Re: [PATCH v3] locking/pvqspinlock: restore/set vcpu_hashed state after failing adaptive locking spinning

From: Wanpeng Li
Date: Fri Jul 15 2016 - 21:12:29 EST


2016-07-16 0:44 GMT+08:00 Waiman Long <waiman.long@xxxxxxx>:
> On 07/15/2016 03:45 AM, Wanpeng Li wrote:
>>
>> 2016-07-15 15:09 GMT+08:00 Peter Zijlstra<peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 05:26:40AM +0800, Wanpeng Li wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 2016-07-14 22:52 GMT+08:00 Waiman Long<waiman.long@xxxxxxx>:
>>>> [...]
>>>>>
>>>>> As pv_kick_node() is called immediately after designating the next node
>>>>> as
>>>>> the queue head, the chance of this racing is possible, but is not
>>>>> likely
>>>>> unless the lock holder vCPU gets preempted for a long time at that
>>>>> right
>>>>> moment. This change does not do any harm though, so I am OK with that.
>>>>> However, I do want you to add a comment about the possible race in the
>>>>> code
>>>>> as it isn't that obvious or likely.
>>>>
>>>> How about something like:
>>>>
>>>> /*
>>>> * If the lock holder vCPU gets preempted for a long time, pv_kick_node
>>>> will
>>>> * advance its state and hash the lock, restore/set the vcpu_hashed
>>>> state to
>>>> * avoid the race.
>>>> */
>>>
>>> So I'm not sure. Yes it was a bug, but its fairly 'obvious' it should be
>>
>> I believe Waiman can give a better comments. :)
>
>
> Yes, setting the state to vcpu_hashed is the more obvious choice. What I
> said is not obvious is that there can be a race between the new lock holder
> in pv_kick_node() and the new queue head trying to call pv_wait(). And it is
> what I want to document it. Maybe something more graphical can help:
>
> /*
> * lock holder vCPU queue head vCPU
> * ---------------- ---------------
> * node->locked = 1;
> * <preemption> READ_ONCE(node->locked)
> * ... pv_wait_head_or_lock():
> * SPIN_THRESHOLD loop;
> * pv_hash();
> * lock->locked = _Q_SLOW_VAL;
> * node->state = vcpu_hashed;
> * pv_kick_node():
> * cmpxchg(node->state,
> * vcpu_halted, vcpu_hashed);
> * lock->locked = _Q_SLOW_VAL;
> * pv_hash();
> *
> * With preemption at the right moment, it is possible that both the
> * lock holder and queue head vCPUs can be racing to set node->state.
> * Making sure the state is never set to vcpu_halted will prevent this
> * racing from happening.
> */

Thanks, I will fold this in my patch. :)

Regards,
Wanpeng Li