Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] Fix put_task_struct() calls under PREEMPT_RT

Wander Lairson Costa
2023-01-20T20:16:02Z

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 2:45 PM Valentin Schneider <vschneid@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On 20/01/23 at 12:02, Wander Lairson Costa wrote:
> > put_task_struct() decrements a usage counter and calls
> > __put_task_struct() if the counter reaches zero.
> >
> > __put_task_struct() indirectly acquires a spinlock, which is a sleeping
> > lock under PREEMPT_RT. Therefore, we can't call put_task_struct() in an
> > atomic context in RT kernels.
> >
> > This patch series introduces put_task_struct_atomic_safe(), which defers
> > the call to __put_task_struct() to a process context when compiled with
> > PREEMPT_RT.
> >
> > It also fixes known problematic call sites.
> >
>
> Browsing around put_task_struct() callsites gives me the impression there
> are more problematic call sites lurking around, which makes me wonder:
> should we make the PREEMPT_RT put_task_struct() *always* be done via
> call_rcu()?
>

I thought about going on this route, but I was concerned about the
performance side effects this approach could bring. Another idea I had
was to check at runtime if we are in a preemptible context. Again,
this would have a (minor?) performance penalty.

> The task's stack is actually always freed that way in put_task_stack(), cf.
>
> e540bf3162e8 ("fork: Only cache the VMAP stack in finish_task_switch()")
>
> > Changelog:
> > ==========
> >
> > v2:
> > * Add the put_task_struct_atomic_safe() function that is responsible for
> > handling the conditions to call put_task_struct().
> > * Replace put_task_struct() by put_task_struct_atomic_safe() in known
> > atomic call sites.
> >
> > Wander Lairson Costa (4):
> > sched/task: Add the put_task_struct_atomic_safe function
> > sched/deadline: fix inactive_task_timer splat
> > sched/rt: use put_task_struct_atomic_safe() to avoid potential splat
> > sched/core: use put_task_struct_atomic_safe() to avoid potential splat
> >
> > include/linux/sched/task.h | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
> > kernel/fork.c | 8 ++++++++
> > kernel/sched/core.c | 2 +-
> > kernel/sched/deadline.c | 2 +-
> > kernel/sched/rt.c | 4 ++--
> > 5 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> >
> > --
> > 2.39.0
>