writeback.c b/fs/fs-writeback.c
index e3fe991..dba69a5 100644
--- a/fs/fs-writeback.c
+++ b/fs/fs-writeback.c
@@ -196,8 +196,9 @@ static void redirty_tail(struct inode *inode)
 		struct inode *tail_inode;
 
 		tail_inode = list_entry(sb->s_dirty.next, struct inode, i_list);
-		if (!time_after_eq(inode->dirtied_when,
-				tail_inode->dirtied_when))
+		if (time_before(inode->dirtied_when,
+				tail_inode->dirtied_when) ||
+		    time_after(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
 			inode->dirtied_when = jiffies;
 	}
 	list_move(&inode->i_list, &sb->s_dirty);
@@ -231,7 +232,8 @@ static void move_expired_inodes(struct list_head *delaying_queue,
 		struct inode *inode = list_entry(delaying_queue->prev,
 						struct inode, i_list);
 		if (older_than_this &&
-			time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this))
+			time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this) &&
+			time_before_eq(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
 			break;
 		list_move(&inode->i_list, dispatch_queue);
 	}
@@ -493,7 +495,8 @@ void generic_sync_sb_inodes(struct super_block *sb,
 		}
 
 		/* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
-		if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
+		if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start) &&
+		    time_before_eq(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
 			break;
 
 		/* Is another pdflush already flushing this queue? */
-- 
1.5.5.6

Re: [PATCH] writeback: guard against jiffies wraparound on inode->dirtied_when checks

[Andrew Morton]

On Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:40:08 -0400
Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> wrote:

> The dirtied_when value on an inode is supposed to represent the first
> time that an inode has one of its pages dirtied. This value is in units
> of jiffies. It's used in several places in the writeback code to
> determine when to write out an inode.
> 
> The problem is that these checks assume that dirtied_when is updated
> periodically. If an inode is continuously being used for I/O it can be
> persistently marked as dirty and will continue to age. Once the time
> difference between dirtied_when and the jiffies value it is being
> compared to is greater than or equal to half the maximum of the jiffies
> type, the logic of the time_*() macros inverts and the opposite of what
> is needed is returned. On 32-bit architectures that's just under 25 days
> (assuming HZ == 1000).
> 
> As the least-recently dirtied inode, it'll end up being the first one
> that pdflush will try to write out. sync_sb_inodes does this check:
> 
> 	/* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
>  	if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
>  		break;
> 
> ...but now dirtied_when appears to be in the future. sync_sb_inodes
> bails out without attempting to write any dirty inodes. When this
> occurs, pdflush will stop writing out inodes for this superblock.
> Nothing can unwedge it until jiffies moves out of the problematic
> window.
> 
> This patch fixes this problem by changing the checks against
> dirtied_when to also check whether it appears to be in the future. If it
> does, then we consider the value to be far in the past.
> 
> This should shrink the problematic window of time to such a small period
> as not to matter.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>
> Acked-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@intel.com>
> Acked-by: Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>
> ---
>  fs/fs-writeback.c |   11 +++++++----
>  1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/fs-writeback.c b/fs/fs-writeback.c
> index e3fe991..dba69a5 100644
> --- a/fs/fs-writeback.c
> +++ b/fs/fs-writeback.c
> @@ -196,8 +196,9 @@ static void redirty_tail(struct inode *inode)
>  		struct inode *tail_inode;
>  
>  		tail_inode = list_entry(sb->s_dirty.next, struct inode, i_list);
> -		if (!time_after_eq(inode->dirtied_when,
> -				tail_inode->dirtied_when))
> +		if (time_before(inode->dirtied_when,
> +				tail_inode->dirtied_when) ||
> +		    time_after(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
>  			inode->dirtied_when = jiffies;
>  	}
>  	list_move(&inode->i_list, &sb->s_dirty);
> @@ -231,7 +232,8 @@ static void move_expired_inodes(struct list_head *delaying_queue,
>  		struct inode *inode = list_entry(delaying_queue->prev,
>  						struct inode, i_list);
>  		if (older_than_this &&
> -			time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this))
> +			time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this) &&
> +			time_before_eq(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
>  			break;
>  		list_move(&inode->i_list, dispatch_queue);
>  	}
> @@ -493,7 +495,8 @@ void generic_sync_sb_inodes(struct super_block *sb,
>  		}
>  
>  		/* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
> -		if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
> +		if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start) &&
> +		    time_before_eq(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
>  			break;
>  

It'd be nice to add/update the comments to explain what's going on. 
Otherwise it's a wee bit obscure, no?

