Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup when scanning task stacks

[Lance Yang]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2026 at 10:49:06AM -0700, Breno Leitao wrote:
>kmemleak_scan() walks every thread and scans its kernel stack under a
>single rcu_read_lock() with no reschedule point. On a host with very
>many threads -- amplified by KASAN/lockdep in debug builds -- this loop
>can hog a CPU long enough to trip the soft lockup watchdog:
>
>  watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#35 stuck for 22s! [kmemleak:537]
>   scan_block
>   kmemleak_scan
>   kmemleak_scan_thread
>   kthread
>
>A cond_resched() cannot be added directly: the loop runs inside an RCU
>read-side critical section.
>
>Walk the tasks one PID at a time with find_ge_pid(), taking the RCU read
>lock only to look up and pin each task. The stack is then scanned with no
>lock held, so cond_resched() runs between tasks and the scan stops early
>on scan_should_stop(). This follows the next_tgid()/task_seq_get_next()
>iteration pattern and keeps each RCU critical section short.
>
>Fixes: c4b28963fd79 ("mm/kmemleak: rely on rcu for task stack scanning")
>Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@xxxxxxxxxx>
>---
> mm/kmemleak.c | 51 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
> 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
>
>diff --git a/mm/kmemleak.c b/mm/kmemleak.c
>index 7c7ba17ce7af0..a7786b6bc174e 100644
>--- a/mm/kmemleak.c
>+++ b/mm/kmemleak.c
>@@ -1695,6 +1695,42 @@ static void kmemleak_cond_resched(struct kmemleak_object *object)
> 	put_object(object);
> }
> 
>+/*
>+ * Scan all task kernel stacks, rescheduling between tasks. Each task is looked
>+ * up and pinned within its own RCU read-side section, so no lock is held across
>+ * the scan and the walk cannot trip the soft lockup watchdog.
>+ */
>+static void kmemleak_scan_task_stacks(void)
>+{
>+	struct pid *pid;
>+	int nr = 1;
>+
>+	do {
>+		struct task_struct *p = NULL;
>+
>+		rcu_read_lock();
>+		pid = find_ge_pid(nr, &init_pid_ns);

I wasn't aware of find_ge_pid() before. It walks the pid IDR, not every
possible pid number :) LGTM.

Reviewed-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@xxxxxxxxx>