Re: [PATCH RFC] perf: fix find_swevent_head() RCU lockdep splat

From: Frederic Weisbecker
Date: Thu May 13 2010 - 16:49:06 EST


On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:46:05PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 09:03:28PM +0200, Frederic Weisbecker wrote:
> > On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 11:25:56AM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > > This commit guesses at the perf_cpu_context locking design and deploys
> > > an rcu_dereference_check() accordingly. The design appears to require
> > > that a given CPU be accessing its own per_cpu_context or that it be
> > > traversing under RCU protection.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@xxxxxxxxx>
> > >
> > > perf_event.c | 4 +++-
> > > 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/kernel/perf_event.c b/kernel/perf_event.c
> > > index a4fa381..002791c 100644
> > > --- a/kernel/perf_event.c
> > > +++ b/kernel/perf_event.c
> > > @@ -4074,7 +4074,9 @@ find_swevent_head(struct perf_cpu_context *ctx, u64 type, u32 event_id)
> > >
> > > hash = swevent_hash(type, event_id);
> > >
> > > - hlist = rcu_dereference(ctx->swevent_hlist);
> > > + hlist = rcu_dereference_check(ctx->swevent_hlist,
> > > + rcu_read_lock_held() ||
> > > + ctx == &__get_cpu_var(perf_cpu_context));
> > > if (!hlist)
> > > return NULL;
> > >
> >
> >
> > Hmm, that's not exactly that. It will always be the ctx of this cpu
> > but not always under rcu read lock. I mean touching the current cpu
> > ctx is not inherently safe.
> >
> > In fact we have two paths:
> >
> > perf_swevent_enable() gets the hlist and if it is called it means
> > that this hlist is not supposed to be NULL. If it is, it's a bug.
> >
> > If we have created a software event, the hlist has been allocated
> > and perf_swevent_enable() is called later to activate this event.
> > May be I shouldn't use rcu_dereference() here but a simple dereference.
> > And the hlist can't be freed under us at this time so we don't need
> > rcu_read_lock().
> >
> > OTOH, do_perf_sw_event() can be called anytime so it need this
> > rcu_read_lock().
> >
> >
> > On the perf_swevent_enable() path, what prevents the hlist to be
> > freed under us is the ctx->lock. Because we won't ever remove
> > an event from its context list outside this lock, and we might only
> > release the hlist after a software event gets removed from its
> > context list.
> >
> > So either we do this:
> >
> > hlist = rcu_dereference_check(ctx->swevent_hlist,
> > rcu_read_lock_held() ||
> > raw_spin_lock_is_held(&ctx->lock));
>
> Something very similar to the above was in fact my first guess, but as
> Ingo can attest, this results in build errors. The problem is that
> perf_cpu_context does not have a ->lock field. Hmmm... But it does
> contain a struct perf_event_context (ctx) and a pointer to another
> (task_ctx). So, would one of the following work?
>
> list = rcu_dereference_check(ctx->swevent_hlist,
> rcu_read_lock_held() ||
> lockdep_is_held(&ctx->ctx.lock));
>
> list = rcu_dereference_check(ctx->swevent_hlist,
> rcu_read_lock_held() ||
> lockdep_is_held(&ctx->task_ctx->lock));
>
> If the latter, can ->task_ctx ever be NULL, and if so, what should
> I do then?
>
> > or:
> >
> >
> > hlist = ctx->swevent_hlist;
>
> This will be flagged as an error by Arnd's sparse-based checking. :-(
>
> Thanx, Paul


Paul, does that look good to you?
I've only compile tested. But if it's fine for you, I'll test
it for real and provide you a sane patch.

This version won't use more parameters than necessary in the
off case.


diff --git a/kernel/perf_event.c b/kernel/perf_event.c
index a4fa381..d765e48 100644
--- a/kernel/perf_event.c
+++ b/kernel/perf_event.c
@@ -4066,19 +4066,36 @@ static inline u64 swevent_hash(u64 type, u32 event_id)
return hash_64(val, SWEVENT_HLIST_BITS);
}

-static struct hlist_head *
-find_swevent_head(struct perf_cpu_context *ctx, u64 type, u32 event_id)
+static inline struct hlist_head *
+__find_swevent_head(struct swevent_hlist *hlist, u64 type, u32 event_id)
{
u64 hash;
- struct swevent_hlist *hlist;

hash = swevent_hash(type, event_id);

+ return &hlist->heads[hash];
+}
+
+static inline struct hlist_head *
+find_swevent_head_rcu(struct perf_cpu_context *ctx, u64 type, u32 event_id)
+{
+ struct swevent_hlist *hlist;
+
hlist = rcu_dereference(ctx->swevent_hlist);
- if (!hlist)
- return NULL;

- return &hlist->heads[hash];
+ return __find_swevent_head(hlist, type, event_id);
+}
+
+static inline struct hlist_head *
+find_swevent_head(struct perf_cpu_context *ctx, u64 type,
+ u32 event_id, struct perf_event *event)
+{
+ struct swevent_hlist *hlist;
+
+ hlist = rcu_dereference_check(ctx->swevent_hlist,
+ lockdep_is_held(&event->ctx->lock));
+
+ return __find_swevent_head(hlist, type, event_id);
}

static void do_perf_sw_event(enum perf_type_id type, u32 event_id,
@@ -4095,7 +4112,7 @@ static void do_perf_sw_event(enum perf_type_id type, u32 event_id,

rcu_read_lock();

- head = find_swevent_head(cpuctx, type, event_id);
+ head = find_swevent_head_rcu(cpuctx, type, event_id);

if (!head)
goto end;
@@ -4178,7 +4195,8 @@ static int perf_swevent_enable(struct perf_event *event)
perf_swevent_set_period(event);
}

- head = find_swevent_head(cpuctx, event->attr.type, event->attr.config);
+ head = find_swevent_head(cpuctx, event->attr.type,
+ event->attr.config, event);
if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!head))
return -EINVAL;



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