Re: [PATCH] MIPS: Revert "MIPS: Fix race on setting and getting cpu_online_mask"

[Huacai Chen]

Yes, your original patch (8f46cca1e6c06) is needed in 4.12/4.13, but
they should be reverted in 4.1/4.4-stable branch.

Huacai

On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 9:24 PM, Matt Redfearn <matt.redfearn@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Huacai,
>
> On 29/08/17 02:43, Huacai Chen wrote:
>>
>> I suggest to drop sync_r4k completely, because it is inaccurate. You
>> can use IPI to synchronize count/compare instead, as Loongson-3 does.
>
>
> I am all for a better fix, such as this - but that would be a much more
> invasive change than what I propose. Currently 4.13 is broken by the patch
> that this is attempting to revert. It is easy to deadlock the system by
> hotplugging a CPU while it is busy. That was what my patch 8f46cca1e6c06
> originally fixed. Even though it is, perhaps, not stylistically great to
> have the synchronisation done by callers, the fact is that it *is* done
> (added in 8df3e07e7f21f), so the behavior for 4.13 would be safe and
> deadlocks not possible. We can then look at more invasive changes that are
> acceptable to everyone during the 4.14 cycle.
>
> Thanks,
> Matt
>
>
>>
>> Huacai
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 6:07 PM, Matija Glavinic Pecotic
>> <matija.glavinic-pecotic.ext@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 08/23/2017 10:21 AM, Matt Redfearn wrote:
>>>>
>>>> As noted in the commit message, upstream differs in this area. The
>>>> hotplug code now waits on a completion event in bringup_wait_for_ap,
>>>> which is set by the starting CPU in cpuhp_online_idle once it calls
>>>> cpu_startup_entry. Thus there is no possibility of a race in upstream,
>>>> and this commit has only re-introduced the deadlock condition, which can
>>>> be observed on multiple platforms when running a heavy load test at the
>>>> same time as hotplugging CPUs. See commit 8f46cca1e6c06 ("MIPS: SMP: Fix
>>>> possibility of deadlock when bringing CPUs online") for details.
>>>
>>> I personally do not like the fact that synchronization is implicitly done
>>> by the callers, it is the reason why the patch was proposed. As noted
>>> before, it is enough someone checks cpu online mask somewhere in between and
>>> there is race again.
>>>
>>> How about moving synchronise_count_slave before setting the cpu online?
>>> Is there dependency it has to be done after completion?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Matija
>>>
>