[PATCH] serial8250: ratelimit "too much work" error

Daniel Drake
2010-10-02T11:04:38Z

Running a serial console, if too many kernel messages are generated within
a short time causing a lot of serial I/O, the 8250 driver will generate
another kernel message reporting this, which just adds to the I/O. It has
a cascading effect and quickly results the system being brought to its knees
by a flood of "too much work" messages.

Ratelimit the error message to avoid this.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Drake <dsd@laptop.org>
---
drivers/serial/8250.c | 5 +++--
1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/serial/8250.c b/drivers/serial/8250.c
index 24110f6..d3c5855 100644
--- a/drivers/serial/8250.c
+++ b/drivers/serial/8250.c
@@ -1606,8 +1606,9 @@ static irqreturn_t serial8250_interrupt(int irq, void *dev_id)

if (l == i->head && pass_counter++ > PASS_LIMIT) {
/* If we hit this, we're dead. */
- printk(KERN_ERR "serial8250: too much work for "
- "irq%d\n", irq);
+ if (printk_ratelimit())
+ printk(KERN_ERR "serial8250: too much work for "
+ "irq%d\n", irq);
break;
}
} while (l != end);
--
1.7.2.3