Re: [PATCH v3] mm/hugetlb: Defer freeing of huge pages if in non-task context

From: Michal Hocko
Date: Wed Dec 18 2019 - 03:40:38 EST


On Tue 17-12-19 12:03:31, Waiman Long wrote:
> The following lockdep splat was observed when a certain hugetlbfs test
> was run:
>
> [ 612.388273] ================================
> [ 612.411273] WARNING: inconsistent lock state
> [ 612.432273] 4.18.0-159.el8.x86_64+debug #1 Tainted: G W --------- - -
> [ 612.469273] --------------------------------
> [ 612.489273] inconsistent {SOFTIRQ-ON-W} -> {IN-SOFTIRQ-W} usage.
> [ 612.517273] swapper/30/0 [HC0[0]:SC1[1]:HE1:SE0] takes:
> [ 612.541273] ffffffff9acdc038 (hugetlb_lock){+.?.}, at: free_huge_page+0x36f/0xaa0
> [ 612.576273] {SOFTIRQ-ON-W} state was registered at:
> [ 612.598273] lock_acquire+0x14f/0x3b0
> [ 612.616273] _raw_spin_lock+0x30/0x70
> [ 612.634273] __nr_hugepages_store_common+0x11b/0xb30
> [ 612.657273] hugetlb_sysctl_handler_common+0x209/0x2d0
> [ 612.681273] proc_sys_call_handler+0x37f/0x450
> [ 612.703273] vfs_write+0x157/0x460
> [ 612.719273] ksys_write+0xb8/0x170
> [ 612.736273] do_syscall_64+0xa5/0x4d0
> [ 612.753273] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6a/0xdf
> [ 612.777273] irq event stamp: 691296
> [ 612.794273] hardirqs last enabled at (691296): [<ffffffff99bb034b>] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x4b/0x60
> [ 612.839273] hardirqs last disabled at (691295): [<ffffffff99bb0ad2>] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x22/0x81
> [ 612.882273] softirqs last enabled at (691284): [<ffffffff97ff0c63>] irq_enter+0xc3/0xe0
> [ 612.922273] softirqs last disabled at (691285): [<ffffffff97ff0ebe>] irq_exit+0x23e/0x2b0
> [ 612.962273]
> [ 612.962273] other info that might help us debug this:
> [ 612.993273] Possible unsafe locking scenario:
> [ 612.993273]
> [ 613.020273] CPU0
> [ 613.031273] ----
> [ 613.042273] lock(hugetlb_lock);
> [ 613.057273] <Interrupt>
> [ 613.069273] lock(hugetlb_lock);
> [ 613.085273]
> [ 613.085273] *** DEADLOCK ***
> :
> [ 613.245273] Call Trace:
> [ 613.256273] <IRQ>
> [ 613.265273] dump_stack+0x9a/0xf0
> [ 613.281273] mark_lock+0xd0c/0x12f0
> [ 613.297273] ? print_shortest_lock_dependencies+0x80/0x80
> [ 613.322273] ? sched_clock_cpu+0x18/0x1e0
> [ 613.341273] __lock_acquire+0x146b/0x48c0
> [ 613.360273] ? trace_hardirqs_on+0x10/0x10
> [ 613.379273] ? trace_hardirqs_on_caller+0x27b/0x580
> [ 613.401273] lock_acquire+0x14f/0x3b0
> [ 613.419273] ? free_huge_page+0x36f/0xaa0
> [ 613.440273] _raw_spin_lock+0x30/0x70
> [ 613.458273] ? free_huge_page+0x36f/0xaa0
> [ 613.477273] free_huge_page+0x36f/0xaa0
> [ 613.495273] bio_check_pages_dirty+0x2fc/0x5c0
> [ 613.516273] clone_endio+0x17f/0x670 [dm_mod]
> [ 613.536273] ? disable_discard+0x90/0x90 [dm_mod]
> [ 613.558273] ? bio_endio+0x4ba/0x930
> [ 613.575273] ? blk_account_io_completion+0x400/0x530
> [ 613.598273] blk_update_request+0x276/0xe50
> [ 613.617273] scsi_end_request+0x7b/0x6a0
> [ 613.636273] ? lock_downgrade+0x6f0/0x6f0
> [ 613.654273] scsi_io_completion+0x1c6/0x1570
> [ 613.674273] ? sd_completed_bytes+0x3a0/0x3a0 [sd_mod]
> [ 613.698273] ? scsi_mq_requeue_cmd+0xc0/0xc0
> [ 613.718273] blk_done_softirq+0x22e/0x350
> [ 613.737273] ? blk_softirq_cpu_dead+0x230/0x230
> [ 613.758273] __do_softirq+0x23d/0xad8
> [ 613.776273] irq_exit+0x23e/0x2b0
> [ 613.792273] do_IRQ+0x11a/0x200
> [ 613.806273] common_interrupt+0xf/0xf
> [ 613.823273] </IRQ>
>
> Both the hugetbl_lock and the subpool lock can be acquired in
> free_huge_page(). One way to solve the problem is to make both locks
> irq-safe. However, Mike Kravetz had learned that the hugetlb_lock is
> held for a linear scan of ALL hugetlb pages during a cgroup reparentling
> operation. So it is just too long to have irq disabled unless we can
> break hugetbl_lock down into finer-grained locks with shorter lock
> hold times.
>
> Another alternative is to defer the freeing to a workqueue job. This
> patch implements the deferred freeing by adding a free_hpage_workfn()
> work function to do the actual freeing. The free_huge_page() call in
> a non-task context saves the page to be freed in the hpage_freelist
> linked list in a lockless manner using the llist APIs.
>
> The generic workqueue is used to process the work, but a dedicated
> workqueue can be used instead if it is desirable to have the huge page
> freed ASAP.
>
> Thanks to Kirill Tkhai <ktkhai@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> for suggesting the use
> of llist APIs which simplfy the code.
>
> [v2: Add more comment & remove unneeded racing check]
> [v3: Update commit log, remove pr_debug & use llist APIs]
>
> Reported-by: Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks. This looks indeed better but I still believe that this is just a
workaround and the proper fix is to fix the locking. Mike has already
promised to look into that (thanks!).

