Re: [RFC PATCH 2/6] jump label v3 - x86: Introduce generic jump patchingwithout stop_machine

From: Masami Hiramatsu
Date: Fri Nov 20 2009 - 20:12:41 EST


Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
* Jason Baron (jbaron@xxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
Add text_poke_fixup() which takes a fixup address to where a processor
jumps if it hits the modifying address while code modifying.
text_poke_fixup() does following steps for this purpose.

1. Setup int3 handler for fixup.
2. Put a breakpoint (int3) on the first byte of modifying region,
and synchronize code on all CPUs.
3. Modify other bytes of modifying region, and synchronize code on all CPUs.
4. Modify the first byte of modifying region, and synchronize code
on all CPUs.
5. Clear int3 handler.


Hi Masami,

I like the approach and the API is clean. I have intersped comments
below.

Ingo: I raise a question about text_mutex vs on_each_cpu hangs I
experienced recently in the message below. Might be worth having a look,
I suspect this might have caused the hangs Paul McKenney had with his
past TREE RCU callback migration. I think he did take a mutex in the cpu
hotplug callbacks and might have used IPIs within that same lock.

Hi Mathieu,

I guess that the hang might happen as below;

----
lock text_mutex
modify code
on_each_cpu(do_something)
cpu-hotplug (down)
lock cpu-hotplug mutex
online_cpus is changed
native_cpu_die()
->alternatives_smp_switch(0)
->lock text_mutex -> sleep
(wait for offlined cpu...)
----

If this is correct, I think we can fix it as below.

----
lock cpu-hotplug mutex
lock text_mutex
modify code
on_each_cpu(do_something)
unlock text_mutex
unlock cpu-hotplug mutex
cpu-hotplug (down)
lock cpu-hotplug mutex
online_cpus is changed
native_cpu_die()
->alternatives_smp_switch(0)
->lock text_mutex
modify code
unlock text_mutex
...
unlock cpu-hotplug mutex
----
Or,
----
lock text_mutex
modify code
unlock text_mutex
on_each_cpu(do_something)
cpu-hotplug (down)
lock cpu-hotplug mutex
online_cpus is changed
native_cpu_die()
->alternatives_smp_switch(0)
->lock text_mutex
modify code
unlock text_mutex
...
unlock cpu-hotplug mutex
----
The latter needs another mutex for int3 handler and
frequently mutex_lock/unlock in this patch.

Hmm?

Thank you,

--
Masami Hiramatsu

Software Engineer
Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc.
Software Solutions Division

e-mail: mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx

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