Re: [PATCH-mm v3] mm/list_lru: Optimize memcg_reparent_list_lru_node()

From: Waiman Long
Date: Tue Mar 22 2022 - 21:55:25 EST


On 3/22/22 21:06, Muchun Song wrote:
On Wed, Mar 9, 2022 at 10:40 PM Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Since commit 2c80cd57c743 ("mm/list_lru.c: fix list_lru_count_node()
to be race free"), we are tracking the total number of lru
entries in a list_lru_node in its nr_items field. In the case of
memcg_reparent_list_lru_node(), there is nothing to be done if nr_items
is 0. We don't even need to take the nlru->lock as no new lru entry
could be added by a racing list_lru_add() to the draining src_idx memcg
at this point.
Hi Waiman,

Sorry for the late reply. Quick question: what if there is an inflight
list_lru_add()? How about the following race?

CPU0: CPU1:
list_lru_add()
spin_lock(&nlru->lock)
l = list_lru_from_kmem(memcg)
memcg_reparent_objcgs(memcg)
memcg_reparent_list_lrus(memcg)
memcg_reparent_list_lru()
memcg_reparent_list_lru_node()
if (!READ_ONCE(nlru->nr_items))
// Miss reparenting
return
// Assume 0->1
l->nr_items++
// Assume 0->1
nlru->nr_items++

IIUC, we use nlru->lock to serialise this scenario.

I guess this race is theoretically possible but very unlikely since it means a very long pause between list_lru_from_kmem() and the increment of nr_items.

How about the following changes to make sure that this race can't happen?

diff --git a/mm/list_lru.c b/mm/list_lru.c
index c669d87001a6..c31a0a8ad4e7 100644
--- a/mm/list_lru.c
+++ b/mm/list_lru.c
@@ -395,9 +395,10 @@ static void memcg_reparent_list_lru_node(struct list_lru *lru, int nid,
        struct list_lru_one *src, *dst;

        /*
-        * If there is no lru entry in this nlru, we can skip it immediately.
+        * If there is no lru entry in this nlru and the nlru->lock is free,
+        * we can skip it immediately.
         */
-       if (!READ_ONCE(nlru->nr_items))
+       if (!READ_ONCE(nlru->nr_items) && !spin_is_locked(&nlru->lock))
                return;

Cheers,
Longman