Re: [linus:master] [hugetlb] 7118fc2906: kernel_BUG_at_lib/list_debug.c

Feng Tang
2023-01-18T01:17:19Z

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 10:25:17AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 4:22 AM Feng Tang <feng.tang@intel.com> wrote:
> >
> > With the following patch to use 'O1' instead 'O2' gcc optoin for
> > page_alloc.c, the list corruption issue can't be reproduced for
> > commit 7118fc2906 in 1000 runs.
>
> Ugh.
>
> It would be lovely if you could just narrow it down with
>
> #pragma GCC optimize ("O1")
> ...
> #pragma GCC optimize ("O2")
>
> around just that prep_compound_page(), but when I tried it myself I
> get some function attribute mismatch errors.

Good to know, thanks! will try this.

>
> > As is can't be reproduced with X86_64 build, it could be i386
> > compiling related.
>
> Your particular config causes a huge amount of nasty 64-bit arithmetic
> according to the objdump code, with sequences like
>
> c13b3cbb: 83 05 d0 28 6c c5 01 addl $0x1,0xc56c28d0
> c13b3cc2: 83 15 d4 28 6c c5 00 adcl $0x0,0xc56c28d4
>
> which seems to be just from some coverage profiling being on
> (CONFIG_GCOV?), or something. It makes it very hard to read the code.
>
> You also have UBSAN enabled, which - again - makes for some really
> grotty asm that hides any actual logic.

Yes, you are right, CONFIG_GCOV_PROFILE_ALL and a bunch of UBSAN
configs are enabled.

AFAIK, this is a random generated config for sanity test, Oliver/Philip
can correct me on this.

> Finally, your objdump version also does some horrendous decoding, like
>
> c13b3e29: 8d b4 26 00 00 00 00 lea 0x0(%esi,%eiz,1),%esi
>
> which is just a 7-byte 'nop' instruction, but again, it makes it
> rather hard to actually read the code.
>
> With the i386 defconfig, gcc generates a function that is just ~30
> instructions for me, so this makes a huge difference in the legibility
> of the code.
>
> I wonder if you can recreate the issue with a much more
> straightforward config. By all means, leave DEBUG_PAGEALLOC and SLUB
> debugging on, but without the things like UBSAN and GCOV.

Oliver and I can try this, and will report back.

> > I also objdumped 'prep_compound_page' for vmlinux of 7118fc2906 and
> > its parent commit 48b8d744ea84, which have big difference than the
> > simple 'set_page_count()' change, but I can't tell which part is
> > abnormal, so attach them for further check.
>
> Yeah, I can't make heads or tails of them either, see above on how
> illegible the objdump files are. And that's despite not even having
> all of prep_compound_page() in them (it's missing
> prep_compound_page.cold, which is probably just UBSAN fixup code, but
> who knows..)
>
> That said, with the i386 defconfig, the only change from adding
> set_page_count() to the loop seems to be exactly that:
>
> .L589:
> - movl $1024, 12(%eax)
> + movl $0, 28(%eax)
> addl $32, %eax
> + movl $1024, -20(%eax)
> movl %esi, -28(%eax)
> movl $0, -12(%eax)
> cmpl %edx, %eax
>
> (don't ask me why gcc does *one* access using the pre-incremented
> pointer, and then the rest to the post-incremented ones, but whatever
> - it means that it's not just "add a mov $0", it's also changing how
> the
>
> p->mapping = TAIL_MAPPING;
>
> instruction is done, which is that
>
> - movl $1024, 12(%eax)
> + movl $1024, -20(%eax)
>
> part of the change)

This version of assembly diff looks more reasonable. One thing I
note is the sizeof(page) with this config is 32, while it's 40 for
the randconfig used in this report.

Thanks for the analyzing and debug suggestion!

- Feng

> Linus