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mm: memcontrol: correct the comment in mem_cgroup_swapout()

PATCH In review Sebastian Andrzej Siewior 2 participants 6 messages Jun 19, 2015

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#0 lore raw

PATCH 1/1 mm: memcontrol: correct the comment in mem_cgroup_swapout()

Clark stumbled over a VM_BUG_ON() in -RT which was then was removed by Johannes in commit f371763a79d ("mm: memcontrol: fix false-positive VM_BUG_ON() on -rt"). The comment before that patch was a tiny bit better than it is now. While the patch claimed to fix a false-postive on -RT this was not the case. None of the -RT folks ACKed it and it was not a false positive report. That was a *real* problem.

This patch updates the comment that is improper because it refers to "disabled preemption" as a consequence of that lock being taken. A spin_lock() disables preemption, true, but in this case the code relies on the fact that the lock _also_ disables interrupts once it is acquired. And this is the important detail (which was checked the VM_BUG_ON()) which needs to be pointed out. This is the hint one needs while looking at the code. It was explained by Johannes on the list that the per-CPU variables are protected by local_irq_save(). The BUG_ON() was helpful. This code has been workarounded in -RT in the meantime. I wouldn't mind running into more of those if the code in question uses *special* kind of locking since now there is no no verification (in terms of lockdep or BUG_ON()).

The two functions after the comment could also have a "local_irq_save()" dance around them in order to serialize access to the per-CPU variables. This has been avoided because the interrupts should be off.

---
 mm/memcontrol.c | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
mm/memcontrol.c +6 -1
index a04225d372ba..6e90cf68ff7c 100644
@@ -5835,7 +5835,12 @@ void mem_cgroup_swapout(struct page *page, swp_entry_t entry)
 	if (!mem_cgroup_is_root(memcg))
 		page_counter_uncharge(&memcg->memory, 1);
 
-	/* Caller disabled preemption with mapping->tree_lock */
+	/*
+	 * Interrupts should be disabled here because the caller holds the
+	 * mapping->tree_lock lock which is taken with interrupts-off. It is
+	 * important here to have the interrupts disabled because it is the
+	 * only synchronisation we have for udpating the per-CPU variables.
+	 */
 	mem_cgroup_charge_statistics(memcg, page, -1);
 	memcg_check_events(memcg, page);
 }
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2.1.4

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#1 lore raw
Quoted 6 lines · Sebastian Andrzej Siewior

Clark stumbled over a VM_BUG_ON() in -RT which was then was removed by Johannes in commit f371763a79d ("mm: memcontrol: fix false-positive VM_BUG_ON() on -rt"). The comment before that patch was a tiny bit better than it is now. While the patch claimed to fix a false-postive on -RT this was not the case. None of the -RT folks ACKed it and it was not a false positive report. That was a *real* problem.

The real problem is that irqs_disabled() on -rt is returning false negatives. Having it return false within a spin_lock_irq() section is broken.

Quoted 11 lines

This patch updates the comment that is improper because it refers to "disabled preemption" as a consequence of that lock being taken. A spin_lock() disables preemption, true, but in this case the code relies on the fact that the lock _also_ disables interrupts once it is acquired. And this is the important detail (which was checked the VM_BUG_ON()) which needs to be pointed out. This is the hint one needs while looking at the code. It was explained by Johannes on the list that the per-CPU variables are protected by local_irq_save(). The BUG_ON() was helpful. This code has been workarounded in -RT in the meantime. I wouldn't mind running into more of those if the code in question uses *special* kind of locking since now there is no no verification (in terms of lockdep or BUG_ON()).

I'd be happy to re-instate the VM_BUG_ON that checks for disabled interrupts as before, that was the most obvious documentation.

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#2 lore raw
Quoted 11 lines · Johannes Weiner
Quoted 6 lines · Sebastian Andrzej Siewior

Clark stumbled over a VM_BUG_ON() in -RT which was then was removed by Johannes in commit f371763a79d ("mm: memcontrol: fix false-positive VM_BUG_ON() on -rt"). The comment before that patch was a tiny bit better than it is now. While the patch claimed to fix a false-postive on -RT this was not the case. None of the -RT folks ACKed it and it was not a false positive report. That was a *real* problem.

The real problem is that irqs_disabled() on -rt is returning false negatives. Having it return false within a spin_lock_irq() section is broken.

As I explained it in

	http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-rt-users/msg13499.html

it is not.

Quoted 12 lines
Quoted 11 lines

This patch updates the comment that is improper because it refers to "disabled preemption" as a consequence of that lock being taken. A spin_lock() disables preemption, true, but in this case the code relies on the fact that the lock _also_ disables interrupts once it is acquired. And this is the important detail (which was checked the VM_BUG_ON()) which needs to be pointed out. This is the hint one needs while looking at the code. It was explained by Johannes on the list that the per-CPU variables are protected by local_irq_save(). The BUG_ON() was helpful. This code has been workarounded in -RT in the meantime. I wouldn't mind running into more of those if the code in question uses *special* kind of locking since now there is no no verification (in terms of lockdep or BUG_ON()).

Quoted 2 lines

I'd be happy to re-instate the VM_BUG_ON that checks for disabled interrupts as before, that was the most obvious documentation.

sure thing, patch follows in a jiffy or two.

Sebastian

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maintainer
#3 lore raw
Quoted 9 lines · Sebastian Andrzej Siewior
Quoted 8 lines · Johannes Weiner
Quoted 6 lines · Sebastian Andrzej Siewior

Clark stumbled over a VM_BUG_ON() in -RT which was then was removed by Johannes in commit f371763a79d ("mm: memcontrol: fix false-positive VM_BUG_ON() on -rt"). The comment before that patch was a tiny bit better than it is now. While the patch claimed to fix a false-postive on -RT this was not the case. None of the -RT folks ACKed it and it was not a false positive report. That was a *real* problem.

Quoted 7 lines
Quoted 3 lines

The real problem is that irqs_disabled() on -rt is returning false negatives. Having it return false within a spin_lock_irq() section is broken.

As I explained it in

	http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-rt-users/msg13499.html

it is not.

I missed this email, sorry about that.

Quoted 12 lines
Quoted 12 lines
Quoted 11 lines

This patch updates the comment that is improper because it refers to "disabled preemption" as a consequence of that lock being taken. A spin_lock() disables preemption, true, but in this case the code relies on the fact that the lock _also_ disables interrupts once it is acquired. And this is the important detail (which was checked the VM_BUG_ON()) which needs to be pointed out. This is the hint one needs while looking at the code. It was explained by Johannes on the list that the per-CPU variables are protected by local_irq_save(). The BUG_ON() was helpful. This code has been workarounded in -RT in the meantime. I wouldn't mind running into more of those if the code in question uses *special* kind of locking since now there is no no verification (in terms of lockdep or BUG_ON()).

Quoted 4 lines
Quoted 2 lines

I'd be happy to re-instate the VM_BUG_ON that checks for disabled interrupts as before, that was the most obvious documentation.

sure thing, patch follows in a jiffy or two.

Thanks.

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#4 lore raw

PATCH v2 1/1 mm: memcontrol: bring back the VM_BUG_ON() in mem_cgroup_swapout()

Clark stumbled over a VM_BUG_ON() in -RT which was then was removed by Johannes in commit f371763a79d ("mm: memcontrol: fix false-positive VM_BUG_ON() on -rt"). The comment before that patch was a tiny bit better than it is now. While the patch claimed to fix a false-postive on -RT this was not the case. None of the -RT folks ACKed it and it was not a false positive report. That was a *real* problem.

This patch updates the comment that is improper because it refers to "disabled preemption" as a consequence of that lock being taken. A spin_lock() disables preemption, true, but in this case the code relies on the fact that the lock _also_ disables interrupts once it is acquired. And this is the important detail (which was checked the VM_BUG_ON()) which needs to be pointed out. This is the hint one needs while looking at the code. It was explained by Johannes on the list that the per-CPU variables are protected by local_irq_save(). The BUG_ON() was helpful. This code has been workarounded in -RT in the meantime. I wouldn't mind running into more of those if the code in question uses *special* kind of locking since now there is no verification (in terms of lockdep or BUG_ON()) and therefore I bring the VM_BUG_ON() check back in.

The two functions after the comment could also have a "local_irq_save()" dance around them in order to serialize access to the per-CPU variables. This has been avoided because the interrupts should be off.

---
v1…v2: bring back VM_BUG_ON()

 mm/memcontrol.c | 8 +++++++-
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
mm/memcontrol.c +7 -1
index a04225d372ba..fefbb37e5bad 100644
@@ -5835,7 +5835,13 @@ void mem_cgroup_swapout(struct page *page, swp_entry_t entry)
 	if (!mem_cgroup_is_root(memcg))
 		page_counter_uncharge(&memcg->memory, 1);
 
-	/* Caller disabled preemption with mapping->tree_lock */
+	/*
+	 * Interrupts should be disabled here because the caller holds the
+	 * mapping->tree_lock lock which is taken with interrupts-off. It is
+	 * important here to have the interrupts disabled because it is the
+	 * only synchronisation we have for udpating the per-CPU variables.
+	 */
+	VM_BUG_ON(!irqs_disabled());
 	mem_cgroup_charge_statistics(memcg, page, -1);
 	memcg_check_events(memcg, page);
 }
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maintainer Acked-by on v2 1/1
#5 lore raw

Re: [PATCH v2] mm: memcontrol: bring back the VM_BUG_ON() in mem_cgroup_swapout()

Quoted 20 lines · Sebastian Andrzej Siewior

Clark stumbled over a VM_BUG_ON() in -RT which was then was removed by Johannes in commit f371763a79d ("mm: memcontrol: fix false-positive VM_BUG_ON() on -rt"). The comment before that patch was a tiny bit better than it is now. While the patch claimed to fix a false-postive on -RT this was not the case. None of the -RT folks ACKed it and it was not a false positive report. That was a *real* problem.

This patch updates the comment that is improper because it refers to "disabled preemption" as a consequence of that lock being taken. A spin_lock() disables preemption, true, but in this case the code relies on the fact that the lock _also_ disables interrupts once it is acquired. And this is the important detail (which was checked the VM_BUG_ON()) which needs to be pointed out. This is the hint one needs while looking at the code. It was explained by Johannes on the list that the per-CPU variables are protected by local_irq_save(). The BUG_ON() was helpful. This code has been workarounded in -RT in the meantime. I wouldn't mind running into more of those if the code in question uses *special* kind of locking since now there is no verification (in terms of lockdep or BUG_ON()) and therefore I bring the VM_BUG_ON() check back in.

Quoted 5 lines

The two functions after the comment could also have a "local_irq_save()" dance around them in order to serialize access to the per-CPU variables. This has been avoided because the interrupts should be off.

Much better, thanks.

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