Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2017 10:30:02 -0500
From: Brian Foster <bfoster@redhat.com>
To: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>,
        Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp>,
        Xiong Zhou <xzhou@redhat.com>, linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: mm allocation failure and hang when running xfstests generic/269
 on xfs
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On Thu, Mar 02, 2017 at 04:14:11PM +0100, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Thu 02-03-17 09:51:31, Brian Foster wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 02, 2017 at 03:34:41PM +0100, Michal Hocko wrote:
> > > On Thu 02-03-17 09:23:15, Brian Foster wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Mar 02, 2017 at 02:50:01PM +0100, Michal Hocko wrote:
> > > > > On Thu 02-03-17 08:41:58, Brian Foster wrote:
> > > > > > On Thu, Mar 02, 2017 at 02:27:55PM +0100, Michal Hocko wrote:
> > > > > [...]
> > > > > > > I see your argument about being in sync with other kmem helpers but
> > > > > > > those are bit different because regular page/slab allocators allow never
> > > > > > > fail semantic (even though this is mostly ignored by those helpers which
> > > > > > > implement their own retries but that is a different topic).
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > ... but what I'm trying to understand here is whether this failure
> > > > > > scenario is specific to vmalloc() or whether the other kmem_*()
> > > > > > functions are susceptible to the same problem. For example, suppose we
> > > > > > replaced this kmem_zalloc_greedy() call with a kmem_zalloc(PAGE_SIZE,
> > > > > > KM_SLEEP) call. Could we hit the same problem if the process is killed?
> > > > > 
> > > > > Well, kmem_zalloc uses kmalloc which can also fail when we are out of
> > > > > memory but in that case we can expect the OOM killer releasing some
> > > > > memory which would allow us to make a forward progress on the next
> > > > > retry. So essentially retrying around kmalloc is much more safe in this
> > > > > regard. Failing vmalloc might be permanent because there is no vmalloc
> > > > > space to allocate from or much more likely due to already mentioned
> > > > > patch. So vmalloc is different, really.
> > > > 
> > > > Right.. that's why I'm asking. So it's technically possible but highly
> > > > unlikely due to the different failure characteristics. That seems
> > > > reasonable to me, then. 
> > > > 
> > > > To be clear, do we understand what causes the vzalloc() failure to be
> > > > effectively permanent in this specific reproducer? I know you mention
> > > > above that we could be out of vmalloc space, but that doesn't clarify
> > > > whether there are other potential failure paths or then what this has to
> > > > do with the fact that the process was killed. Does the pending signal
> > > > cause the subsequent failures or are you saying that there is some other
> > > > root cause of the failure, this process would effectively be spinning
> > > > here anyways, and we're just noticing it because it's trying to exit?
> > > 
> > > In this particular case it is fatal_signal_pending that causes the
> > > permanent failure. This check has been added to prevent from complete
> > > memory reserves depletion on OOM when a killed task has a free ticket to
> > > reserves and vmalloc requests can be really large. In this case there
> > > was no OOM killer going on but fsstress has SIGKILL pending for other
> > > reason. Most probably as a result of the group_exit when all threads
> > > are killed (see zap_process). I could have turn fatal_signal_pending
> > > into tsk_is_oom_victim which would be less likely to hit but in
> > > principle fatal_signal_pending should be better because we do want to
> > > bail out when the process is existing as soon as possible.
> > > 
> > > What I really wanted to say is that there are other possible permanent
> > > failure paths in vmalloc AFAICS. They are much less probable but they
> > > still exist.
> > > 
> > > Does that make more sense now?
> > 
> > Yes, thanks. That explains why this crops up now where it hasn't in the
> > past. Please include that background in the commit log description.
> 
> OK, does this sound better. I am open to any suggestions to improve this
> of course
> 

Yeah..

> : xfs: allow kmem_zalloc_greedy to fail
> : 
> : Even though kmem_zalloc_greedy is documented it might fail the current
> : code doesn't really implement this properly and loops on the smallest
> : allowed size for ever. This is a problem because vzalloc might fail
> : permanently - we might run out of vmalloc space or since 5d17a73a2ebe
> : ("vmalloc: back off when the current task is killed") when the current
> : task is killed. The later one makes the failure scenario much more
> : probable than it used to be. Fix this by bailing out if the minimum size
                               ^
	" because it makes vmalloc() failures permanent for tasks with fatal
	  signals pending."

> : request failed.
> : 
> : This has been noticed by a hung generic/269 xfstest by Xiong Zhou.
> : 
> : fsstress: vmalloc: allocation failure, allocated 12288 of 20480 bytes, mode:0x14080c2(GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_HIGHMEM|__GFP_ZERO), nodemask=(null)
> : fsstress cpuset=/ mems_allowed=0-1
> : CPU: 1 PID: 23460 Comm: fsstress Not tainted 4.10.0-master-45554b2+ #21
> : Hardware name: HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9/ProLiant DL380 Gen9, BIOS P89 10/05/2016
> : Call Trace:
> :  dump_stack+0x63/0x87
> :  warn_alloc+0x114/0x1c0
> :  ? alloc_pages_current+0x88/0x120
> :  __vmalloc_node_range+0x250/0x2a0
> :  ? kmem_zalloc_greedy+0x2b/0x40 [xfs]
> :  ? free_hot_cold_page+0x21f/0x280
> :  vzalloc+0x54/0x60
> :  ? kmem_zalloc_greedy+0x2b/0x40 [xfs]
> :  kmem_zalloc_greedy+0x2b/0x40 [xfs]
> :  xfs_bulkstat+0x11b/0x730 [xfs]
> :  ? xfs_bulkstat_one_int+0x340/0x340 [xfs]
> :  ? selinux_capable+0x20/0x30
> :  ? security_capable+0x48/0x60
> :  xfs_ioc_bulkstat+0xe4/0x190 [xfs]
> :  xfs_file_ioctl+0x9dd/0xad0 [xfs]
> :  ? do_filp_open+0xa5/0x100
> :  do_vfs_ioctl+0xa7/0x5e0
> :  SyS_ioctl+0x79/0x90
> :  do_syscall_64+0x67/0x180
> :  entry_SYSCALL64_slow_path+0x25/0x25
> : 
> : fsstress keeps looping inside kmem_zalloc_greedy without any way out
> : because vmalloc keeps failing due to fatal_signal_pending.
> : 
> : Reported-by: Xiong Zhou <xzhou@redhat.com>
> : Analyzed-by: Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp>
> : Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
> 
> > Also, that kind of makes me think that a fatal_signal_pending() check is
> > still appropriate in the loop, even if we want to drop the infinite
> > retry loop in kmem_zalloc_greedy() as well. There's no sense in doing
> > however many retries are left before we return and that's also more
> > explicit for the next person who goes to change this code in the future.
> 
> I am not objecting to adding fatal_signal_pending as well I just thought
> that from the logic POV breaking after reaching the minimum size is just
> the right thing to do. We can optimize further by checking
> fatal_signal_pending and reducing retries when we know it doesn't make
> much sense but that should be done on top as an optimization IMHO.
> 

I don't think of it as an optimization to not invoke calls (a
non-deterministic number of times) that we know are going to fail, but
ultimately I don't care too much how it's framed or if it's done in
separate patches or whatnot. As long as they are posted at the same
time. ;)

Brian

> > Otherwise, I'm fine with breaking the infinite retry loop at the same
> > time. It looks like Christoph added this function originally so this
> > should probably require his ack as well..
> 
> What do you think Christoph?
> -- 
> Michal Hocko
> SUSE Labs