A deferred freeing just adds more non-determinism - pools are
replenished in an unknown time and those who rely on them might see some
random failures. Luckily this should be really a rare event so it is
good as a stop gap fix.

I was thinking about marking this for stable but considering the issue
should be rare and fix has some non-trivial side effect I would rather
wait for somebody to actually report a problem before backporting.

Other than that
Acked-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>

Thanks!

> ---
> mm/hugetlb.c | 51 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> 1 file changed, 50 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/hugetlb.c b/mm/hugetlb.c
> index ac65bb5e38ac..dd8737a94bec 100644
> --- a/mm/hugetlb.c
> +++ b/mm/hugetlb.c
> @@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
> #include <linux/swapops.h>
> #include <linux/jhash.h>
> #include <linux/numa.h>
> +#include <linux/llist.h>
>
> #include <asm/page.h>
> #include <asm/pgtable.h>
> @@ -1136,7 +1137,7 @@ static inline void ClearPageHugeTemporary(struct page *page)
> page[2].mapping = NULL;
> }
>
> -void free_huge_page(struct page *page)
> +static void __free_huge_page(struct page *page)
> {
> /*
> * Can't pass hstate in here because it is called from the
> @@ -1199,6 +1200,54 @@ void free_huge_page(struct page *page)
> spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
> }
>
> +/*
> + * As free_huge_page() can be called from a non-task context, we have
> + * to defer the actual freeing in a workqueue to prevent potential
> + * hugetlb_lock deadlock.
> + *
> + * free_hpage_workfn() locklessly retrieves the linked list of pages to
> + * be freed and frees them one-by-one. As the page->mapping pointer is
> + * going to be cleared in __free_huge_page() anyway, it is reused as the
> + * llist_node structure of a lockless linked list of huge pages to be freed.
> + */
> +static LLIST_HEAD(hpage_freelist);
> +
> +static void free_hpage_workfn(struct work_struct *work)
> +{
> + struct llist_node *node;
> + struct page *page;
> +
> + node = llist_del_all(&hpage_freelist);
> +
> + while (node) {
> + page = container_of((struct address_space **)node,
> + struct page, mapping);
> + node = node->next;
> + __free_huge_page(page);
> + }
> +}
> +static DECLARE_WORK(free_hpage_work, free_hpage_workfn);
> +
> +void free_huge_page(struct page *page)
> +{
> + /*
> + * Defer freeing if in non-task context to avoid hugetlb_lock deadlock.
> + */
> + if (!in_task()) {
> + /*
> + * Only call schedule_work() if hpage_freelist is previously
> + * empty. Otherwise, schedule_work() had been called but the
> + * workfn hasn't retrieved the list yet.
> + */
> + if (llist_add((struct llist_node *)&page->mapping,
> + &hpage_freelist))
> + schedule_work(&free_hpage_work);
> + return;
> + }
> +
> + __free_huge_page(page);
> +}
> +
> static void prep_new_huge_page(struct hstate *h, struct page *page, int nid)
> {
> INIT_LIST_HEAD(&page->lru);
> --
> 2.18.1

--
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs