Re: [PATCH] sched: flush plug in schedule_preempt_disabled() to prevent deadlock

[Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>]

On Tue, May 12, 2026 at 11:45:14PM +0800, Ming Lei wrote:
> On Tue, May 12, 2026 at 02:40:21PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Tue, May 12, 2026 at 02:04:32PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > > On Tue, May 12, 2026 at 04:59:39PM +0800, Ming Lei wrote:
> > > > On preemptible kernels, a deadlock can occur when a task with plugged IO
> > > > calls schedule_preempt_disabled():
> > > > 
> > > >   schedule_preempt_disabled()
> > > >     sched_preempt_enable_no_resched()  // preemption now enabled
> > > >     schedule()                         // <-- preemption can happen here
> > > >       sched_submit_work()
> > > >         blk_flush_plug()
> > > > 
> > > > After sched_preempt_enable_no_resched() re-enables preemption, the task
> > > > can be preempted (e.g., by a higher-priority RT task) before reaching
> > > > blk_flush_plug() in sched_submit_work(). Since the task's state is
> > > > already TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE (set by the mutex/rwsem slowpath caller),
> > > > requests in current->plug remain unflushed for an unbounded time.
> > > > 
> > > > If another task depends on those plugged requests to make progress (e.g.,
> > > > to release a lock the sleeping task needs), a deadlock results:
> > > > 
> > > >   - Task A (writeback worker): holds plugged IO, preempted before
> > > >     flushing, stuck on run queue behind higher-priority work
> > > >   - Task B: waiting for IO completion from Task A's plug, holds a lock
> > > >     that Task A needs to be woken up
> > > > 
> > > > Both reported deadlocks involve mutex/rwsem slowpaths, which are the
> > > > primary callers of schedule_preempt_disabled() with non-running task
> > > > state.
> > > > 
> > > > Fix by flushing the plug in schedule_preempt_disabled() while
> > > > preemption is still disabled. This ensures the plug is empty before the
> > > > preemption window opens.
> > > 
> > > How is this different from any path calling schedule()? That would be
> > > subject to exactly the same issue.
> > > 
> > > The patch cannot be correct.
> > 
> > Also, is there a reason io_schedule_prepare() has a blk_flush_plug()
> > call?
> 
> It is added in Tejun's "[PATCHSET RFC] sched, jbd2: mark sleeps on journal->j_checkpoint_mutex as iowait":
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/1477673892-28940-1-git-send-email-tj@kernel.org/#t
> 
> which fixes iowait accounting for ext4, meantime adds the model
> "io_schedule_prepare() + schedule() + io_schedule_finish()", which actually
> can avoid this kind issue easily because io_schedule_prepare() is called
> in task running state.
> 
> For this f2fs issue, maybe it can be addressed by adding rwsem io variant
> just like mutex_lock_io(), meantime iowait accounting is covered too.

So personally I detest all of iowait, its an abomination. And I don't
see how having an iowait specific version avoids any problem.

You can get preempted at any point before between getting the io started
and blocking.