Re: [PATCH for v4.9-stable] sched: fix softirq time accounting

From: Greg KH
Date: Wed Jan 17 2018 - 08:54:39 EST


On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 11:54:56AM +0100, Greg KH wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 11:11:16AM +0100, Rabin Vincent wrote:
> > From: Rabin Vincent <rabinv@xxxxxxxx>
> >
> > softirq time accounting is broken on v4.9.x if ksoftirqd runs.
> >
> > With
> > CONFIG_IRQ_TIME_ACCOUNTING=y
> > # CONFIG_VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING_GEN is not set
> >
> > this test code:
> >
> > struct tasklet_struct tasklet;
> >
> > static void delay_tasklet(unsigned long data)
> > {
> > udelay(10);
> > tasklet_schedule(&tasklet);
> > }
> >
> > tasklet_init(&tasklet, delay_tasklet, 0);
> > tasklet_schedule(&tasklet);
> >
> > results in:
> >
> > $ while :; do grep cpu0 /proc/stat; done
> > cpu0 5 0 80 25 16 107 1 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 80 25 16 107 0 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 80 25 16 107 0 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 80 25 16 107 0 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 81 25 16 107 0 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 81 25 16 107 1 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 81 25 16 108 18446744073709551615 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 81 25 16 108 18446744073709551615 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 81 25 16 108 18446744073709551615 0 0 0
> > cpu0 5 0 81 25 16 108 0 0 0 0
> > cpu0 6 0 81 25 16 108 0 0 0 0
> > cpu0 6 0 81 25 16 108 0 0 0 0
> >
> > As can be seen, the softirq numbers are totally bogus.
> >
> > When ksoftirq is running, irqtime_account_process_tick() increments
> > cpustat[CPUSTAT_SOFTIRQ]. This causes the "nsecs_to_cputime64(irqtime)
> > - cpustat[CPUSTAT_SOFTIRQ]" calculation in irqtime_account_update() to
> > underflow the next time a softirq is handled leading to the above
> > values.
> >
> > The underflow bug was added by 57430218317e5b280 ("sched/cputime: Count
> > actually elapsed irq & softirq time").
> >
> > But ksoftirqd accounting was wrong even in earlier kernels. In earlier
> > kernels, after a ksoftirq run, the kernel would simply stop accounting
> > softirq time spent outside of ksoftirqd until that (accumulated) time
> > exceeded the time for which ksofirqd previously had run.
> >
> > Fix both the underflow and the wrong accounting by using a counter
> > specifically for the non-ksoftirqd softirq case.
> >
> > This code has been fixed in current mainline by a499a5a14db
> > ("sched/cputime: Increment kcpustat directly on irqtime account") [note
> > also the followup 25e2d8c1b9e327e ("sched/cputime: Fix ksoftirqd cputime
> > accounting regression")], but that patch is a part of the many changes
> > for eliminating of cputime_t so it does not seem suitable for backport.
>
> I _really_ only want to take the exact upstream patches, as every time
> we do something like what you are proposing to do here, we get it wrong.
> Seriously, our track record is horrible. Like 90% wrong.
>
> Can you try just those two patches instead?

Dropping from my mbox due to a lack of response. If you do test this
out, please resend.

thanks,

greg k-h