2001-04-14 17:41:26

by Marcelo Tosatti

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Subject: shmem_getpage_locked() / swapin_readahead() race in 2.4.4-pre3


Hi,

There is a nasty race between shmem_getpage_locked() and
swapin_readahead() with the new shmem code (introduced in 2.4.3-ac3 and
merged in the main tree in 2.4.4-pre3):

shmem_getpage_locked() finds a page in the swapcache and moves it to the
pagecache as an shmem page, freeing the swapcache and the swap map entry
for this page. (which causes a BUG() in mm/shmem.c:353 since the swap
map entry is being used)

In the meanwhile, swapin_readahead() is allocating a page and adding it to
the swapcache.

I don't see any clean fix for this one.

Suggestions ?




2001-04-14 19:27:58

by Rik van Riel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: shmem_getpage_locked() / swapin_readahead() race in 2.4.4-pre3

On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:

> There is a nasty race between shmem_getpage_locked() and
> swapin_readahead() with the new shmem code (introduced in
> 2.4.3-ac3 and merged in the main tree in 2.4.4-pre3):

> I don't see any clean fix for this one.
> Suggestions ?

As we discussed with Alan on irc, we could remove the (physical)
swapin_readahead() and get 2.4 stable. Once 2.4 is stable we
could (if needed) introduce a virtual address based readahead
strategy for swap-backed things ... most of that code has been
ready for months thanks to Ben LaHaise.

A virtual-address based readahead not only makes much more sense
from a performance POV, it also cleanly gets the ugly locking
issues out of the way.

regards,

Rik
--
Linux MM bugzilla: http://linux-mm.org/bugzilla.shtml

Virtual memory is like a game you can't win;
However, without VM there's truly nothing to lose...

http://www.surriel.com/
http://www.conectiva.com/ http://distro.conectiva.com/

2001-04-15 01:12:41

by Marcelo Tosatti

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [NEED TESTERS] remove swapin_readahead Re: shmem_getpage_locked() / swapin_readahead() race in 2.4.4-pre3


On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, Rik van Riel wrote:

> On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
>
> > There is a nasty race between shmem_getpage_locked() and
> > swapin_readahead() with the new shmem code (introduced in
> > 2.4.3-ac3 and merged in the main tree in 2.4.4-pre3):
>
> > I don't see any clean fix for this one.
> > Suggestions ?
>
> As we discussed with Alan on irc, we could remove the (physical)
> swapin_readahead() and get 2.4 stable. Once 2.4 is stable we
> could (if needed) introduce a virtual address based readahead
> strategy for swap-backed things ... most of that code has been
> ready for months thanks to Ben LaHaise.
>
> A virtual-address based readahead not only makes much more sense
> from a performance POV, it also cleanly gets the ugly locking
> issues out of the way.

Test (multiple shm-stress) runs fine without swapin_readahead(), as
expected.

I tried "make -j32" test (128M RAM, 4 CPU's) and got 4m17 without
readahead against 3m40 with readahead, on average. Need real swap
intensive workloads to "really" know of how much it hurts, though.

People with swap intensive workloads: please test this and report results.

Stephen/Linus?


Patch against 2.4.4-pre3.


diff -Nur linux.orig/include/linux/mm.h linux/include/linux/mm.h
--- linux.orig/include/linux/mm.h Sat Apr 14 21:31:38 2001
+++ linux/include/linux/mm.h Sat Apr 14 21:30:44 2001
@@ -425,7 +425,6 @@
extern void mem_init(void);
extern void show_mem(void);
extern void si_meminfo(struct sysinfo * val);
-extern void swapin_readahead(swp_entry_t);

/* mmap.c */
extern void lock_vma_mappings(struct vm_area_struct *);
diff -Nur linux.orig/include/linux/swap.h linux/include/linux/swap.h
--- linux.orig/include/linux/swap.h Sat Apr 14 21:31:38 2001
+++ linux/include/linux/swap.h Sat Apr 14 21:30:28 2001
@@ -145,7 +145,6 @@
struct inode **);
extern int swap_duplicate(swp_entry_t);
extern int swap_count(struct page *);
-extern int valid_swaphandles(swp_entry_t, unsigned long *);
#define get_swap_page() __get_swap_page(1)
extern void __swap_free(swp_entry_t, unsigned short);
#define swap_free(entry) __swap_free((entry), 1)
diff -Nur linux.orig/mm/memory.c linux/mm/memory.c
--- linux.orig/mm/memory.c Sat Apr 14 21:31:38 2001
+++ linux/mm/memory.c Sat Apr 14 21:28:34 2001
@@ -1012,42 +1012,6 @@
return;
}

