Re: [PATCH v2 4/4] mm: fix KSM data corruption

[Andrea Arcangeli]

Hello,

On Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 02:56:17PM +0900, Minchan Kim wrote:
> CPU0		CPU1		CPU2		CPU3
> ----		----		----		----
> Write the same
> value on page
> 
> [cache PTE as
>  dirty in TLB]
> 
> 		MADV_FREE
> 		pte_mkclean()
> 
> 				4 > clear_refs
> 				pte_wrprotect()
> 
> 						write_protect_page()
> 						[ success, no flush ]
> 
> 						pages_indentical()
> 						[ ok ]
> 
> Write to page
> different value
> 
> [Ok, using stale
>  PTE]
> 
> 						replace_page()
> 
> Later, CPU1, CPU2 and CPU3 would flush the TLB, but that is too late. CPU0
> already wrote on the page, but KSM ignored this write, and it got lost.
> "
> 
> In above scenario, MADV_FREE is fixed by changing TLB batching API
> including [set|clear]_tlb_flush_pending. Remained thing is soft-dirty part.
> 
> This patch changes soft-dirty uses TLB batching API instead of flush_tlb_mm
> and KSM checks pending TLB flush by using mm_tlb_flush_pending so that
> it will flush TLB to avoid data lost if there are other parallel threads
> pending TLB flush.
> 
> [1] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/BD3A0EBE-ECF4-41D4-87FA-C755EA9AB6BD@xxxxxxxxx
> 
> Note:
> I failed to reproduce this problem through Nadav's test program which
> need to tune timing in my system speed so didn't confirm it work.
> Nadav, Could you test this patch on your test machine?

Reviewed-by: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@xxxxxxxxxx>