Re: What exactly are the issues with 2.6.0-test10 preempt?

Mike Fedyk
2003-11-25T00:01:48Z

On Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 12:50:17AM +0100, Andi Kleen wrote:
> Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> writes:
> >
> > The PAGEFREE debug option works well for page allocations, but the slab
> > cache is not very amenable to it. For slab debugging, it would be
> > wonderful if somebody made a _truly_ debugging slab allocator that didn't
> > use the slab cache at all, but used the page allocator (and screw the fact
> > that you use too much memory ;) instead.
>
> One way to find slab corruptions qickly is to write a thrasher:
> identify for which slab size the corruptions happens and then write a
> small module that runs a thread that just allocates from that slab,
> writes a pattern to it, sleeps a bit, and checks the pattern (allocate
> multiple slabs to make it more effective). Repeat.
>
> If you don't know the size cycle through the different cache sizes.
>
> Me and Chris used that to track down some nasty corruptions on x86-64,
> it is especially useful together with LTP which calls a lot of system
> calls that could cause corruption.

Do you have your code posted anywhere, and when are you going to merge it
with LTP? ;)