Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758252Ab3EBN44 (ORCPT ); Thu, 2 May 2013 09:56:56 -0400 Received: from mga14.intel.com ([143.182.124.37]:40376 "EHLO mga14.intel.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751611Ab3EBN4y (ORCPT ); Thu, 2 May 2013 09:56:54 -0400 X-ExtLoop1: 1 X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.87,597,1363158000"; d="scan'208";a="235866773" Message-ID: <1367503010.24182.29.camel@intelbox> Subject: Re: [PATCH] wait: fix false timeouts when using wait_event_timeout() From: Imre Deak Reply-To: imre.deak@intel.com To: Jens Axboe Cc: Daniel Vetter , David Howells , "Paul E. McKenney" , Dave Jones , Lukas Czerner , Linux Kernel Mailing List Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 16:56:50 +0300 In-Reply-To: <20130502125426.GN7800@kernel.dk> References: <1367485129-4423-1-git-send-email-imre.deak@intel.com> <15077.1367490569@warthog.procyon.org.uk> <20130502122302.GK7800@kernel.dk> <1367498096.24182.21.camel@intelbox> <20130502125426.GN7800@kernel.dk> Organization: Intel Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Mailer: Evolution 3.6.2-0ubuntu0.1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4301 Lines: 98 On Thu, 2013-05-02 at 14:54 +0200, Jens Axboe wrote: > On Thu, May 02 2013, Imre Deak wrote: > > On Thu, 2013-05-02 at 14:23 +0200, Jens Axboe wrote: > > > On Thu, May 02 2013, Daniel Vetter wrote: > > > > On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 12:29 PM, David Howells wrote: > > > > >> Fix this by returning at least 1 if the condition becomes true. This > > > > >> semantic is in line with what wait_for_condition_timeout() does; see > > > > >> commit bb10ed09 - "sched: fix wait_for_completion_timeout() spurious > > > > >> failure under heavy load". > > > > > > > > > > But now you can't distinguish the timer expiring first, if the thread doing > > > > > the waiting gets delayed sufficiently long for the event to happen. > > > > > > > > That can already happen, e.g. > > > > > > > > 1. wakeup happens and condition is true. > > > > 2. we compute remaining jiffies > 0 > > > > -> preempt > > > > 3. now wait_for_event_timeout returns. > > > > > > > > Only difference is that the delay/preempt happens in between 1. and > > > > 2., and then suddenly the wake up didn't happen in time (with the > > > > current return code semantics). > > > > > > > > So imo the current behaviour is simply a bug and will miss timely > > > > wakeups in some cases. > > > > > > > > The other way round, namely wait_for_event_timeout taking longer than > > > > the timeout is expected (and part of the interface for every timeout > > > > function). So all current callers already need to be able to cope with > > > > random preemption/delays pushing the total time before the call to > > > > wait_for_event and checking the return value over the timeout, even > > > > when condition was signalled in time. > > > > > > > > If there's any case which relies on accurate timeout detection that > > > > simply won't work with wait_for_event (they need an nmi or a hw > > > > timestamp counter or something similar). > > > > > > I seriously doubt that anyone is depending on any sort of accuracy on > > > the return. 1 jiffy is not going to make or break anything - in fact, > > > jiffies could be incremented nsecs after the initial call. So a > > > granularity of at least 1 is going to be expected in any case. > > > > > > The important bit here is that the API should behave as expected. And > > > the most logical way to code that is to check the return value. I can > > > easily see people forgetting to re-check the condition, hence you get a > > > bug. The fact that you and the original reporter already had accidents > > > with this is a clear sign that the logical way to use the API is not the > > > correct one. > > > > > > IMHO, the change definitely makes sense. > > > > Ok, so taking courage of this answer ;P How about also the following? > > > > diff --git a/kernel/timer.c b/kernel/timer.c > > index dbf7a78..5a62456 100644 > > --- a/kernel/timer.c > > +++ b/kernel/timer.c > > @@ -1515,7 +1515,11 @@ signed long __sched schedule_timeout(signed long > > timeout) > > } > > } > > > > - expire = timeout + jiffies; > > + /* > > + * We can't be sure how close we are to the next tick, so +1 to > > + * guarantee that we wait at least timeout amount. > > + */ > > + expire = timeout + jiffies + 1; > > > > setup_timer_on_stack(&timer, process_timeout, (unsigned long)current); > > __mod_timer(&timer, expire, false, TIMER_NOT_PINNED); > > > > > > It'd plug a similar hole for wait_event_timeout() and similar users, who > > don't compensate for the above.. > > Any jiffy based API is going to have this issue. I think it's different > from the original patch, which just makes the API potentially return > something that is confusing. Yea, at least those that take a relative time. Usually the timeout is given with a big overhead, so there it won't be a problem. But I also found users like drivers/acpi/ec.c, that will pass a timeout of 1 jiffies, which may then result in premature timeouts. > So not sure on the above, sorry. Ok. A WARN to wait_event_timeout for the above case could still be a useful guard.. --Imre -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/