Re: [PATCH v3 4/9] fs/procfs: use per-VMA RCU-protected locking in PROCMAP_QUERY API

From: Liam R. Howlett
Date: Thu Jun 06 2024 - 13:16:29 EST


* Andrii Nakryiko <andrii.nakryiko@xxxxxxxxx> [240606 12:52]:
> On Wed, Jun 5, 2024 at 4:16 PM Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 4, 2024 at 5:25 PM Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > Attempt to use RCU-protected per-VMA lock when looking up requested VMA
> > > as much as possible, only falling back to mmap_lock if per-VMA lock
> > > failed. This is done so that querying of VMAs doesn't interfere with
> > > other critical tasks, like page fault handling.
> > >
> > > This has been suggested by mm folks, and we make use of a newly added
> > > internal API that works like find_vma(), but tries to use per-VMA lock.
> > >
> > > We have two sets of setup/query/teardown helper functions with different
> > > implementations depending on availability of per-VMA lock (conditioned
> > > on CONFIG_PER_VMA_LOCK) to abstract per-VMA lock subtleties.
> > >
> > > When per-VMA lock is available, lookup is done under RCU, attempting to
> > > take a per-VMA lock. If that fails, we fallback to mmap_lock, but then
> > > proceed to unconditionally grab per-VMA lock again, dropping mmap_lock
> > > immediately. In this configuration mmap_lock is never helf for long,
> > > minimizing disruptions while querying.
> > >
> > > When per-VMA lock is compiled out, we take mmap_lock once, query VMAs
> > > using find_vma() API, and then unlock mmap_lock at the very end once as
> > > well. In this setup we avoid locking/unlocking mmap_lock on every looked
> > > up VMA (depending on query parameters we might need to iterate a few of
> > > them).
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > > ---
> > > fs/proc/task_mmu.c | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > > 1 file changed, 46 insertions(+)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/fs/proc/task_mmu.c b/fs/proc/task_mmu.c
> > > index 614fbe5d0667..140032ffc551 100644
> > > --- a/fs/proc/task_mmu.c
> > > +++ b/fs/proc/task_mmu.c
> > > @@ -388,6 +388,49 @@ static int pid_maps_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *file)
> > > PROCMAP_QUERY_VMA_FLAGS \
> > > )
> > >
> > > +#ifdef CONFIG_PER_VMA_LOCK
> > > +static int query_vma_setup(struct mm_struct *mm)
> > > +{
> > > + /* in the presence of per-VMA lock we don't need any setup/teardown */
> > > + return 0;
> > > +}
> > > +
> > > +static void query_vma_teardown(struct mm_struct *mm, struct vm_area_struct *vma)
> > > +{
> > > + /* in the presence of per-VMA lock we need to unlock vma, if present */
> > > + if (vma)
> > > + vma_end_read(vma);
> > > +}
> > > +
> > > +static struct vm_area_struct *query_vma_find_by_addr(struct mm_struct *mm, unsigned long addr)
> > > +{
> > > + struct vm_area_struct *vma;
> > > +
> > > + /* try to use less disruptive per-VMA lock */
> > > + vma = find_and_lock_vma_rcu(mm, addr);
> > > + if (IS_ERR(vma)) {
> > > + /* failed to take per-VMA lock, fallback to mmap_lock */
> > > + if (mmap_read_lock_killable(mm))
> > > + return ERR_PTR(-EINTR);
> > > +
> > > + vma = find_vma(mm, addr);
> > > + if (vma) {
> > > + /*
> > > + * We cannot use vma_start_read() as it may fail due to
> > > + * false locked (see comment in vma_start_read()). We
> > > + * can avoid that by directly locking vm_lock under
> > > + * mmap_lock, which guarantees that nobody can lock the
> > > + * vma for write (vma_start_write()) under us.
> > > + */
> > > + down_read(&vma->vm_lock->lock);
> >
> > Hi Andrii,
> > The above pattern of locking VMA under mmap_lock and then dropping
> > mmap_lock is becoming more common. Matthew had an RFC proposal for an
> > API to do this here:
> > https://lore.kernel.org/all/ZivhG0yrbpFqORDw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/. It
> > might be worth reviving that discussion.
>
> Sure, it would be nice to have generic and blessed primitives to use
> here. But the good news is that once this is all figured out by you mm
> folks, it should be easy to make use of those primitives here, right?
>
> >
> > > + }
> > > +
> > > + mmap_read_unlock(mm);
> >
> > Later on in your code you are calling get_vma_name() which might call
> > anon_vma_name() to retrieve user-defined VMA name. After this patch
> > this operation will be done without holding mmap_lock, however per
> > https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/include/linux/mm_types.h#L582
> > this function has to be called with mmap_lock held for read. Indeed
> > with debug flags enabled you should hit this assertion:
> > https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/mm/madvise.c#L96.

The documentation on the first link says to hold the lock or take a
reference, but then we assert the lock. If you take a reference to the
anon vma name, then we will trigger the assert. Either the
documentation needs changing or the assert is incorrect - or I'm missing
something?

>
> Sigh... Ok, what's the suggestion then? Should it be some variant of
> mmap_assert_locked() || vma_assert_locked() logic, or it's not so
> simple?
>
> Maybe I should just drop the CONFIG_PER_VMA_LOCK changes for now until
> all these gotchas are figured out for /proc/<pid>/maps anyway, and
> then we can adapt both text-based and ioctl-based /proc/<pid>/maps
> APIs on top of whatever the final approach will end up being the right
> one?
>
> Liam, any objections to this? The whole point of this patch set is to
> add a new API, not all the CONFIG_PER_VMA_LOCK gotchas. My
> implementation is structured in a way that should be easily amenable
> to CONFIG_PER_VMA_LOCK changes, but if there are a few more subtle
> things that need to be figured for existing text-based
> /proc/<pid>/maps anyways, I think it would be best to use mmap_lock
> for now for this new API, and then adopt the same final
> CONFIG_PER_VMA_LOCK-aware solution.

The reason I was hoping to have the new interface use the per-vma
locking from the start is to ensure the guarantees that we provide to
the users would not change. We'd also avoid shifting to yet another
mmap_lock users.

I also didn't think it would complicate your series too much, so I
understand why you want to revert to the old locking semantics. I'm
fine with you continuing with the series on the old lock. Thanks for
trying to make this work.

Regards,
Liam