Re: [PATCH v5 2/8] timers/migration: Move hierarchy setup into cpuhotplug prepare callback

From: Frederic Weisbecker
Date: Wed Jul 17 2024 - 08:53:40 EST


Le Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 11:49:40AM +0200, Anna-Maria Behnsen a écrit :
> When a CPU comes online the first time, it is possible that a new top level
> group will be created. In general all propagation is done from the bottom
> to top. This minimizes complexity and prevents possible races. But when a
> new top level group is created, the formely top level group needs to be
> connected to the new level. This is the only time, when the direction to
> propagate changes is changed: the changes are propagated from top (new top
> level group) to bottom (formerly top level group).
>
> This introduces two races (see (A) and (B)) as reported by Frederic:
>
> (A) This race happens, when marking the formely top level group as active,
> but the last active CPU of the formerly top level group goes idle. Then
> it's likely that formerly group is no longer active, but marked
> nevertheless as active in new top level group:
>
> [GRP0:0]
> migrator = 0
> active = 0
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7
> active idle
>
> 0) Hierarchy has for now only 8 CPUs and CPU 0 is the only active CPU.
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = 0 migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0 active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> active idle !online
>
> 1) CPU 8 is booting and creates a new group in first level GRP0:1 and
> therefore also a new top group GRP1:0. For now the setup code proceeded
> only until the connected between GRP0:1 to the new top group. The
> connection between CPU8 and GRP0:1 is not yet established and CPU 8 is
> still !online.
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = 0 migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0 active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> active idle !online
>
> 2) Setup code now connects GRP0:0 to GRP1:0 and observes while in
> tmigr_connect_child_parent() that GRP0:0 is not TMIGR_NONE. So it
> prepares to call tmigr_active_up() on it. It hasn't done it yet.
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = NONE active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> idle idle !online
>
> 3) CPU 0 goes idle. Since GRP0:0->parent has been updated by CPU 8 with
> GRP0:0->lock held, CPU 0 observes GRP1:0 after calling
> tmigr_update_events() and it propagates the change to the top (no change
> there and no wakeup programmed since there is no timer).
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = GRP0:0
> active = GRP0:0
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = NONE active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> idle idle !online
>
> 4) Now the setup code finally calls tmigr_active_up() to and sets GRP0:0
> active in GRP1:0
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = GRP0:0
> active = GRP0:0, GRP0:1
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE migrator = 8
> active = NONE active = 8
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \ |
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> idle idle active
>
> 5) Now CPU 8 is connected with GRP0:1 and CPU 8 calls tmigr_active_up() out
> of tmigr_cpu_online().
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = GRP0:0
> active = GRP0:0
> nextevt = T8
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = NONE active = NONE
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = T8
> / \ |
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> idle idle idle
>
> 5) CPU 8 goes idle with a timer T8 and relies on GRP0:0 as the migrator.
> But it's not really active, so T8 gets ignored.
>
> --> The update which is done in third step is not noticed by setup code. So
> a wrong migrator is set to top level group and a timer could get
> ignored.
>
> (B) Reading group->parent and group->childmask when an hierarchy update is
> ongoing and reaches the formerly top level group is racy as those values
> could be inconsistent. (The notation of migrator and active now slightly
> changes in contrast to the above example, as now the childmasks are used.)
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x00 active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> childmask= 0 childmask= 1
> parent = NULL parent = GRP1:0
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> idle idle !online
> childmask=1
>
> 1) Hierarchy has 8 CPUs. CPU 8 is at the moment in the process of onlining
> but did not yet connect GRP0:0 to GRP1:0.
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x00 active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> childmask= 0 childmask= 1
> parent = GRP1:0 parent = GRP1:0
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> idle idle !online
> childmask=1
>
> 2) Setup code (running on CPU 8) now connects GRP0:0 to GRP1:0, updates
> parent pointer of GRP0:0 and ...
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = 0x01 migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x01 active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> childmask= 0 childmask= 1
> parent = GRP1:0 parent = GRP1:0
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> active idle !online
> childmask=1
>
> tmigr_walk.childmask = 0
>
> 3) ... CPU 0 comes active in the same time. As migrator in GRP0:0 was
> TMIGR_NONE, childmask of GRP0:0 is stored in update propagation data
> structure tmigr_walk (as update of childmask is not yet
> visible/updated). And now ...
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = 0x01 migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x01 active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> childmask= 2 childmask= 1
> parent = GRP1:0 parent = GRP1:0
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> active idle !online
> childmask=1
>
> tmigr_walk.childmask = 0
>
> 4) ... childmask of GRP0:0 is updated by CPU 8 (still part of setup
> code).
>
> [GRP1:0]
> migrator = 0x00
> active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> / \
> [GRP0:0] [GRP0:1]
> migrator = 0x01 migrator = TMIGR_NONE
> active = 0x01 active = 0x00
> nextevt = KTIME_MAX nextevt = KTIME_MAX
> childmask= 2 childmask= 1
> parent = GRP1:0 parent = GRP1:0
> / \
> 0 1 .. 7 8
> active idle !online
> childmask=1
>
> tmigr_walk.childmask = 0
>
> 5) CPU 0 sees the connection to GRP1:0 and now propagates active state to
> GRP1:0 but with childmask = 0 as stored in propagation data structure.
>
> --> Now GRP1:0 always has a migrator as 0x00 != TMIGR_NONE and for all CPUs
> it looks like GRP1:0 is always active.
>
> To prevent those races, the setup of the hierarchy is moved into the
> cpuhotplug prepare callback. The prepare callback is not executed by the
> CPU which will come online, it is executed by the CPU which prepares
> onlining of the other CPU. This CPU is active while it is connecting the
> formerly top level to the new one. This prevents from (A) to happen and it
> also prevents from any further walk above the formerly top level until that
> active CPU becomes inactive, releasing the new ->parent and ->childmask
> updates to be visible by any subsequent walk up above the formerly top
> level hierarchy. This prevents from (B) to happen. The direction for the
> updates is now forced to look like "from bottom to top".
>
> However if the active CPU prevents from tmigr_cpu_(in)active() to walk up
> with the update not-or-half visible, nothing prevents walking up to the new
> top with a 0 childmask in tmigr_handle_remote_up() or
> tmigr_requires_handle_remote_up() if the active CPU doing the prepare is
> not the migrator. But then it looks fine because:
>
> * tmigr_check_migrator() should just return false
> * The migrator is active and should eventually observe the new childmask
> at some point in a future tick.
>
> Split setup functionality of online callback into the cpuhotplug prepare
> callback and setup hotplug state. Change init call into early_initcall() to
> make sure an already active CPU prepares everything for newly upcoming
> CPUs. Reorder the code, that all prepare related functions are close to
> each other and online and offline callbacks are also close together.
>
> Fixes: 7ee988770326 ("timers: Implement the hierarchical pull model")
> Signed-off-by: Anna-Maria Behnsen <anna-maria@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks!