Re: [PATCH v1 04/25] block: nr_sects_write(): Disable preemption on seqcount write

Ahmed S. Darwish
2020-05-25T09:56:24Z

Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> wrote:
> On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 11:45:26PM +0200, Ahmed S. Darwish wrote:
> > For optimized block readers not holding a mutex, the "number of sectors"
> > 64-bit value is protected from tearing on 32-bit architectures by a
> > sequence counter.
> >
> > Disable preemption before entering that sequence counter's write side
> > critical section. Otherwise, the read side can preempt the write side
> > section and spin for the entire scheduler tick. If the reader belongs to
> > a real-time scheduling class, it can spin forever and the kernel will
> > livelock.
> >
> > Fixes: c83f6bf98dc1 ("block: add partition resize function to blkpg ioctl")
> > Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
> > Signed-off-by: Ahmed S. Darwish <a.darwish@linutronix.de>
> > Reviewed-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
> > ---
> > block/blk.h | 2 ++
> > 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/block/blk.h b/block/blk.h
> > index 0a94ec68af32..151f86932547 100644
> > --- a/block/blk.h
> > +++ b/block/blk.h
> > @@ -470,9 +470,11 @@ static inline sector_t part_nr_sects_read(struct hd_struct *part)
> > static inline void part_nr_sects_write(struct hd_struct *part, sector_t size)
> > {
> > #if BITS_PER_LONG==32 && defined(CONFIG_SMP)
> > + preempt_disable();
> > write_seqcount_begin(&part->nr_sects_seq);
> > part->nr_sects = size;
> > write_seqcount_end(&part->nr_sects_seq);
> > + preempt_enable();
> > #elif BITS_PER_LONG==32 && defined(CONFIG_PREEMPTION)
> > preempt_disable();
> > part->nr_sects = size;
>
> This does look like something that include/linux/u64_stats_sync.h could
> help with.

Correct.

I just felt though that this would be too much for a 'Cc: stable' patch.

In another (in-progress) seqlock.h patch series, all of the seqcount_t
call sites that are used for 64-bit values tearing protection on 32-bit
kernels are transformed to the u64_stats_sync.h API.

Thanks,

--
Ahmed S. Darwish
Linutronix GmbH