Re: [PATCH v2] mm: optimize the redundant loop of mm_update_next_owner()

Michal Hocko
2024-06-21T08:50:21Z

On Thu 20-06-24 19:30:19, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
> Can't review, I forgot everything about mm_update_next_owner().
> So I am sorry for the noise I am going to add, feel free to ignore.
> Just in case, I see nothing wrong in this patch.
>
> On 06/20, alexjlzheng@gmail.com wrote:
> >
> > When mm_update_next_owner() is racing with swapoff (try_to_unuse()) or /proc or
> > ptrace or page migration (get_task_mm()), it is impossible to find an
> > appropriate task_struct in the loop whose mm_struct is the same as the target
> > mm_struct.
> >
> > If the above race condition is combined with the stress-ng-zombie and
> > stress-ng-dup tests, such a long loop can easily cause a Hard Lockup in
> > write_lock_irq() for tasklist_lock.
> >
> > Recognize this situation in advance and exit early.
>
> But this patch won't help if (say) ptrace_access_vm() sleeps while
> for_each_process() tries to find another owner, right?
>
> > @@ -484,6 +484,8 @@ void mm_update_next_owner(struct mm_struct *mm)
> > * Search through everything else, we should not get here often.
> > */
> > for_each_process(g) {
> > + if (atomic_read(&mm->mm_users) <= 1)
> > + break;
>
> I think this deserves a comment to explain that this is optimization
> for the case we race with the pending mmput(). mm_update_next_owner()
> checks mm_users at the start.
>
> And. Can we drop tasklist and use rcu_read_lock() before for_each_process?
> Yes, this will probably need more changes even if possible...
>
>
> Or even better. Can't we finally kill mm_update_next_owner() and turn the
> ugly mm->owner into mm->mem_cgroup ?

Yes, dropping the mm->owner should be a way to go. Replacing that by
mem_cgroup sounds like an improvemnt. I have a vague recollection that
this has some traps on the way. E.g. tasks sharing the mm but living in
different cgroups. Things have changes since the last time I've checked
and for example memcg charge migration on task move will be deprecated
soon so chances are that there are less roadblocks on the way.
--
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs