Re: [RFC v6 PATCH 2/2] mm: mmap: zap pages with read mmap_sem in munmap

From: Yang Shi
Date: Mon Aug 06 2018 - 12:46:52 EST




On 8/6/18 2:40 AM, Michal Hocko wrote:
On Fri 03-08-18 14:01:58, Yang Shi wrote:

On 8/3/18 2:07 AM, Michal Hocko wrote:
On Fri 27-07-18 02:10:14, Yang Shi wrote:
When running some mmap/munmap scalability tests with large memory (i.e.
300GB), the below hung task issue may happen occasionally.
INFO: task ps:14018 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
Tainted: G E 4.9.79-009.ali3000.alios7.x86_64 #1
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this
message.
ps D 0 14018 1 0x00000004
ffff885582f84000 ffff885e8682f000 ffff880972943000 ffff885ebf499bc0
ffff8828ee120000 ffffc900349bfca8 ffffffff817154d0 0000000000000040
00ffffff812f872a ffff885ebf499bc0 024000d000948300 ffff880972943000
Call Trace:
[<ffffffff817154d0>] ? __schedule+0x250/0x730
[<ffffffff817159e6>] schedule+0x36/0x80
[<ffffffff81718560>] rwsem_down_read_failed+0xf0/0x150
[<ffffffff81390a28>] call_rwsem_down_read_failed+0x18/0x30
[<ffffffff81717db0>] down_read+0x20/0x40
[<ffffffff812b9439>] proc_pid_cmdline_read+0xd9/0x4e0
[<ffffffff81253c95>] ? do_filp_open+0xa5/0x100
[<ffffffff81241d87>] __vfs_read+0x37/0x150
[<ffffffff812f824b>] ? security_file_permission+0x9b/0xc0
[<ffffffff81242266>] vfs_read+0x96/0x130
[<ffffffff812437b5>] SyS_read+0x55/0xc0
[<ffffffff8171a6da>] entry_SYSCALL_64_fastpath+0x1a/0xc5

It is because munmap holds mmap_sem exclusively from very beginning to
all the way down to the end, and doesn't release it in the middle. When
unmapping large mapping, it may take long time (take ~18 seconds to
unmap 320GB mapping with every single page mapped on an idle machine).

Zapping pages is the most time consuming part, according to the
suggestion from Michal Hocko [1], zapping pages can be done with holding
read mmap_sem, like what MADV_DONTNEED does. Then re-acquire write
mmap_sem to cleanup vmas.

But, some part may need write mmap_sem, for example, vma splitting. So,
the design is as follows:
acquire write mmap_sem
lookup vmas (find and split vmas)
detach vmas
deal with special mappings
downgrade_write

zap pages
free page tables
release mmap_sem

The vm events with read mmap_sem may come in during page zapping, but
since vmas have been detached before, they, i.e. page fault, gup, etc,
will not be able to find valid vma, then just return SIGSEGV or -EFAULT
as expected.

If the vma has VM_LOCKED | VM_HUGETLB | VM_PFNMAP or uprobe, they are
considered as special mappings. They will be dealt with before zapping
pages with write mmap_sem held. Basically, just update vm_flags.
Well, I think it would be safer to simply fallback to the current
implementation with these mappings and deal with them on top. This would
make potential issues easier to bisect and partial reverts as well.
Do you mean just call do_munmap()? It sounds ok. Although we may waste some
cycles to repeat what has done, it sounds not too bad since those special
mappings should be not very common.
VM_HUGETLB is quite spread. Especially for DB workloads.

Wait a minute. In this way, it sounds we go back to my old implementation with special handling for those mappings with write mmap_sem held, right?


And, since they are also manipulated by unmap_single_vma() which is
called by unmap_vma() with read mmap_sem held in this case, to
prevent from updating vm_flags in read critical section, a new
parameter, called "skip_flags" is added to unmap_region(), unmap_vmas()
and unmap_single_vma(). If it is true, then just skip unmap those
special mappings. Currently, the only place which pass true to this
parameter is us.
skip parameters are usually ugly and lead to more mess later on. Can we
do without them?
We need a way to tell unmap_region() that it is called in a kind of special
context which updating vm_flags is not allowed. I didn't think of a better
way.

We could add a new API to do what unmap_region() does without updating
vm_flags, but we would have to duplicate some code.
I really didn't get to think about a better way myself but I strongly
suspect we can do without special hacks here. Is updating flags under
read lock a real problem? Assuming that special mappings are not really
considered at this stage.

In normal case, I don't think vm_flags can be updated with read mmap_sem, but in this patch the vmas have been detached from the rb tree, nobody can find them anymore (I'm supposed all vma looking up is done by find_vma), so it might be safe to update vm_flags with read mmap_sem.

If it is safe, we don't have to have any special handling to those special mappings anymore.


With this approach we don't have to re-acquire mmap_sem again to clean
up vmas to avoid race window which might get the address space changed.
By with this approach you mean detaching right?
Yes, the detaching approach.
Please make it explicit in the changelog.

Sure.

And, since the lock acquire/release cost is managed to the minimum and
almost as same as before, the optimization could be extended to any size
of mapping without incurring significant penalty to small mappings.
I guess you mean to say that lock downgrade approach doesn't lead to
regressions because the overal time mmap_sem is taken is not longer?
Yes. And, there is not lock take/retake cost since we don't release it.
Please also be explicit.

Sure.

For the time being, just do this in munmap syscall path. Other
vm_munmap() or do_munmap() call sites (i.e mmap, mremap, etc) remain
intact for stability reason.
You have used this argument previously and several people have asked.
I think it is just wrong. Either the concept is safe and all callers can
use it or it is not and then those subtle differences should be called
out. Your previous response was that you simply haven't tested other
paths. Well, that is not an argument, I am afraid. The whole thing
should be done at a proper layer. If there are some difficulties to
achieve that for all callers then OK just be explicit about that. I can
imagine some callers really require the exclusive look when munmap
returns for example.
Yes, the statement here sounds ambiguous. There are definitely some
difficulties to achieve that in mmap and mremap. Since they acquire write
mmap_sem at the very beginning, then do their stuff, which may call
do_munmap if overlapped address space has to be changed.
Do call them out. Maybe even add a comment in the code so that people
who would like those other paths know what they need to look at.

OK


But, the optimized do_munmap would like to be called without mmap_sem held
so that we can do the optimization. So, if we want to do the similar
optimization for mmap/mremap path, I'm afraid we would have to redesign
them.

I assumes munmap itself is the main source of the latency issue. mmap/mremap
might hit the latency problem if they are trying to map or remap a huge
overlapped address space, but it should be rare. So, I leave them untouched.
That depends on usecases very much. mremap might be called on very large
areas as well. But let's go in smaller steps and build on top...

Yes, agree. And, I agree to achieve it step by step.

Thanks,
Yang