Re: [PATCH RFC] virtio_net: fix refill related races

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Wed Dec 21 2011 - 04:04:54 EST


On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 10:13:18AM +1030, Rusty Russell wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:45:19 +0200, "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:31:54AM -0800, Tejun Heo wrote:
> > > On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 09:30:55PM +0200, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > > > Hmm, in that case it looks like a nasty race could get
> > > > triggered, with try_fill_recv run on multiple CPUs in parallel,
> > > > corrupting the linked list within the vq.
> > > >
> > > > Using the mutex as my patch did will fix that naturally, as well.
> > >
> > > Don't know the code but just use nrt wq. There's even a system one
> > > called system_nrq_wq.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> >
> > We can, but we need the mutex for other reasons, anyway.
>
> Well, here's the alternate approach. What do you think?

It looks very clean, thanks. Some documentation suggestions below.
Also - Cc stable on this and the block patch?

> Finding two wq issues makes you justifiably cautious, but it almost
> feels like giving up to simply wrap it in a lock. The APIs are designed
> to let us do it without a lock; I was just using them wrong.

One thing I note is that this scheme works because there's a single
entity disabling/enabling napi and the refill thread.
So it's possible that Amit will need to add a lock and track NAPI
state anyway to make suspend work. But we'll see.

> Two patches in one mail. It's gauche, but it's an RFC only (untested).
>
> Cheers,
> Rusty.
>
> virtio_net: set/cancel work on ndo_open/ndo_stop
>
> Michael S. Tsirkin noticed that we could run the refill work after
> ndo_close, which can re-enable napi - we don't disable it until
> virtnet_remove. This is clearly wrong, so move the workqueue control
> to ndo_open and ndo_stop (aka. virtnet_open and virtnet_close).
>
> One subtle point: virtnet_probe() could simply fail if it couldn't
> allocate a receive buffer, but that's less polite in virtnet_open() so
> we schedule a refill as we do in the normal receive path if we run out
> of memory.
>
> diff --git a/drivers/net/virtio_net.c b/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> --- a/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> @@ -719,6 +719,10 @@ static int virtnet_open(struct net_devic
> {
> struct virtnet_info *vi = netdev_priv(dev);
>
> + /* Make sure we have some buffersl if oom use wq. */

Typo :)

> + if (!try_fill_recv(vi, GFP_KERNEL))
> + schedule_delayed_work(&vi->refill, 0);
> +
> virtnet_napi_enable(vi);
> return 0;
> }
> @@ -772,6 +776,8 @@ static int virtnet_close(struct net_devi
> {
> struct virtnet_info *vi = netdev_priv(dev);
>
> + /* Make sure refill_work doesn't re-enable napi! */
> + cancel_delayed_work_sync(&vi->refill);
> napi_disable(&vi->napi);
>
> return 0;
> @@ -1082,7 +1088,6 @@ static int virtnet_probe(struct virtio_d
>
> unregister:
> unregister_netdev(dev);
> - cancel_delayed_work_sync(&vi->refill);
> free_vqs:
> vdev->config->del_vqs(vdev);
> free_stats:
> @@ -1121,9 +1126,7 @@ static void __devexit virtnet_remove(str
> /* Stop all the virtqueues. */
> vdev->config->reset(vdev);
>
> -
> unregister_netdev(vi->dev);
> - cancel_delayed_work_sync(&vi->refill);
>
> /* Free unused buffers in both send and recv, if any. */
> free_unused_bufs(vi);
>
>
> virtio_net: use non-reentrant workqueue.
>
> Michael S. Tsirkin also noticed that we could run the refill work
> multiple CPUs: if we kick off a refill on one CPU and then on another,
> they would both manipulate the queue at the same time (they use
> napi_disable to avoid racing against the receive handler itself).
>
> Tejun points out that this is what the WQ_NON_REENTRANT flag is for,
> and that there is a convenient system kthread we can use.
>
> diff --git a/drivers/net/virtio_net.c b/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> --- a/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/virtio_net.c
> @@ -501,7 +501,7 @@ static void refill_work(struct work_stru
> /* In theory, this can happen: if we don't get any buffers in
> * we will *never* try to fill again. */
> if (still_empty)
> - schedule_delayed_work(&vi->refill, HZ/2);
> + queue_delayed_work(system_nrt_wq, &vi->refill, HZ/2);
> }
>
> static int virtnet_poll(struct napi_struct *napi, int budget)
> @@ -520,7 +520,7 @@ again:
>
> if (vi->num < vi->max / 2) {
> if (!try_fill_recv(vi, GFP_ATOMIC))
> - schedule_delayed_work(&vi->refill, 0);
> + queue_delayed_work(system_nrt_wq, &vi->refill, 0);
> }
>
> /* Out of packets? */
> @@ -721,7 +721,7 @@ static int virtnet_open(struct net_devic
>
> /* Make sure we have some buffersl if oom use wq. */
> if (!try_fill_recv(vi, GFP_KERNEL))
> - schedule_delayed_work(&vi->refill, 0);
> + queue_delayed_work(&system_nrt_wq, &vi->refill, 0);
>
> virtnet_napi_enable(vi);
> return 0;

Maybe document some rules:
- try_fill_recv must always run from napi or with napi disabled ...
- refill only runs when device is open

--
MST
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/