Re: [PATCH] [BUGFIX]cgroup: fix potential deadlock in pre_destroy.

From: Balbir Singh
Date: Tue Nov 11 2008 - 23:54:30 EST


KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki wrote:
> Balbir, Paul, Li, How about this ?
> =
> As Balbir pointed out, memcg's pre_destroy handler has potential deadlock.
>
> It has following lock sequence.
>
> cgroup_mutex (cgroup_rmdir)
> -> pre_destroy
> -> mem_cgroup_pre_destroy
> -> force_empty
> -> lru_add_drain_all->
> -> schedule_work_on_all_cpus
> -> get_online_cpus -> cpuhotplug.lock.
>
> But, cpuset has following.
> cpu_hotplug.lock (call notifier)
> -> cgroup_mutex. (within notifier)
>
> Then, this lock sequence should be fixed.
>
> Considering how pre_destroy works, it's not necessary to holding
> cgroup_mutex() while calling it.
>
> As side effect, we don't have to wait at this mutex while memcg's force_empty
> works.(it can be long when there are tons of pages.)
>
> Note: memcg is an only user of pre_destroy, now.
>

I thought about this and it seems promising. My concern is that with
cgroup_mutex given, the state of cgroup within pre-destroy will be
unpredictable. I suspect, if pre-destory really needs cgroup_mutex, we can hold
it within pre-destroy.

BTW, your last check, does not seem right

+ if (atomic_read(&cgrp->count)
+ || list_empty(&cgrp->children)

Why should list_empty() result in EBUSY, shouldn't it be !list_empty()?

+ || cgroup_has_css_refs(cgrp)) {


--
Balbir
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