Re: [PATCH] writeback: guard against jiffies wraparound on inode->dirtied_when checks

[Jeff Layton]

On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:33:35 -0700
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:40:08 -0400
> Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> wrote:
> 
> > The dirtied_when value on an inode is supposed to represent the first
> > time that an inode has one of its pages dirtied. This value is in units
> > of jiffies. It's used in several places in the writeback code to
> > determine when to write out an inode.
> > 
> > The problem is that these checks assume that dirtied_when is updated
> > periodically. If an inode is continuously being used for I/O it can be
> > persistently marked as dirty and will continue to age. Once the time
> > difference between dirtied_when and the jiffies value it is being
> > compared to is greater than or equal to half the maximum of the jiffies
> > type, the logic of the time_*() macros inverts and the opposite of what
> > is needed is returned. On 32-bit architectures that's just under 25 days
> > (assuming HZ == 1000).
> > 
> > As the least-recently dirtied inode, it'll end up being the first one
> > that pdflush will try to write out. sync_sb_inodes does this check:
> > 
> > 	/* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
> >  	if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
> >  		break;
> > 
> > ...but now dirtied_when appears to be in the future. sync_sb_inodes
> > bails out without attempting to write any dirty inodes. When this
> > occurs, pdflush will stop writing out inodes for this superblock.
> > Nothing can unwedge it until jiffies moves out of the problematic
> > window.
> > 
> > This patch fixes this problem by changing the checks against
> > dirtied_when to also check whether it appears to be in the future. If it
> > does, then we consider the value to be far in the past.
> > 
> > This should shrink the problematic window of time to such a small period
> > as not to matter.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>
> > Acked-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@intel.com>
> > Acked-by: Ian Kent <raven@themaw.net>
> > ---
> >  fs/fs-writeback.c |   11 +++++++----
> >  1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/fs/fs-writeback.c b/fs/fs-writeback.c
> > index e3fe991..dba69a5 100644
> > --- a/fs/fs-writeback.c
> > +++ b/fs/fs-writeback.c
> > @@ -196,8 +196,9 @@ static void redirty_tail(struct inode *inode)
> >  		struct inode *tail_inode;
> >  
> >  		tail_inode = list_entry(sb->s_dirty.next, struct inode, i_list);
> > -		if (!time_after_eq(inode->dirtied_when,
> > -				tail_inode->dirtied_when))
> > +		if (time_before(inode->dirtied_when,
> > +				tail_inode->dirtied_when) ||
> > +		    time_after(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
> >  			inode->dirtied_when = jiffies;
> >  	}
> >  	list_move(&inode->i_list, &sb->s_dirty);
> > @@ -231,7 +232,8 @@ static void move_expired_inodes(struct list_head *delaying_queue,
> >  		struct inode *inode = list_entry(delaying_queue->prev,
> >  						struct inode, i_list);
> >  		if (older_than_this &&
> > -			time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this))
> > +			time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this) &&
> > +			time_before_eq(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
> >  			break;
> >  		list_move(&inode->i_list, dispatch_queue);
> >  	}
> > @@ -493,7 +495,8 @@ void generic_sync_sb_inodes(struct super_block *sb,
> >  		}
> >  
> >  		/* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
> > -		if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
> > +		if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start) &&
> > +		    time_before_eq(inode->dirtied_when, jiffies))
> >  			break;
> >  
> 
> It'd be nice to add/update the comments to explain what's going on. 
> Otherwise it's a wee bit obscure, no?
> 

Thanks for picking this up, Andrew...

Good point. I had some comments in the patch that I backported for
RHEL5. I'll add some and send a respin tomorrow.

Cheers,
-- 
Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>