Re: timer code oops when calling mod_delayed_work

From: Tejun Heo
Date: Fri Oct 30 2015 - 22:00:46 EST


(cc'ing Lai)

Hello, Jeff.

On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 01:58:36PM -0400, Jeff Layton wrote:
> crash> p cache_cleaner
> cache_cleaner = $12 = {
> work = {
> data = {
> counter = 0xfffffffe1

If I'm not mistaken, PENDING, flush color 14, OFFQ and POOL_NONE.

> },
> entry = {
> next = 0xffffffffa03623c8 <cache_cleaner+8>,
> prev = 0xffffffffa03623c8 <cache_cleaner+8>

Empty entry.

> },
> func = 0xffffffffa03333c0 <cache_cleaner_func>
> },
> timer = {
> entry = {
> next = 0x0,
> pprev = 0xffff88085fd0eaf8
> },
> expires = 0x100021e99,
> function = 0xffffffff810b66a0 <delayed_work_timer_fn>,
> data = 0xffffffffa03623c0,
> flags = 0x200014,
> slack = 0xffffffff,
> start_pid = 0x0,
> start_site = 0x0,
> start_comm = "\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000\000"
> },
> wq = 0xffff88085f48fc00,
> cpu = 0x14
> }
>
> So the PENDING bit is set (lowest bit in data.counter), and timer->entry.pprev
> pprev pointer is not NULL (so timer_pending is true). I also see that
> there are several nfsd threads running the shrinker at the same time.
>
> There is one potential problem that I see, but I'd appreciate someone
> sanity checking me on this. Here is mod_delayed_work_on:
...
> ...and here is the beginning of try_to_grab_pending:
>
> ------------------[snip]------------------------
> /* try to steal the timer if it exists */
> if (is_dwork) {
> struct delayed_work *dwork = to_delayed_work(work);
>
> /*
> * dwork->timer is irqsafe. If del_timer() fails, it's
> * guaranteed that the timer is not queued anywhere and not
> * running on the local CPU.
> */
> if (likely(del_timer(&dwork->timer)))
> return 1;
> }
>
> /* try to claim PENDING the normal way */
> if (!test_and_set_bit(WORK_STRUCT_PENDING_BIT, work_data_bits(work)))
> return 0;
> ------------------[snip]------------------------
>
>
> ...so if del_timer returns true, we'll return 1 from
> try_to_grab_pending without actually setting the
> WORK_STRUCT_PENDING_BIT, and then will end up calling
> __queue_delayed_work.
>
> That seems wrong to me -- shouldn't we be ensuring that that bit is set
> when returning 1 from try_to_grab_pending to guard against concurrent
> queue_delayed_work_on calls?

But if try_to_grab_pending() succeeded at stealing dwork->timer, it's
known that the PENDING bit must already be set. IOW, the bit is
stolen together with the timer.

Heh, this one is tricky. Yeah, try_to_grab_pending() missing PENDING
would explain the failure but I can't see how it'd leak at the moment.

Thanks.

--
tejun
--
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/