[PATCH 4.4 128/210] watchdog: dont run proc_watchdog_update if new value is same as old

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

4.4-stable review patch.  If anyone has any objections, please let me know.

------------------

From: Joshua Hunt <johunt@xxxxxxxxxx>

commit a1ee1932aa6bea0bb074f5e3ced112664e4637ed upstream.

While working on a script to restore all sysctl params before a series of
tests I found that writing any value into the
/proc/sys/kernel/{nmi_watchdog,soft_watchdog,watchdog,watchdog_thresh}
causes them to call proc_watchdog_update().

  NMI watchdog: enabled on all CPUs, permanently consumes one hw-PMU counter.
  NMI watchdog: enabled on all CPUs, permanently consumes one hw-PMU counter.
  NMI watchdog: enabled on all CPUs, permanently consumes one hw-PMU counter.
  NMI watchdog: enabled on all CPUs, permanently consumes one hw-PMU counter.

There doesn't appear to be a reason for doing this work every time a write
occurs, so only do it when the values change.

Signed-off-by: Josh Hunt <johunt@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Don Zickus <dzickus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ulrich Obergfell <uobergfe@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

---
 kernel/watchdog.c |    9 ++++++++-
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

--- a/kernel/watchdog.c
+++ b/kernel/watchdog.c
@@ -907,6 +907,9 @@ static int proc_watchdog_common(int whic
 		 * both lockup detectors are disabled if proc_watchdog_update()
 		 * returns an error.
 		 */
+		if (old == new)
+			goto out;
+
 		err = proc_watchdog_update();
 	}
 out:
@@ -951,7 +954,7 @@ int proc_soft_watchdog(struct ctl_table
 int proc_watchdog_thresh(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
 			 void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos)
 {
-	int err, old;
+	int err, old, new;
 
 	get_online_cpus();
 	mutex_lock(&watchdog_proc_mutex);
@@ -971,6 +974,10 @@ int proc_watchdog_thresh(struct ctl_tabl
 	/*
 	 * Update the sample period. Restore on failure.
 	 */
+	new = ACCESS_ONCE(watchdog_thresh);
+	if (old == new)
+		goto out;
+
 	set_sample_period();
 	err = proc_watchdog_update();
 	if (err) {