Re: [RFC -v2] panic_on_oom_timeout

From: Tetsuo Handa
Date: Fri Jun 19 2015 - 07:30:56 EST


Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Wed 17-06-15 22:59:54, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
> > Michal Hocko wrote:
> [...]
> > > But you have a point that we could have
> > > - constrained OOM which elevates oom_victims
> > > - global OOM killer strikes but wouldn't start the timer
> > >
> > > This is certainly possible and timer_pending(&panic_on_oom) replacing
> > > oom_victims check should help here. I will think about this some more.
> >
> > Yes, please.
>
> Fixed in my local version. I will post the new version of the patch
> after we settle with the approach.
>

I'd like to see now, for it looks to me that it is very difficult to expire
your timeout with reasonable precision.

I think that you changed

/*
* Only schedule the delayed panic_on_oom when this is
* the first OOM triggered. oom_lock will protect us
* from races
*/
if (atomic_read(&oom_victims))
return;

to something like

/*
* Schedule the delayed panic_on_oom if timer is not active.
* oom_lock will protect us from races.
*/
if (timer_pending(&panic_on_oom_timer))
return;

. But such change alone sounds far from sufficient.

We are trying to activate panic_on_oom_timer timer only when
sysctl_panic_on_oom == 1 and global OOM occurred because you add
this block after

if (likely(!sysctl_panic_on_oom))
return;
if (sysctl_panic_on_oom != 2) {
/*
* panic_on_oom == 1 only affects CONSTRAINT_NONE, the kernel
* does not panic for cpuset, mempolicy, or memcg allocation
* failures.
*/
if (constraint != CONSTRAINT_NONE)
return;
}

check. That part is fine.

But oom_victims is incremented via mark_oom_victim() for both global OOM
and non-global OOM, isn't it? Then, I think that more difficult part is
exit_oom_victim().

We can hit a sequence like

(1) Task1 in memcg1 hits memcg OOM.
(2) Task1 gets TIF_MEMDIE and increments oom_victims.
(3) Task2 hits global OOM.
(4) Task2 activates 10 seconds of timeout.
(5) Task2 gets TIF_MEMDIE and increments oom_victims.
(6) Task2 remained unkillable for 1 second since (5).
(7) Task2 calls exit_oom_victim().
(8) Task2 drops TIF_MEMDIE and decrements oom_victims.
(9) panic_on_oom_timer is not deactivated because oom_vctims > 0.
(10) Task1 remains unkillable for 10 seconds since (2).
(11) panic_on_oom_timer expires and the system will panic while
the system is no longer under global OOM.

if we deactivate panic_on_oom_timer like

void exit_oom_victim(void)
{
clear_thread_flag(TIF_MEMDIE);

- if (!atomic_dec_return(&oom_victims))
+ if (!atomic_dec_return(&oom_victims)) {
+ del_timer(&panic_on_oom_timer);
wake_up_all(&oom_victims_wait);
+ }
}

.

On the other hand, we can hit a sequence like

(1) Task1 in memcg1 hits memcg OOM.
(2) Task1 gets TIF_MEMDIE and increments oom_victims.
(3) Task2 hits system OOM.
(4) Task2 activates 10 seconds of timeout.
(5) Task2 gets TIF_MEMDIE and increments oom_victims.
(6) Task1 remained unkillable for 9 seconds since (2).
(7) Task1 calls exit_oom_victim().
(8) Task1 drops TIF_MEMDIE and decrements oom_victims.
(9) panic_on_oom_timer is deactivated.
(10) Task3 hits system OOM.
(11) Task3 again activates 10 seconds of timeout.
(12) Task2 remains unkillable for 19 seconds since (5).
(13) panic_on_oom_timer expires and the system will panic, but
the expected timeout is 10 seconds while actual timeout is
19 seconds.

if we deactivate panic_on_oom_timer like

void exit_oom_victim(void)
{
clear_thread_flag(TIF_MEMDIE);

+ del_timer(&panic_on_oom_timer);
if (!atomic_dec_return(&oom_victims))
wake_up_all(&oom_victims_wait);
}

.

If we want to avoid premature or over-delayed timeout, I think we need to
update timeout at exit_oom_victim() by doing something like

void exit_oom_victim(void)
{
clear_thread_flag(TIF_MEMDIE);

+ /*
+ * If current thread got TIF_MEMDIE due to global OOM, we need to
+ * update panic_on_oom_timer to "jiffies till the nearest timeout
+ * of all threads which got TIF_MEMDIE due to global OOM" and
+ * delete panic_on_oom_timer if "there is no more threads which
+ * got TIF_MEMDIE due to global OOM".
+ */
+ if (/* Was I OOM-killed due to global OOM? */) {
+ mutex_lock(&oom_lock); /* oom_lock needed for avoiding race. */
+ if (/* Am I the last thread ? */) {
+ del_timer(&panic_on_oom_timer);
+ else
+ mod_timer(&panic_on_oom_timer,
+ /* jiffies of the nearest timeout */);
+ mutex_unlock(&oom_lock);
+ }
if (!atomic_dec_return(&oom_victims))
wake_up_all(&oom_victims_wait);
}

but we don't have hint for finding global OOM victims from all TIF_MEMDIE
threads and when is the nearest timeout among all global OOM victims. We
need to keep track of per global OOM victim's timeout (e.g.
"struct task_struct"->memdie_start ) ?

Moreover, mark_oom_victim(current) at

if (current->mm &&
(fatal_signal_pending(current) || task_will_free_mem(current))) {
mark_oom_victim(current);
goto out;
}

lacks information for "Was I OOM-killed due to global OOM?". We need to keep
track of per mm timeout (e.g. "struct mm_struct"->memdie_start ) so that
we can recalculate the nearest timeout among all global OOM victims?



Well, do we really need to set TIF_MEMDIE to non-global OOM victims?
I'm wondering how {memcg,cpuset,mempolicy} OOM stall can occur because
there is enough memory (unless global OOM runs concurrently) for any
operations (e.g. XFS filesystem's writeback, workqueue) which non-global
OOM victims might depend on to make forward progress.

> > The reason would depend on
> >
> > (a) whether {memcg,cpuset,mempolicy} OOM stall is possible
> >
> > (b) what {memcg,cpuset,mempolicy} users want to do when (a) is possible
> > and {memcg,cpuset,mempolicy} OOM stall occurred
>
> The system as such is still usable. And an administrator might
> intervene. E.g. enlarge the memcg limit or relax the numa restrictions
> for the same purpose.

If we set TIF_MEMDIE to only global OOM victims, the problem of "when to call
del_timer(&panic_on_oom_timer) at exit_oom_victim()" will go away.



By the way, I think we can replace

if (!atomic_dec_return(&oom_victims))

with

if (atomic_dec_and_test(&oom_victims))

. But this logic puzzles me. The number of threads that are killed by
the OOM killer can be larger than value of oom_victims. This means that
there might be fatal_signal_pending() threads even after oom_victims drops
to 0. Why waiting for only TIF_MEMDIE threads at oom_killer_disable() is
considered sufficient?
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/