Re: [PATCH 2/3] xfs: add kmem_alloc_io()

Michal Hocko
2019-08-26T12:21:13Z

On Thu 22-08-19 16:26:42, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> On 8/22/19 3:17 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 02:19:04PM +0200, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> >> On 8/22/19 2:07 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
> >> > On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 01:14:30PM +0200, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> >> >
> >> > No, the problem is this (using kmalloc as a general term for
> >> > allocation, whether it be kmalloc, kmem_cache_alloc, alloc_page, etc)
> >> >
> >> > some random kernel code
> >> > kmalloc(GFP_KERNEL)
> >> > reclaim
> >> > PF_MEMALLOC
> >> > shrink_slab
> >> > xfs_inode_shrink
> >> > XFS_ILOCK
> >> > xfs_buf_allocate_memory()
> >> > kmalloc(GFP_KERNEL)
> >> >
> >> > And so locks on inodes in reclaim are seen below reclaim. Then
> >> > somewhere else we have:
> >> >
> >> > some high level read-only xfs code like readdir
> >> > XFS_ILOCK
> >> > xfs_buf_allocate_memory()
> >> > kmalloc(GFP_KERNEL)
> >> > reclaim
> >> >
> >> > And this one throws false positive lockdep warnings because we
> >> > called into reclaim with XFS_ILOCK held and GFP_KERNEL alloc
> >>
> >> OK, and what exactly makes this positive a false one? Why can't it continue like
> >> the first example where reclaim leads to another XFS_ILOCK, thus deadlock?
> >
> > Because above reclaim we only have operations being done on
> > referenced inodes, and below reclaim we only have unreferenced
> > inodes. We never lock the same inode both above and below reclaim
> > at the same time.
> >
> > IOWs, an operation above reclaim cannot see, access or lock
> > unreferenced inodes, except in inode write clustering, and that uses
> > trylocks so cannot deadlock with reclaim.
> >
> > An operation below reclaim cannot see, access or lock referenced
> > inodes except during inode write clustering, and that uses trylocks
> > so cannot deadlock with code above reclaim.
>
> Thanks for elaborating. Perhaps lockdep experts (not me) would know how to
> express that. If not possible, then replacing GFP_NOFS with __GFP_NOLOCKDEP
> should indeed suppress the warning, while allowing FS reclaim.

This was certainly my hope to happen when introducing __GFP_NOLOCKDEP.
I couldn't have done the second step because that requires a deep
understanding of the code in question which is beyond my capacity. It
seems we still haven't found a brave soul to start converting GFP_NOFS
to __GFP_NOLOCKDEP. And it would be really appreciated.

Thanks.
--
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs