Re: [PATCH] sched: fix race in schedule

From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Wed Mar 12 2008 - 09:29:23 EST


On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 00:38 +0100, Dmitry Adamushko wrote:
> On 11/03/2008, Hiroshi Shimamoto <h-shimamoto@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 19:12 -0700, Hiroshi Shimamoto wrote:
> > >> Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > >>> On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 13:01 -0700, Hiroshi Shimamoto wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> thanks, your patch looks nice to me.
> > >>>> I had focused setprio, on_rq=0 and running=1 situation, it makes me to
> > >>>> fix these functions.
> > >>>> But one point, I've just noticed. I'm not sure on same situation against
> > >>>> sched_rt. I think the pre_schedule() of rt has chance to drop rq lock.
> > >>>> Is it OK?
> > >>> Ah, you are quite right, that'll teach me to rush out a patch just
> > >>> because dinner is ready :-).
> > >>>
> > >>> How about we submit the following patch for mainline and CC -stable to
> > >>> fix .23 and .24:
> > >>>
> > >> Unfortunately, I encountered similar panic with this patch on -rt.
> > >> I'll look into this, again. I might have missed something...
> > >>
> > >> Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000128 RIP:
> > >> [<ffffffff802297f5>] pick_next_task_fair+0x2d/0x42
> > >
> > > :-(
> > >
> > > OK, so that means I'm not getting it.
> > >
> > > So what does your patch do that mine doesn't?
> > >
> > > It removes the dependency of running (=task_current()) from on_rq
> > > (p->se.on_rq).
> > >
> > > So how can a current task not be on the runqueue?
> > >
> > > Only sched.c:dequeue_task() and sched_fair.c:account_entity_dequeue()
> > > set on_rq to 0, the only one changing rq->curr is schedule().
> > >
> > > So the only scheme I can come up with is that we did dequeue p (on_rq ==
> > > 0), but we didn't yet schedule so rq->curr == p.
> > >
> > > Is this how you ended up with your previuos analysis that it must be due
> > > to a hole introduced by double_lock_balance()?
> > >
> > > Because now we can seemingly call deactivate_task() and put_prev_task()
> > > in non-atomic fashion, but by placing the put_prev_task() before the
> > > load balance calls we should avoid doing that.
> > >
> > > So what else is going on... /me puzzled
> >
> >
> > thanks for taking time.
> > I've tested it with debug tracer, it took several hours to half day to
> > reproduce it on my box. And I got the possible scenario.
> >
> > Before begin, I can tell that se->on_rq is changed at enqueue_task() or
> > dequeue_task() in sched.c.
> >
> > Here is the flow to panic which I got;
> >
> > CPU0 CPU1
> > | schedule()
> > | ->deactivate_task()
> >
> > | -->dequeue_task()
> > | * on_rq=0
> > | ->put_prev_task_fair()
> >
> > | ->idle_balance()
> > | -->load_balance_newidle()
> >
> > (a wakeup function) |
> >
> > | --->double_lock_balance()
> > *get lock *rel lock
> >
> > * wake up target is CPU1's curr |
> > ->enqueue_task() |
> > * on_rq=1 |
> > ->rt_mutex_setprio() |
> > * on_rq=1, ruuning=1 |
> > -->dequeue_task()!! |
> > -->put_prev_task_fair()!! |
>
> humm... this one should have caused the problem.
>
> ->put_prev_task() has been previously done in schedule() so we get 2
> consequent ->put_prev_task() without set_curr_task/pick_next_task()
> being called in between
> [ as a result, __enqueue_entitty() is called twice for CPU1's curr and
> that definitely corrupts an rb-tree ]
>
> your initial patch doesn't have this problem. humm... logically-wise,
> it looks like a change of the 'current' which can be expressed by a
> pair :
>
> (1) put_prev_task() + (2) pick_next_task() or set_curr_task()
> (both end up calling set_next_entity())
>
> has to be 'atomic' wrt the rq->lock.
>
> For schedule() that also involves a change of rq->curr.

Right, this seems to 'rely' on rq->curr lagging behind put_prev_task().
So by doing something like:

---
diff --git a/kernel/sched.c b/kernel/sched.c
index a0c79e9..62d796f 100644
--- a/kernel/sched.c
+++ b/kernel/sched.c
@@ -4061,6 +4061,8 @@ need_resched_nonpreemptible:
}
switch_count = &prev->nvcsw;
}
+ prev->sched_class->put_prev_task(rq, prev);
+ rq->curr = rq->idle;

#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
if (prev->sched_class->pre_schedule)
@@ -4070,14 +4072,13 @@ need_resched_nonpreemptible:
if (unlikely(!rq->nr_running))
idle_balance(cpu, rq);

- prev->sched_class->put_prev_task(rq, prev);
next = pick_next_task(rq, prev);
+ rq->curr = next;

sched_info_switch(prev, next);

if (likely(prev != next)) {
rq->nr_switches++;
- rq->curr = next;
++*switch_count;

context_switch(rq, prev, next); /* unlocks the rq */
---

We would avoid being considered running while we're not.

We set rq->curr to rq->idle, because rq->curr is assumed valid at all
times. Also, should we clear TIF_NEED_RESCHED right before
pick_next_task()?

> Your initial patch seems to qualify for this rule... but I'm still
> thinking whether the current scheme is a bit 'hairy' :-/

I'm not liking the initial patch much because it allows for a situation
where we're not on the RQ but are considered running. That just doesn't
make sense to me.

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