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Fix race in set_max_huge_pages for multiple updaters of nr_huge_pages

PATCH In review Eric Paris 3 participants 3 messages Nov 18, 2005 – Nov 19, 2005

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Eric Paris

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#0 lore raw

PATCH 1/1 Fix race in set_max_huge_pages for multiple updaters of nr_huge_pages

If there are multiple updaters to /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages simultaneously it is possible for the nr_huge_pages variable to become incorrect. There is no locking in the set_max_huge_pages function around alloc_fresh_huge_page which is able to update nr_huge_pages. Two callers to alloc_fresh_huge_page could race against each other as could a call to alloc_fresh_huge_page and a call to update_and_free_page. This patch just expands the area covered by the hugetlb_lock to cover the call into alloc_fresh_huge_page. I'm not sure how we could say that a sysctl section is performance critical where more specific locking would be needed.

My reproducer was to run a couple copies of the following script simultaneously

while [ true ]; do
echo 1000 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 500 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 750 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 100 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
done

and then watch /proc/meminfo and eventually you will see things like

HugePages_Total:     100
HugePages_Free:      109

After applying the patch all seemed well.

----

 hugetlb.c |   10 +++++++---
 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
mm/hugetlb.c renamed from mm/hugetlb.c.old +7 -3
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 static struct list_head hugepage_freelists[MAX_NUMNODES];
 static unsigned int nr_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
 static unsigned int free_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
+/* This lock protects updates to hugepage_freelists, nr_huge_pages, and free_huge_pages */
 static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(hugetlb_lock);
 
 static void enqueue_huge_page(struct page *page)
@@ -172,10 +173,13 @@
 static unsigned long set_max_huge_pages(unsigned long count)
 {
 	while (count > nr_huge_pages) {
-		struct page *page = alloc_fresh_huge_page();
-		if (!page)
-			return nr_huge_pages;
+		struct page *page;
 		spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock);
+		page = alloc_fresh_huge_page();
+		if (!page) {
+			spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
+			return nr_huge_pages;
+		}
 		enqueue_huge_page(page);
 		spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
 	}
#1 lore raw
Quoted 53 lines · Eric Paris

If there are multiple updaters to /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages simultaneously it is possible for the nr_huge_pages variable to become incorrect. There is no locking in the set_max_huge_pages function around alloc_fresh_huge_page which is able to update nr_huge_pages. Two callers to alloc_fresh_huge_page could race against each other as could a call to alloc_fresh_huge_page and a call to update_and_free_page. This patch just expands the area covered by the hugetlb_lock to cover the call into alloc_fresh_huge_page. I'm not sure how we could say that a sysctl section is performance critical where more specific locking would be needed.

My reproducer was to run a couple copies of the following script simultaneously

while [ true ]; do
echo 1000 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 500 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 750 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 100 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
done

and then watch /proc/meminfo and eventually you will see things like

HugePages_Total:     100
HugePages_Free:      109

After applying the patch all seemed well.

----

 hugetlb.c |   10 +++++++---
 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
mm/hugetlb.c renamed from mm/hugetlb.c.old +1 -3
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 static struct list_head hugepage_freelists[MAX_NUMNODES];
 static unsigned int nr_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
 static unsigned int free_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
+/* This lock protects updates to hugepage_freelists, nr_huge_pages, and free_huge_pages */
 static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(hugetlb_lock);
 
 static void enqueue_huge_page(struct page *page)
@@ -172,10 +173,13 @@
 static unsigned long set_max_huge_pages(unsigned long count)
 {
 	while (count > nr_huge_pages) {
-		struct page *page = alloc_fresh_huge_page();
-		if (!page)
-			return nr_huge_pages;

mm/hugetlb.c line 185

Quoted 10 lines
mm/hugetlb.c renamed from mm/hugetlb.c.old +6 -0
+		struct page *page;
 		spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock);
+		page = alloc_fresh_huge_page();
+		if (!page) {
+			spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
+			return nr_huge_pages;
+		}
 		enqueue_huge_page(page);
 		spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
 	}

Nope, alloc_fresh_huge_page() does a GFP_HIGHUSER allocation, which can sleep and may not be called inside spinlock. You would have seen a spew of might_sleep() warnings if this was tested with the appropriate kernel debugging options.

How about this?

mm/hugetlb.c renamed from mm/hugetlb.c~hugetlb-fix-race-in-set_max_huge_pages-for-multiple-updaters-of-nr_huge_pages +6 -0
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ unsigned long max_huge_pages;
 static struct list_head hugepage_freelists[MAX_NUMNODES];
 static unsigned int nr_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
 static unsigned int free_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
+
+/*
+ * Protects updates to hugepage_freelists, nr_huge_pages, and free_huge_pages
+ */
 static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(hugetlb_lock);
 
 static void enqueue_huge_page(struct page *page)
@@ -61,8 +65,10 @@ static struct page *alloc_fresh_huge_pag
 					HUGETLB_PAGE_ORDER);
 	nid = (nid + 1) % num_online_nodes();
 	if (page) {
+		spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock);
 		nr_huge_pages++;
 		nr_huge_pages_node[page_to_nid(page)]++;
+		spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
 	}
 	return page;
 }

_

#2 lore raw
Quoted 5 lines · Andrew Morton

Nope, alloc_fresh_huge_page() does a GFP_HIGHUSER allocation, which can sleep and may not be called inside spinlock. You would have seen a spew of might_sleep() warnings if this was tested with the appropriate kernel debugging options.
How about this?

Looks good. My reply got stuck behind a queue of other things to do since it needed a correction.

-- wli