[patch 015/164] mutex: Fix optimistic spinning vs. BKL

Greg KH
2010-07-01T20:49:38Z

2.6.33-stable review patch. If anyone has any objections, please let me know.

------------------

From: Tony Breeds <tony@bakeyournoodle.com>

commit fd6be105b883244127a734ac9f14ae94a022dcc0 upstream.

Currently, we can hit a nasty case with optimistic
spinning on mutexes:

CPU A tries to take a mutex, while holding the BKL

CPU B tried to take the BLK while holding the mutex

This looks like a AB-BA scenario but in practice, is
allowed and happens due to the auto-release on
schedule() nature of the BKL.

In that case, the optimistic spinning code can get us
into a situation where instead of going to sleep, A
will spin waiting for B who is spinning waiting for
A, and the only way out of that loop is the
need_resched() test in mutex_spin_on_owner().

This patch fixes it by completely disabling spinning
if we own the BKL. This adds one more detail to the
extensive list of reasons why it's a bad idea for
kernel code to be holding the BKL.

Signed-off-by: Tony Breeds <tony@bakeyournoodle.com>
Acked-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>
LKML-Reference: <20100519054636.GC12389@ozlabs.org>
[ added an unlikely() attribute to the branch ]
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>

---
kernel/mutex.c | 7 +++++++
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

--- a/kernel/mutex.c
+++ b/kernel/mutex.c
@@ -172,6 +172,13 @@ __mutex_lock_common(struct mutex *lock,
struct thread_info *owner;

/*
+ * If we own the BKL, then don't spin. The owner of
+ * the mutex might be waiting on us to release the BKL.
+ */
+ if (unlikely(current->lock_depth >= 0))
+ break;
+
+ /*
* If there's an owner, wait for it to either
* release the lock or go to sleep.
*/