Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1945944AbXBVHzi (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:55:38 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1945946AbXBVHzi (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:55:38 -0500 Received: from smtp.osdl.org ([65.172.181.24]:40823 "EHLO smtp.osdl.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1945944AbXBVHzi (ORCPT ); Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:55:38 -0500 Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:55:32 -0800 From: Andrew Morton To: Miklos Szeredi Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org Subject: Re: dirty balancing deadlock Message-Id: <20070221235532.2361f827.akpm@linux-foundation.org> In-Reply-To: References: <20070218125307.4103c04a.akpm@linux-foundation.org> <20070218145929.547c21c7.akpm@linux-foundation.org> <20070218155916.0d3c73a9.akpm@linux-foundation.org> <20070221133631.a5cbf49f.akpm@linux-foundation.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.2.4 (GTK+ 2.8.19; i686-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2172 Lines: 51 > On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:42:26 +0100 Miklos Szeredi wrote: > > > > > > Index: linux/mm/page-writeback.c > > > =================================================================== > > > --- linux.orig/mm/page-writeback.c 2007-02-19 17:32:41.000000000 +0100 > > > +++ linux/mm/page-writeback.c 2007-02-19 18:05:28.000000000 +0100 > > > @@ -198,6 +198,25 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a > > > dirty_thresh) > > > break; > > > > > > + /* > > > + * Acquit this producer if there's little or nothing > > > + * to write back to this particular queue > > > + * > > > + * Without this check a deadlock is possible in the > > > + * following case: > > > + * > > > + * - filesystem A writes data through filesystem B > > > + * - filesystem A has dirty pages over dirty_thresh > > > + * - writeback is started, this triggers a write in B > > > + * - balance_dirty_pages() is called synchronously > > > + * - the write to B blocks > > > + * - the writeback completes, but dirty is still over threshold > > > + * - the blocking write prevents futher writes from happening > > > + */ > > > + if (atomic_long_read(&bdi->nr_dirty) + > > > + atomic_long_read(&bdi->nr_writeback) < 16) > > > + break; > > > + > > > > The problem seems to that little "- the write to B blocks". > > > > How come it blocks? I mean, if we cannot retire writes to that filesystem > > then we're screwed anyway. > > Sorry about the sloppy description. I mean, it's not the lowlevel > write that will block, but rather the VFS one > (generic_file_aio_write). It will block (or rather loop forever with > 0.1 second sleeps) in balance_dirty_pages(). That means, that for > this inode, i_mutex is held and no other writer can continue the work. "this inode" I assume is the inode against filesystem A? Why does holding that inode's i_mutex prevent further writeback of pages in A? - 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/