From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932303Ab2HUSaj (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:30:39 -0400 Received: from e9.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.139]:35147 "EHLO e9.ny.us.ibm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932274Ab2HUSae (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:30:34 -0400 Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:24:32 -0700 From: "Paul E. McKenney" To: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Rafael Aquini , linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org, Rusty Russell , "Michael S. Tsirkin" , Rik van Riel , Mel Gorman , Andi Kleen , Andrew Morton , Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk , Minchan Kim Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 1/5] mm: introduce a common interface for balloon pages mobility Message-ID: <20120821162432.GG2456@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Reply-To: paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com References: <1345562411.23018.111.camel@twins> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1345562411.23018.111.camel@twins> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Content-Scanned: Fidelis XPS MAILER x-cbid: 12082118-7182-0000-0000-000002581D65 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 05:20:11PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote: > On Tue, 2012-08-21 at 09:47 -0300, Rafael Aquini wrote: > > + mapping = rcu_access_pointer(page->mapping); > > + if (mapping) > > + mapping = mapping->assoc_mapping; > > The comment near rcu_access_pointer() explicitly says: > > * Return the value of the specified RCU-protected pointer, but omit the > * smp_read_barrier_depends() and keep the ACCESS_ONCE(). This is useful > * when the value of this pointer is accessed, but the pointer is not > * dereferenced, > > Yet you dereference the pointer... smells like fail to me. Indeed! This will break DEC Alpha. In addition, if ->mapping can transition from non-NULL to NULL, and if you used rcu_access_pointer() rather than rcu_dereference() to avoid lockdep-RCU from yelling at you about not either being in an RCU read-side critical section or holding an update-side lock, you can see failures as follows: 1. CPU 0 runs the above code, picks up mapping, and finds it non-NULL. 2. CPU 0 is preempted or otherwise delayed. (Keep in mind that even disabling interrupts in a guest OS does not prevent the host hypervisor from preempting!) 3. Some other CPU NULLs page->mapping. Because CPU 0 isn't doing anything to prevent it, this other CPU frees the memory. 4. CPU 0 resumes, and then accesses what is now the freelist. Arbitrarily bad things start happening. If you are in a read-side critical section, use rcu_dereference() instead of rcu_access_pointer(). If you are holding an update-side lock, use rcu_dereference_protected() and say what lock you are holding. If you are doing something else, please say what it is. Thanx, Paul