[PATCH 0/4 v5] Avoid softlockups in console_unlock()

[Jan Kara]

  Hello,

  so I finally got back to the patches to avoid softlockups when a CPU gets
caught in console_unlock() for a long time during heavy printing from other
CPU. As is discussed in patch 3/4 it isn't enough to just silence the watchdog
because if CPU spends too long in console_unlock() also RCU will complain,
other CPUs can be blocked waiting for printing CPU to process IPI, and even
disk can be offlined because commands couldn't be delivered to it for too long.

This patch series solves the problem by stopping printing in console_unlock()
after 1000 characters and the printing is postponed to irq work. To avoid
hogging a single CPU (irq work gets processed on the same CPU where it was
queued so it doesn't really help to reduce the printing load on that CPU) we
introduce a new type of lazy irq work - IRQ_WORK_UNBOUND - which can be
processed by any CPU.

The patch series has survived my testing without any softlockup reports.  I've
tested running sysrq-t (lots of printk output) while inserting modules (to
generate IPIs and also some printk traffic) and also running two delayed works
printing 10 KB of text each. All this was with simulated 9600 baud serial
console.

								Honza
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/