Re: ptrace/strace and freezer oddities and v5.2+ kernels

[Bruce Ashfield]

On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 8:09 PM Roman Gushchin <guro@xxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 02, 2019 at 05:59:36PM -0400, Bruce Ashfield wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 2:19 PM Roman Gushchin <guro@xxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 02, 2019 at 12:18:54AM -0400, Bruce Ashfield wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Oct 1, 2019 at 10:01 PM Roman Gushchin <guro@xxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > On Tue, Oct 01, 2019 at 12:14:18PM -0400, Bruce Ashfield wrote:
> > > > > > Hi all,
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi Bruce!
> > > > >
> > > > > > The Yocto project has an upcoming release this fall, and I've been trying to
> > > > > > sort through some issues that are happening with kernel 5.2+ .. although
> > > > > > there is a specific yocto kernel, I'm testing and seeing this with
> > > > > > normal / vanilla
> > > > > > mainline kernels as well.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I'm running into an issue that is *very* similar to the one discussed in the
> > > > > > [REGRESSION] ptrace broken from "cgroup: cgroup v2 freezer" (76f969e)
> > > > > > thread from this past may: https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/5/12/272
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I can confirm that I have the proposed fix for the initial regression report in
> > > > > > my build (05b2892637 [signal: unconditionally leave the frozen state
> > > > > > in ptrace_stop()]),
> > > > > > but yet I'm still seeing 3 or 4 minute runtimes on a test that used to take 3 or
> > > > > > 4 seconds.
> > > > >
> > > > > So, the problem is that you're experiencing a severe performance regression
> > > > > in some test, right?
> > > >
> > > > Hi Roman,
> > > >
> > > > Correct. In particular, running some of the tests that ship with strace itself.
> > > > The performance change is so drastic, that it definitely makes you wonder
> > > > "What have I done wrong? Since everyone must be seeing this" .. and I
> > > > always blame myself first.
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > This isn't my normal area of kernel hacking, so I've so far come up empty
> > > > > > at either fixing it myself, or figuring out a viable workaround. (well, I can
> > > > > > "fix" it by remove the cgroup_enter_frozen() call in ptrace_stop ...
> > > > > > but obviously,
> > > > > > that is just me trying to figure out what could be causing the issue).
> > > > > >
> > > > > > As part of the release, we run tests that come with various applications. The
> > > > > > ptrace test that is causing us issues can be boiled down to this:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > $ cd /usr/lib/strace/ptest/tests
> > > > > > $ time ../strace -o log -qq -esignal=none -e/clock ./printpath-umovestr>ttt
> > > > > >
> > > > > > (I can provide as many details as needed, but I wanted to keep this initial
> > > > > > email relatively short).
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I'll continue to debug and attempt to fix this myself, but I grabbed the
> > > > > > email list from the regression report in May to see if anyone has any ideas
> > > > > > or angles that I haven't covered in my search for a fix.
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm definitely happy to help, but it's a bit hard to say anything from what
> > > > > you've provided. I'm not aware of any open issues with the freezer except
> > > > > some spurious cgroup frozen<->not frozen transitions which can happen in some
> > > > > cases. If you'll describe how can I reproduce the issue, and I'll try to take
> > > > > a look asap.
> > > >
> > > > That would be great.
> > > >
> > > > I'll attempt to remove all of the build system specifics out of this
> > > > (and Richard Purdie
> > > > on the cc' of this can probably help provide more details / setup info as well).
> > > >
> > > > We are running the built-in tests of strace. So here's a cut and paste of what I
> > > > did to get the tests available (ignore/skip what is common sense or isn't needed
> > > > in your test rig).
> > > >
> > > > % git clone https://github.com/strace/strace.git
> > > > % cd strace
> > > > % ./bootstrap
> > > > # the --enable flag isn't strictly required, but may break on some
> > > > build machines
> > > > % ./configure --enable-mpers=no
> > > > % make
> > > > % make check-TESTS
> > > >
> > > > That last step will not only build the tests, but run them all .. so
> > > > ^c the run once
> > > > it starts, since it is a lot of noise (we carry a patch to strace that
> > > > allows us to build
> > > > the tests without running them).
> > > >
> > > > % cd tests
> > > > % time strace -o log -qq -esignal=none -e/clock ./printpath-umovestr > fff
> > > > real    0m2.566s
> > > > user    0m0.284s
> > > > sys     0m2.519
> > > >
> > > > On pre-cgroup2 freezer kernels, you see a run time similar to what I have above.
> > > > On the newer kernels we are testing, it is taking 3 or 4 minutes to
> > > > run the test.
> > > >
> > > > I hope that is simple enough to setup and try. Since I've been seeing
> > > > this on both
> > > > mainline kernels and the yocto reference kernels, I don't think it is
> > > > something that
> > > > I'm carrying in the distro/reference kernel that is causing this (but
> > > > again, I always
> > > > blame myself first). If you don't see that same run time, then that
> > > > does point the finger
> > > > back at what we are doing and I'll have to apologize for chewing up some of your
> > > > time.
> > >
> > > Thank you for the detailed description!
> > > I'll try to reproduce the issue and will be back
> > > by the end of the week.
> >
> > Thanks again!
> >
> > While discussing the issue with a few yocto folks today, it came up that
> > someone wasn't seeing the same behaviour on the opensuse v5.2 kernel
> > (but I've yet to figure out exactly where to find that tree) .. but when I do,
> > I'll try and confirm that and will look for patches or config differences that
> > could explain the results.
> >
> > I did confirm that 5.3 shows the same thing today, and I'll do a 5.4-rc1 test
> > tomorrow.
> >
> > We are also primarily reproducing the issue on qemux86-64, so I'm also
> > going to try and rule out qemu (but the same version of qemu with just
> > the kernel changing shows the issue).
>
> Hi Bruce!
>
> I've tried to follow your steps, but unfortunately failed to reproduce the issue.
> I've executed the test on my desktop running 5.2 and cgroup v1 (Fedora 30),
> and also a qemu vm with vanilla 5.1 and 5.3 and cgroup v2 mounted by default.
> In all cases the test execution time was about 4.5 seconds.

Hi Roman,

Thanks for the time you spent on this. I had *thought* that I ruled out my
config before posting .. but clearly, it is either not my config or something
else in the environment.

>
> Looks like something makes your setup special. If you'll provide your
> build config, qemu arguments or any other configuration files, I can try
> to reproduce it on my side.

Indeed. I'm going to dive back in and see what I can find. If I can
find something
that is reproducible in a completely different environment and easy to configure
components, I'll follow up with details.

When I figure out what is going on with the config here, I'll follow up as well,
so the solution can be captured in any archives.

Thanks again,

Bruce

>
> Thanks!
>
> Roman



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