Re: [PATCH] clocksource, prevent overflow in clocksource_cyc2ns

From: John Stultz
Date: Wed Apr 18 2012 - 19:20:36 EST


On 04/05/2012 05:27 AM, Prarit Bhargava wrote:
So what kernel version are you using?
I retested using top of the linux.git tree, running

echo 1> /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq
for i in `seq 10000`; do sleep 1000& done
echo t> /proc/sysrq-trigger

and I no longer see a problem. However, if I increase the number of threads to
1000/cpu I get

Clocksource %s unstable (delta = -429565427)
Clocksource switching to hpet

to narrow down if you're problem is currently present in mainline or only in
older kernels, as that will help us find the proper fix.
If I hack in (sorry for the cut-and-paste)

diff --git a/kernel/time/clocksource.c b/kernel/time/clocksource.c
index c958338..f38b8d0 100644
--- a/kernel/time/clocksource.c
+++ b/kernel/time/clocksource.c
@@ -279,11 +279,16 @@ static void clocksource_watchdog(unsigned long data)
continue;
}

- wd_nsec = clocksource_cyc2ns((wdnow - cs->wd_last)& watchdog->m
- watchdog->mult, watchdog->shift);
+ /*wd_nsec = clocksource_cyc2ns((wdnow - cs->wd_last)& watchdog-
+ watchdog->mult, watchdog->shift);*/
+ wd_nsec = mult_frac(((wdnow - cs->wd_last), watchdog->mult,
+ 1UL<< watchdog->shift);
+
+ /*cs_nsec = clocksource_cyc2ns((csnow - cs->cs_last)&
+ cs->mask, cs->mult, cs->shift);*/
+ cs_nsec = mult_frac(((csnow - cs->cs_last), cs->mult,
+ 1UL<< cs->shift);

- cs_nsec = clocksource_cyc2ns((csnow - cs->cs_last)&
- cs->mask, cs->mult, cs->shift);
cs->cs_last = csnow;
cs->wd_last = wdnow;


then I don't see unstable messages.

I think the problem is still here but it only happens in extreme cases.


Hey Prarit,
So at tglx's prodding I took a look at the sysrq code, and the problem is the entire sysrq path runs with irqs disabled. As you note,with many cores and many processes, it can take a while to spit all that data out.

Instead of the earlier hack I suggested, would you try the following simpler one? I suspect we just need to touch the clocksource watchdog before returning. This should avoid the TSC disqualification you're seeing. On systems using clocksources that wrap, we'll still lose time, since no time accumulation occurred during the long irq off period, but I think that's acceptable given this is not normal operation.

Let me know if this helps.

thanks
-john

As irqs may be disabled for quite some time in the sysrq path, touch clocksource
watchdog before re-enabling interrupts.

Signed-off-by: John Stultz <john.stultz@xxxxxxxxxx>

diff --git a/drivers/tty/sysrq.c b/drivers/tty/sysrq.c
index 05728894..28fe2cb 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/sysrq.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/sysrq.c
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
#include<linux/slab.h>
#include<linux/input.h>
#include<linux/uaccess.h>
+#include<linux/clocksource.h>

#include<asm/ptrace.h>
#include<asm/irq_regs.h>
@@ -544,6 +545,7 @@ void __handle_sysrq(int key, bool check_mask)
printk("\n");
console_loglevel = orig_log_level;
}
+ clocksource_touch_watchdog();
spin_unlock_irqrestore(&sysrq_key_table_lock, flags);
}


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