Re: [PATCH v6 1/2] percpu: Add percpu_counter_add_local and percpu_counter_sub_local

From: Manfred Spraul
Date: Sun Sep 18 2022 - 07:08:27 EST


Hi Jiebin,

On 9/13/22 21:25, Jiebin Sun wrote:
+/*
+ * With percpu_counter_add_local() and percpu_counter_sub_local(), counts
+ * are accumulated in local per cpu counter and not in fbc->count until
+ * local count overflows PERCPU_COUNTER_LOCAL_BATCH. This makes counter
+ * write efficient.
+ * But percpu_counter_sum(), instead of percpu_counter_read(), needs to be
+ * used to add up the counts from each CPU to account for all the local
+ * counts. So percpu_counter_add_local() and percpu_counter_sub_local()
+ * should be used when a counter is updated frequently and read rarely.
+ */
+static inline void
+percpu_counter_add_local(struct percpu_counter *fbc, s64 amount)
+{
+ percpu_counter_add_batch(fbc, amount, PERCPU_COUNTER_LOCAL_BATCH);
+}
+

Unrelated to your patch, and not relevant for ipc/msg as the functions are not called from interrupts, but:
Aren't there races with interrupts?

*
* This function is both preempt and irq safe. The former is due to explicit
* preemption disable. The latter is guaranteed by the fact that the slow path
* is explicitly protected by an irq-safe spinlock whereas the fast patch uses
* this_cpu_add which is irq-safe by definition. Hence there is no need muck
* with irq state before calling this one
*/
void percpu_counter_add_batch(struct percpu_counter *fbc, s64 amount, s32 batch)
{
       s64 count;

       preempt_disable();
       count = __this_cpu_read(*fbc->counters) + amount;
       if (abs(count) >= batch) {
               unsigned long flags;
               raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&fbc->lock, flags);
               fbc->count += count;
               __this_cpu_sub(*fbc->counters, count - amount);
               raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&fbc->lock, flags);
       } else {
               this_cpu_add(*fbc->counters, amount);
       }
       preempt_enable();
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(percpu_counter_add_batch);


Race 1:

start: __this_cpu_read(*fbc->counters) = INT_MAX-1.

Call: per_cpu_counter_add_batch(fbc, 1, INT_MAX);

Result:

count=INT_MAX;

if (abs(count) >= batch) { // branch taken

before the raw_spin_lock_irqsave():

Interrupt

Within interrupt:

   per_cpu_counter_add_batch(fbc, -2*(INT_MAX-1), INT_MAX)

   count=-(INT_MAX-1);

   branch not taken

   this_cpu_add() updates fbc->counters, new value is -(INT_MAX-1)

   exit interrupt

raw_spin_lock_irqsave()

__this_cpu_sub(*fbc->counters, count - amount)

will substract INT_MAX-1 from *fbc->counters. But the value is already -(INT_MAX-1) -> underflow.


Race 2: (much simpler)

start: __this_cpu_read(*fbc->counters) = 0.

Call: per_cpu_counter_add_batch(fbc, INT_MAX-1, INT_MAX);

amont=INT_MAX-1;

- branch not taken.

before this_cpu_add(): interrupt

within the interrupt: call per_cpu_counter_add_batch(fbc, INT_MAX-1, INT_MAX)

   new value of *fbc->counters: INT_MAX-1.

   exit interrupt

outside interrupt:

this_cpu_add(*fbc->counters, amount);

<<< overflow.

Attached is an incomplete patch (untested).
If needed, I could check the whole file and add/move the required local_irq_save() calls.


--

    Manfred
From 6a1d2a4beb180241b63f9bf57454bbe031915dd1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Manfred Spraul <manfred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2022 12:17:27 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] lib/percpu_counter: [RFC] potential overflow/underflow

If an interrupt happens between __this_cpu_read(*fbc->counters) and
this_cpu_add(*fbc->counters, amount), and that interrupt modifies
the per_cpu_counter, then the this_cpu_add() after the interrupt
returns may under/overflow.

Thus: Disable interrupts.

Note: The patch is incomplete, if the race is real, then
more functions than just percpu_counter_add_batch() needs to be
updated.

Especially, the !CONFIG_SMP code looks wrong to me as well:
> static inline void
> percpu_counter_add(struct percpu_counter *fbc, s64 amount)
> {
> preempt_disable();
> fbc->count += amount;
> preempt_enable();
> }
The update of fbc->count is not IRQ safe.

Signed-off-by: Manfred Spraul <manfred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
lib/percpu_counter.c | 8 +++++---
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/percpu_counter.c b/lib/percpu_counter.c
index ed610b75dc32..39de94d59b4f 100644
--- a/lib/percpu_counter.c
+++ b/lib/percpu_counter.c
@@ -82,18 +82,20 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(percpu_counter_set);
void percpu_counter_add_batch(struct percpu_counter *fbc, s64 amount, s32 batch)
{
s64 count;
+ unsigned long flags;

preempt_disable();
+ local_irq_save(flags);
count = __this_cpu_read(*fbc->counters) + amount;
if (abs(count) >= batch) {
- unsigned long flags;
- raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&fbc->lock, flags);
+ raw_spin_lock(&fbc->lock);
fbc->count += count;
__this_cpu_sub(*fbc->counters, count - amount);
- raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&fbc->lock, flags);
+ raw_spin_unlock(&fbc->lock);
} else {
this_cpu_add(*fbc->counters, amount);
}
+ local_irq_restore(flags);
preempt_enable();
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(percpu_counter_add_batch);
--
2.37.2