Re: [PATCH v4] tracepoint: Do not fail unregistering a probe due to memory failure

[Steven Rostedt]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2021 13:00:46 -0500 (EST)
Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > Instead of allocating a new array for removing a tracepoint, allocate twice
> > the needed size when adding tracepoints to the array. On removing, use the
> > second half of the allocated array. This removes the need to allocate memory
> > for removing a tracepoint, as the allocation for removals will already have
> > been done.  
> 
> I don't see how this can work reliably. AFAIU, with RCU, approaches
> requiring a pre-allocation of twice the size and swapping to the alternate
> memory area on removal falls apart whenever you remove 2 or more elements
> back-to-back without waiting for a grace period.

Good point ;-)

> 
> How is this handled by your scheme ?

I believe we can detect this case using the "prio" part of extra element,
and force a rcu sync if there's back to back removals on the same
tracepoint. That case does not happen often, so I'm hoping nobody will
notice the slowdown with these syncs. I'll take a look at this.

Thanks for bringing that up.

-- Steve