Re: [PATCH 0/2] [GIT PULL] tracing: various bug fixes

[Ingo Molnar]

* Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> On Thu, 23 Apr 2009, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> > > 
> > > Here's the situation:
> > > 
> > > We've added selftests for the event tracer. What this basically does is 
> > > enables each event one at a time and runs tests. The tests include 
> > > creating a kernel thread, executing workqueues and grabbing locks.
> > > 
> > > We also have PROVE_LOCKING (LOCKDEP) enabled, that keeps track of 
> > > interrupts being enabled. When they are, we set a flag in the task struct 
> > > "hardirqs_enabled". When they are disabled, this flag is cleared.
> > > 
> > > When we fork a process, a test is made to see if the flag is set for the 
> > > new process and if it is not, a warning is printed (as is done in the 
> > > above dump).
> > > 
> > > I investigated this and found that the flag is mysteriously being set and 
> > > cleared for no apparent reason. The flag is in the task struct and nothing 
> > > should be touching it. In fact, it is a full int, not even a bit in a 
> > > flags variable.
> > > 
> > > I had a test that would print the flag and irqs_disabled() in copy_process 
> > > before the warning and it showed that the flag was cleared but irqs was 
> > > enabled. The funny part is, I if the test triggered, I printed the flag 
> > > again, and the second print it was set again!!
> > > 
> > > 	if (!p->hardirqs_enabled) {
> > > 		printk("irqs:%d flag:%d\n", irqs_disabled(),
> > > 			p->hardirqs_enabled);
> > > 		printk("try again: %d\n", p->hardirqs_enabled);
> > > 	}
> > > 
> > > The first print showed that it was cleared, the second showed it was set 
> > > again??
> > 
> > function tracer was active? So somewhere there we corrupted this 
> > state? It's unlikely that printk itself did this.
> 
> The problem always arises at the same spot. I'm not saying printk was the 
> culprit, I'm saying that printk actually "fixed" the issue. Which can be a 
> sign of a corrupted register somewhere.
> 
> I currently tracked it down to something in "prep_new_page". It is 
> hard to debug because as I add tests into the code, it makes the 
> race window smaller, and I need to run multiple boots to trigger 
> the code. But when I do trigger it (and I try to trigger it a few 
> times) it always happens at the same spot.
> 
> Note, everytime I catch the issue, the printk again "fixes" the 
> problem
> :-/

btw., you could perhaps use early_printk() - which is a lot less 
intrusive. It has no locking nor any irq-flags manipulation. (for 
the serial bits at least)

	Ingo
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