Re: [PATCH 1/2] mm,migration: Prevent rmap_walk_[anon|ksm] seeing the wrong VMA information

Mel Gorman
2010-05-05T18:18:07Z

On Wed, May 05, 2010 at 11:02:25AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 5 May 2010, Mel Gorman wrote:
> >
> > If the same_vma list is properly ordered then maybe something like the
> > following is allowed?
>
> Heh. This is the same logic I just sent out. However:
>
> > + anon_vma = page_rmapping(page);
> > + if (!anon_vma)
> > + return NULL;
> > +
> > + spin_lock(&anon_vma->lock);
>
> RCU should guarantee that this spin_lock() is valid, but:
>
> > + /*
> > + * Get the oldest anon_vma on the list by depending on the ordering
> > + * of the same_vma list setup by __page_set_anon_rmap
> > + */
> > + avc = list_entry(&anon_vma->head, struct anon_vma_chain, same_anon_vma);
>
> We're not guaranteed that the 'anon_vma->head' list is non-empty.
>
> Somebody could have freed the list and the anon_vma and we have a stale
> 'page->anon_vma' (that has just not been _released_ yet).
>

Ahh, fair point. I asked in the other mail was the empty list check
necessary - it is. Thanks

> And shouldn't that be 'list_first_entry'? Or &anon_vma->head.next?
>

Should have been list_first_entry.

> How did that line actually work for you? Or was it just a "it boots", but
> no actual testing of the rmap walk?
>

It's currently running a migration-related stress test without any
deadlocks or lockdep wobbly so far.

--
Mel Gorman
Part-time Phd Student Linux Technology Center
University of Limerick IBM Dublin Software Lab