Re: [PATCH] printk: avoid prb_first_valid_seq() where possible

Sergey Senozhatsky
2021-02-08T06:45:21Z

On (21/02/05 15:23), John Ogness wrote:
> If message sizes average larger than expected (more than 32
> characters), the data_ring will wrap before the desc_ring. Once the
> data_ring wraps, it will start invalidating descriptors. These
> invalid descriptors hang around until they are eventually recycled
> when the desc_ring wraps. Readers do not care about invalid
> descriptors, but they still need to iterate past them. If the
> average message size is much larger than 32 characters, then there
> will be many invalid descriptors preceding the valid descriptors.
>
> The function prb_first_valid_seq() always begins at the oldest
> descriptor and searches for the first valid descriptor. This can
> be rather expensive for the above scenario. And, in fact, because
> of its heavy usage in /dev/kmsg, there have been reports of long
> delays and even RCU stalls.
>
> For code that does not need to search from the oldest record,
> replace prb_first_valid_seq() usage with prb_read_valid_*()
> functions, which provide a start sequence number to search from.
>
> Fixes: 896fbe20b4e2333fb55 ("printk: use the lockless ringbuffer")
> Reported-by: kernel test robot <oliver.sang@intel.com>

Can we please also ask the kernel test robot to test this patch?

-ss