-
-
-/*
- * Primitive swap readahead code. We simply read an aligned block of
- * (1 << page_cluster) entries in the swap area. This method is chosen
- * because it doesn't cost us any seek time. We also make sure to queue
- * the 'original' request together with the readahead ones...
- */
-void swapin_readahead(swp_entry_t entry)
-{
- int i, num;
- struct page *new_page;
- unsigned long offset;
-
- /*
- * Get the number of handles we should do readahead io to. Also,
- * grab temporary references on them, releasing them as io completes.
- */
- num = valid_swaphandles(entry, &offset);
- for (i = 0; i < num; offset++, i++) {
- /* Don't block on I/O for read-ahead */
- if (atomic_read(&nr_async_pages) >= pager_daemon.swap_cluster
- * (1 << page_cluster)) {
- while (i++ < num)
- swap_free(SWP_ENTRY(SWP_TYPE(entry), offset++));
- break;
- }
- /* Ok, do the async read-ahead now */
- new_page = read_swap_cache_async(SWP_ENTRY(SWP_TYPE(entry), offset), 0);
- if (new_page != NULL)
- page_cache_release(new_page);
- swap_free(SWP_ENTRY(SWP_TYPE(entry), offset));
- }
- return;
-}
-
/*
* We hold the mm semaphore and the page_table_lock on entry and exit.
*/
@@ -1062,7 +1026,6 @@
page = lookup_swap_cache(entry);
if (!page) {
lock_kernel();
- swapin_readahead(entry);
page = read_swap_cache(entry);
unlock_kernel();
if (!page) {
diff -Nur linux.orig/mm/shmem.c linux/mm/shmem.c
--- linux.orig/mm/shmem.c Sat Apr 14 21:31:38 2001
+++ linux/mm/shmem.c Sat Apr 14 21:28:44 2001
@@ -328,7 +328,6 @@
if (!page) {
spin_unlock (&info->lock);
lock_kernel();
- swapin_readahead(*entry);
page = read_swap_cache(*entry);
unlock_kernel();
if (!page)
diff -Nur linux.orig/mm/swapfile.c linux/mm/swapfile.c
--- linux.orig/mm/swapfile.c Thu Mar 22 14:22:15 2001
+++ linux/mm/swapfile.c Sat Apr 14 21:30:04 2001
@@ -955,34 +955,3 @@
}
return;
}
-
-/*
- * Kernel_lock protects against swap device deletion. Grab an extra
- * reference on the swaphandle so that it dos not become unused.
- */
-int valid_swaphandles(swp_entry_t entry, unsigned long *offset)
-{
- int ret = 0, i = 1 << page_cluster;
- unsigned long toff;
- struct swap_info_struct *swapdev = SWP_TYPE(entry) + swap_info;
-
- *offset = SWP_OFFSET(entry);
- toff = *offset = (*offset >> page_cluster) << page_cluster;
-
- swap_device_lock(swapdev);
- do {
- /* Don't read-ahead past the end of the swap area */
- if (toff >= swapdev->max)
- break;
- /* Don't read in bad or busy pages */
- if (!swapdev->swap_map[toff])
- break;
- if (swapdev->swap_map[toff] == SWAP_MAP_BAD)
- break;
- swapdev->swap_map[toff]++;
- toff++;
- ret++;
- } while (--i);
- swap_device_unlock(swapdev);
- return ret;
-}

2001-04-17 20:43:11

by Stephen C. Tweedie

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [NEED TESTERS] remove swapin_readahead Re: shmem_getpage_locked() / swapin_readahead() race in 2.4.4-pre3

Hi,

On Sat, Apr 14, 2001 at 08:31:07PM -0300, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, Rik van Riel wrote:
> > On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> >
> > > There is a nasty race between shmem_getpage_locked() and
> > > swapin_readahead() with the new shmem code (introduced in
> > > 2.4.3-ac3 and merged in the main tree in 2.4.4-pre3):

> Test (multiple shm-stress) runs fine without swapin_readahead(), as
> expected.

> Stephen/Linus?

I don't see the problem. shmem_getpage_locked appears to back off
correctly if it encounters a swap-cached page already existing if
swapin_readahead has installed the page first, at least with the code
in 2.4.3-ac5.

There *does* appear to be a race, but it's swapin_readahead racing
with shmem_writepage. That code does not search for an existing entry
in the swap cache when it decides to move a shmem page to swap, so we
can install the page twice and end up doing a lookup on the wrong
physical page if there is swap readahead going on.

To fix that, shmem_writepage needs to do a swap cache lookup and lock
before installing the new page --- it should probably just copy the
new page into the old one if it finds one already there.

--Stephen

2001-04-18 13:08:46

by Christoph Rohland

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [NEED TESTERS] remove swapin_readahead Re: shmem_getpage_locked() / swapin_readahead() race in 2.4.4-pre3

Hi Stephen,

On Tue, 17 Apr 2001, Stephen C. Tweedie wrote:
> I don't see the problem. shmem_getpage_locked appears to back off
> correctly if it encounters a swap-cached page already existing if
> swapin_readahead has installed the page first, at least with the
> code in 2.4.3-ac5.

But the swap count can be increased by anybody without having the page
lock. So the check triggers and is bogus. See my old patch.

> There *does* appear to be a race, but it's swapin_readahead racing
> with shmem_writepage. That code does not search for an existing
> entry in the swap cache when it decides to move a shmem page to
> swap, so we can install the page twice and end up doing a lookup on
> the wrong physical page if there is swap readahead going on.

I cannot follow you here. How can we have a swap cache entry if there
is no swap entry. . . . Oh stop you mean swapin_readahead does swap in
some totally bogus page into the swap cache after we did
__get_swap_page? I never thought about that!

> To fix that, shmem_writepage needs to do a swap cache lookup and
> lock before installing the new page --- it should probably just copy
> the new page into the old one if it finds one already there.

OK I will look into that.

Greetings
Christoph