From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: corbet@lwn.net (Jonathan Corbet)
Cc: linux-pm <linux-pm@lists.linux-foundation.org>,
lkml <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
nfs@lists.sourceforge.net,
Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>,
"Chakri n" <chakriin5@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: A unresponsive file system can hang all I/O in the system on linux-2.6.23-rc6 (dirty_thresh problem?)
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:04:45 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20070928110445.69e687c0.akpm@linux-foundation.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <10659.1190986132@lwn.net>
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:28:52 -0600 corbet@lwn.net (Jonathan Corbet) wrote:
> Andrew wrote:
> > It's unrelated to the actual value of dirty_thresh: if the machine fills up
> > with dirty (or unstable) NFS pages then eventually new writers will block
> > until that condition clears.
> >
> > 2.4 doesn't have this problem at low levels of dirty data because 2.4
> > VFS/MM doesn't account for NFS pages at all.
>
> Is it really NFS-related? I was trying to back up my 2.6.23-rc8 system
> to an external USB drive the other day when something flaked and the
> drive fell off the bus. That, too, was sufficient to wedge the entire
> system, even though the only thing which needed the dead drive was one
> rsync process. It's kind of a bummer to have to hit the reset button
> after the failure of (what should be) a non-critical piece of hardware.
>
> Not that I have a fix to propose...:)
>
That's a USB bug, surely. What should happen is that the kernel attempts
writeback, gets an IO error and then your data gets lost.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2007-09-28 18:05 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 46+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2007-09-28 6:32 A unresponsive file system can hang all I/O in the system on linux-2.6.23-rc6 (dirty_thresh problem?) Chakri n
2007-09-28 6:50 ` Andrew Morton
2007-09-28 6:59 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-09-28 8:27 ` Chakri n
2007-09-28 8:40 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-09-28 9:01 ` Chakri n
2007-09-28 9:12 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-09-28 9:20 ` Chakri n
2007-09-28 9:23 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-09-28 10:36 ` Chakri n
2007-09-28 13:28 ` Jonathan Corbet
2007-09-28 13:35 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-09-28 16:45 ` [linux-pm] " Alan Stern
2007-09-29 1:27 ` Daniel Phillips
2007-09-28 18:04 ` Andrew Morton [this message]
2007-09-28 17:00 ` Trond Myklebust
2007-09-28 18:49 ` Andrew Morton
2007-09-28 18:48 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-09-28 19:16 ` Andrew Morton
2007-10-02 13:36 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-10-02 15:42 ` Randy Dunlap
2007-10-03 9:28 ` [PATCH] lockstat: documentation Peter Zijlstra
2007-10-03 9:35 ` Ingo Molnar
2007-09-28 19:16 ` A unresponsive file system can hang all I/O in the system on linux-2.6.23-rc6 (dirty_thresh problem?) Trond Myklebust
2007-09-28 19:26 ` Andrew Morton
2007-09-28 19:52 ` Trond Myklebust
2007-09-28 20:10 ` Andrew Morton
2007-09-28 20:32 ` Trond Myklebust
2007-09-28 20:43 ` Andrew Morton
2007-09-28 21:36 ` Chakri n
2007-09-28 23:33 ` Chakri n
2007-09-28 20:24 ` Daniel Phillips
2007-09-29 1:51 ` KDB? Daniel Phillips
2007-09-29 0:46 ` A unresponsive file system can hang all I/O in the system on linux-2.6.23-rc6 (dirty_thresh problem?) Daniel Phillips
[not found] ` <20070929110454.GA29861@mail.ustc.edu.cn>
2007-09-29 11:04 ` Fengguang Wu
2007-09-29 11:48 ` Peter Zijlstra
[not found] ` <20070929122842.GA5454@mail.ustc.edu.cn>
2007-09-29 12:28 ` Fengguang Wu
2007-09-29 14:43 ` Peter Zijlstra
2007-10-01 15:57 ` Chuck Ebbert
[not found] ` <20071002020040.GA5275@mail.ustc.edu.cn>
2007-10-02 2:00 ` [PATCH] writeback: avoid possible balance_dirty_pages() lockup on a light-load bdi Fengguang Wu
2007-10-02 2:14 ` Andrew Morton
[not found] ` <20071002121327.GA5718@mail.ustc.edu.cn>
2007-10-02 12:13 ` Fengguang Wu
[not found] ` <20071002132702.GA10967@mail.ustc.edu.cn>
2007-10-02 13:27 ` Fengguang Wu
2007-10-02 18:35 ` Chuck Ebbert
2007-10-03 12:46 ` richard kennedy
[not found] ` <20071004015053.GA5789@mail.ustc.edu.cn>
2007-10-04 1:50 ` Fengguang Wu
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