[PATCH v4 3/4] printk: Avoid livelock with heavy printk during panic

From: Stephen Brennan
Date: Wed Feb 02 2022 - 12:19:07 EST


During panic(), if another CPU is writing heavily the kernel log (e.g.
via /dev/kmsg), then the panic CPU may livelock writing out its messages
to the console. Note when too many messages are dropped during panic and
suppress further printk, except from the panic CPU. This could result in
some important messages being dropped. However, messages are already
being dropped, so this approach at least prevents a livelock.

Reviewed-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@xxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Stephen Brennan <stephen.s.brennan@xxxxxxxxxx>
---

Notes:
v3: Use pr_warn_once, and don't break the message line
v2: Add pr_warn when we suppress printk on non-panic CPU

kernel/printk/printk.c | 15 +++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/printk/printk.c b/kernel/printk/printk.c
index dfac84876e7a..736f00d33087 100644
--- a/kernel/printk/printk.c
+++ b/kernel/printk/printk.c
@@ -93,6 +93,12 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(console_drivers);
*/
int __read_mostly suppress_printk;

+/*
+ * During panic, heavy printk by other CPUs can delay the
+ * panic and risk deadlock on console resources.
+ */
+int __read_mostly suppress_panic_printk;
+
#ifdef CONFIG_LOCKDEP
static struct lockdep_map console_lock_dep_map = {
.name = "console_lock"
@@ -2233,6 +2239,10 @@ asmlinkage int vprintk_emit(int facility, int level,
if (unlikely(suppress_printk))
return 0;

+ if (unlikely(suppress_panic_printk) &&
+ atomic_read(&panic_cpu) != raw_smp_processor_id())
+ return 0;
+
if (level == LOGLEVEL_SCHED) {
level = LOGLEVEL_DEFAULT;
in_sched = true;
@@ -2618,6 +2628,7 @@ void console_unlock(void)
{
static char ext_text[CONSOLE_EXT_LOG_MAX];
static char text[CONSOLE_LOG_MAX];
+ static int panic_console_dropped;
unsigned long flags;
bool do_cond_resched, retry;
struct printk_info info;
@@ -2672,6 +2683,10 @@ void console_unlock(void)
if (console_seq != r.info->seq) {
console_dropped += r.info->seq - console_seq;
console_seq = r.info->seq;
+ if (panic_in_progress() && panic_console_dropped++ > 10) {
+ suppress_panic_printk = 1;
+ pr_warn_once("Too many dropped messages. Suppress messages on non-panic CPUs to prevent livelock.\n");
+ }
}

if (suppress_message_printing(r.info->level)) {
--
2.30.2