Re: [PATCH v3 1/4] mm: swap: Remove CLUSTER_FLAG_HUGE from swap_cluster_info:flags

David Hildenbrand
2024-03-05T08:35:49Z

On 05.03.24 07:11, Huang, Ying wrote:
> Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com> writes:
>
>> + Hugh
>>
>> On 04/03/2024 22:02, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>> On 04.03.24 22:55, Ryan Roberts wrote:
>>>> On 04/03/2024 20:50, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This is the existing free_swap_and_cache(). I think _swap_info_get() would
>>>>>>>> break
>>>>>>>> if this could race with swapoff(), and __swap_entry_free() looks up the
>>>>>>>> cluster
>>>>>>>> from an array, which would also be freed by swapoff if racing:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> int free_swap_and_cache(swp_entry_t entry)
>>>>>>>> {
>>>>>>>>       struct swap_info_struct *p;
>>>>>>>>       unsigned char count;
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>       if (non_swap_entry(entry))
>>>>>>>>           return 1;
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>       p = _swap_info_get(entry);
>>>>>>>>       if (p) {
>>>>>>>>           count = __swap_entry_free(p, entry);
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If count dropped to 0 and
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>           if (count == SWAP_HAS_CACHE)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> count is now SWAP_HAS_CACHE, there is in fact no swap entry anymore. We
>>>>>>> removed
>>>>>>> it. That one would have to be reclaimed asynchronously.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The existing code we would call swap_page_trans_huge_swapped() with the SI it
>>>>>>> obtained via _swap_info_get().
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I also don't see what should be left protecting the SI. It's not locked
>>>>>>> anymore,
>>>>>>> the swapcounts are at 0. We don't hold the folio lock.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> try_to_unuse() will stop as soon as si->inuse_pages is at 0. Hm ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But, assuming the caller of free_swap_and_cache() acquires the PTL first, I
>>>>>> think this all works out ok? While free_swap_and_cache() is running,
>>>>>> try_to_unuse() will wait for the PTL. Or if try_to_unuse() runs first, then
>>>>>> free_swap_and_cache() will never be called because the swap entry will have
>>>>>> been
>>>>>> removed from the PTE?
>>>>>
>>>>> But can't try_to_unuse() run, detect !si->inuse_pages and not even bother about
>>>>> scanning any further page tables?
>>>>>
>>>>> But my head hurts from digging through that code.
>>>>
>>>> Yep, glad I'm not the only one that gets headaches from swapfile.c.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Let me try again:
>>>>>
>>>>> __swap_entry_free() might be the last user and result in "count ==
>>>>> SWAP_HAS_CACHE".
>>>>>
>>>>> swapoff->try_to_unuse() will stop as soon as soon as si->inuse_pages==0.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So the question is: could someone reclaim the folio and turn si->inuse_pages==0,
>>>>> before we completed swap_page_trans_huge_swapped().
>>>>>
>>>>> Imagine the following: 2 MiB folio in the swapcache. Only 2 subpages are still
>>>>> references by swap entries.
>>>>>
>>>>> Process 1 still references subpage 0 via swap entry.
>>>>> Process 2 still references subpage 1 via swap entry.
>>>>>
>>>>> Process 1 quits. Calls free_swap_and_cache().
>>>>> -> count == SWAP_HAS_CACHE
>>>>> [then, preempted in the hypervisor etc.]
>>>>>
>>>>> Process 2 quits. Calls free_swap_and_cache().
>>>>> -> count == SWAP_HAS_CACHE
>>>>>
>>>>> Process 2 goes ahead, passes swap_page_trans_huge_swapped(), and calls
>>>>> __try_to_reclaim_swap().
>>>>>
>>>>> __try_to_reclaim_swap()->folio_free_swap()->delete_from_swap_cache()->put_swap_folio()->
>>>>> free_swap_slot()->swapcache_free_entries()->swap_entry_free()->swap_range_free()->
>>>>> ...
>>>>> WRITE_ONCE(si->inuse_pages, si->inuse_pages - nr_entries);
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> What stops swapoff to succeed after process 2 reclaimed the swap cache but
>>>>> before process 1 finished its call to swap_page_trans_huge_swapped()?
>>>>
>>>> Assuming you are talking about anonymous memory, process 1 has the PTL while
>>>> it's executing free_swap_and_cache(). try_to_unuse() iterates over every vma in
>>>> every mm, and it swaps-in a page for every PTE that holds a swap entry for the
>>>> device being swapoff'ed. It takes the PTL while converting the swap entry to
>>>> present PTE - see unuse_pte(). Process 1 must have beaten try_to_unuse() to the
>>>> particular pte, because if try_to_unuse() got there first, it would have
>>>> converted it from a swap entry to present pte and process 1 would never even
>>>> have called free_swap_and_cache(). So try_to_unuse() will eventually wait on the
>>>> PTL until process 1 has released it after free_swap_and_cache() completes. Am I
>>>> missing something? Because that part feels pretty clear to me.
>>>
>>> Why should try_to_unuse() do *anything* if it already finds
>>> si->inuse_pages == 0 because we (p1 } p2) just freed the swapentries and process
>>> 2 managed to free the last remaining swapcache entry?
>>
>> Yeah ok. For some reason I thought unuse_mm() was iterating over all mms and so
>> the `while (READ_ONCE(si->inuse_pages))` was only evaluated after iterating over
>> every mm. Oops.
>>
>> So yes, I agree with you; I think this is broken. And I'm a bit worried this
>> could be a can of worms; By the same logic, I think folio_free_swap(),
>> swp_swapcount() and probably others are broken in the same way.
>
> Don't worry too much :-), we have get_swap_device() at least. We can
> insert it anywhere we want because it's quite lightweight. And, because
> swapoff() is so rare, the race is theoretical only.
>
> For this specific case, I had thought that PTL is enough. But after
> looking at this more, I found a race here too. Until
> __swap_entry_free() return, we are OK, nobody can reduce the swap count
> because we held the PTL. But, after that, even if its return value is
> SWAP_HAS_CACHE (that is, in swap cache), parallel swap_unuse() or
> __try_to_reclaim_swap() may remove the folio from swap cache, so free
> the swap entry. So, swapoff() can proceed to free the data structures
> in parallel.
>
> To fix the race, we can add get/put_swap_device() in
> free_swap_and_cache().
>
> For other places, we can check whether get/put_swap_device() has been
> called in callers, and the swap reference we held has been decreased
> (e.g., swap count protected by PTL, SWAP_HAS_CACHE protected by folio
> lock).

Yes, sounds reasonable. We should likely update the documentation of
get_swap_device(), that after decrementing the refcount, the SI might
become stale and should not be touched without a prior get_swap_device().

--
Cheers,

David / dhildenb