[PATCH v4] xfs: Fix false positive lockdep warning with sb_internal & fs_reclaim

Waiman Long
2020-06-18T17:20:00Z

Depending on the workloads, the following circular locking dependency
warning between sb_internal (a percpu rwsem) and fs_reclaim (a pseudo
lock) may show up:

======================================================
WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
5.0.0-rc1+ #60 Tainted: G W
------------------------------------------------------
fsfreeze/4346 is trying to acquire lock:
0000000026f1d784 (fs_reclaim){+.+.}, at:
fs_reclaim_acquire.part.19+0x5/0x30

but task is already holding lock:
0000000072bfc54b (sb_internal){++++}, at: percpu_down_write+0xb4/0x650

which lock already depends on the new lock.
:
Possible unsafe locking scenario:

CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
lock(sb_internal);
lock(fs_reclaim);
lock(sb_internal);
lock(fs_reclaim);

*** DEADLOCK ***

4 locks held by fsfreeze/4346:
#0: 00000000b478ef56 (sb_writers#8){++++}, at: percpu_down_write+0xb4/0x650
#1: 000000001ec487a9 (&type->s_umount_key#28){++++}, at: freeze_super+0xda/0x290
#2: 000000003edbd5a0 (sb_pagefaults){++++}, at: percpu_down_write+0xb4/0x650
#3: 0000000072bfc54b (sb_internal){++++}, at: percpu_down_write+0xb4/0x650

stack backtrace:
Call Trace:
dump_stack+0xe0/0x19a
print_circular_bug.isra.10.cold.34+0x2f4/0x435
check_prev_add.constprop.19+0xca1/0x15f0
validate_chain.isra.14+0x11af/0x3b50
__lock_acquire+0x728/0x1200
lock_acquire+0x269/0x5a0
fs_reclaim_acquire.part.19+0x29/0x30
fs_reclaim_acquire+0x19/0x20
kmem_cache_alloc+0x3e/0x3f0
kmem_zone_alloc+0x79/0x150
xfs_trans_alloc+0xfa/0x9d0
xfs_sync_sb+0x86/0x170
xfs_log_sbcount+0x10f/0x140
xfs_quiesce_attr+0x134/0x270
xfs_fs_freeze+0x4a/0x70
freeze_super+0x1af/0x290
do_vfs_ioctl+0xedc/0x16c0
ksys_ioctl+0x41/0x80
__x64_sys_ioctl+0x73/0xa9
do_syscall_64+0x18f/0xd23
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x49/0xbe

This is a false positive as all the dirty pages are flushed out before
the filesystem can be frozen.

One way to avoid this splat is to add GFP_NOFS to the affected allocation
calls. This is what PF_MEMALLOC_NOFS per-process flag is for. This does
reduce the potential source of memory where reclaim can be done. This
shouldn't matter unless the system is really running out of memory.
In that particular case, the filesystem freeze operation may fail while
it was succeeding previously.

Without this patch, the command sequence below will show that the lock
dependency chain sb_internal -> fs_reclaim exists.

# fsfreeze -f /home
# fsfreeze --unfreeze /home
# grep -i fs_reclaim -C 3 /proc/lockdep_chains | grep -C 5 sb_internal

After applying the patch, such sb_internal -> fs_reclaim lock dependency
chain can no longer be found. Because of that, the locking dependency
warning will not be shown.

Suggested-by: Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com>
Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@redhat.com>
---
fs/xfs/xfs_super.c | 24 +++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c
index 379cbff438bc..1b94b9bfa4d7 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c
@@ -913,11 +913,33 @@ xfs_fs_freeze(
struct super_block *sb)
{
struct xfs_mount *mp = XFS_M(sb);
+ unsigned long pflags;
+ int ret;

+ /*
+ * A fs_reclaim pseudo lock is added to check for potential deadlock
+ * condition with fs reclaim. The following lockdep splat was hit
+ * occasionally. This is actually a false positive as the allocation
+ * is being done only after the frozen filesystem is no longer dirty.
+ * One way to avoid this splat is to add GFP_NOFS to the affected
+ * allocation calls. This is what PF_MEMALLOC_NOFS is for.
+ *
+ * CPU0 CPU1
+ * ---- ----
+ * lock(sb_internal);
+ * lock(fs_reclaim);
+ * lock(sb_internal);
+ * lock(fs_reclaim);
+ *
+ * *** DEADLOCK ***
+ */
+ current_set_flags_nested(&pflags, PF_MEMALLOC_NOFS);
xfs_stop_block_reaping(mp);
xfs_save_resvblks(mp);
xfs_quiesce_attr(mp);
- return xfs_sync_sb(mp, true);
+ ret = xfs_sync_sb(mp, true);
+ current_restore_flags_nested(&pflags, PF_MEMALLOC_NOFS);
+ return ret;
}

STATIC int
--
2.18.1