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Date:   Fri, 15 Jul 2022 12:33:59 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/3] mm/slub: fix the race between validate_slab and
 slab_free
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To:     Rongwei Wang <rongwei.wang@linux.alibaba.com>,
        Hyeonggon Yoo <42.hyeyoo@gmail.com>
Cc:     David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>, songmuchun@bytedance.com,
        akpm@linux-foundation.org, roman.gushchin@linux.dev,
        iamjoonsoo.kim@lge.com, penberg@kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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From:   Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
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On 7/15/22 10:05, Rongwei Wang wrote:
> 
> 
> On 6/17/22 5:40 PM, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
>> On 6/8/22 14:23, Christoph Lameter wrote:
>>> On Wed, 8 Jun 2022, Rongwei Wang wrote:
>>>
>>>> If available, I think document the issue and warn this incorrect
>>>> behavior is
>>>> OK. But it still prints a large amount of confusing messages, and
>>>> disturbs us?
>>>
>>> Correct it would be great if you could fix this in a way that does not
>>> impact performance.
>>>
>>>>> are current operations on the slab being validated.
>>>> And I am trying to fix it in following way. In a short, these changes only
>>>> works under the slub debug mode, and not affects the normal mode (I'm not
>>>> sure). It looks not elegant enough. And if all approve of this way, I can
>>>> submit the next version.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, thanks for your time:).
>>>> -wrw
>>>>
>>>> @@ -3304,7 +3300,7 @@ static void __slab_free(struct kmem_cache *s,
>>> struct
>>>> slab *slab,
>>>>
>>>>   {
>>>>          void *prior;
>>>> -       int was_frozen;
>>>> +       int was_frozen, to_take_off = 0;
>>>>          struct slab new;
>>>
>>> to_take_off has the role of !n ? Why is that needed?
>>>
>>>> -       do {
>>>> -               if (unlikely(n)) {
>>>> +               spin_lock_irqsave(&n->list_lock, flags);
>>>> +               ret = free_debug_processing(s, slab, head, tail, cnt,
>>>> addr);
>>>
>>> Ok so the idea is to take the lock only if kmem_cache_debug. That looks
>>> ok. But it still adds a number of new branches etc to the free loop.
>>
> Hi, Vlastimil, sorry for missing your message long time.

Hi, no problem.

>> It also further complicates the already tricky code. I wonder if we should
>> make more benefit from the fact that for kmem_cache_debug() caches we don't
>> leave any slabs on percpu or percpu partial lists, and also in
>> free_debug_processing() we aready take both list_lock and slab_lock. If we
>> just did the freeing immediately there under those locks, we would be
>> protected against other freeing cpus by that list_lock and don't need the
>> double cmpxchg tricks.
> enen, I'm not sure get your "don't need the double cmpxchg tricks" means
> completely. What you want to say is that replace cmpxchg_double_slab() here
> with following code when kmem_cache_debug(s)?
> 
> __slab_lock(slab);
> if (slab->freelist == freelist_old && slab->counters == counters_old){
>     slab->freelist = freelist_new;
>     slab->counters = counters_new;
>     __slab_unlock(slab);
>     local_irq_restore(flags);
>     return true;
> }
> __slab_unlock(slab);

Pretty much, but it's more complicated.

> If I make mistakes for your words, please let me know.
> Thanks!
>>
>> What about against allocating cpus? More tricky as those will currently end
>> up privatizing the freelist via get_partial(), only to deactivate it again,
>> so our list_lock+slab_lock in freeing path would not protect in the
>> meanwhile. But the allocation is currently very inefficient for debug
>> caches, as in get_partial() it will take the list_lock to take the slab from
>> partial list and then in most cases again in deactivate_slab() to return it.
> It seems that I need speed some time to eat these words. Anyway, thanks.
>>
>> If instead the allocation path for kmem_cache_debug() cache would take a
>> single object from the partial list (not whole freelist) under list_lock, it
>> would be ultimately more efficient, and protect against freeing using
>> list_lock. Sounds like an idea worth trying to me?
> 
> Hyeonggon had a similar advice that split freeing and allocating slab from
> debugging, likes below:
> 
> 
> __slab_alloc() {
>     if (kmem_cache_debug(s))
>         slab_alloc_debug()
>     else
>         ___slab_alloc()
> }
> 
> I guess that above code aims to solve your mentioned problem (idea)?
> 
> slab_free() {
>     if (kmem_cache_debug(s))
>         slab_free_debug()
>     else
>         __do_slab_free()
> }
> 
> Currently, I only modify the code of freeing slab to fix the confusing
> messages of "slabinfo -v". If you agree, I can try to realize above
> mentioned slab_alloc_debug() code. Maybe it's also a challenge to me.

I already started working on this approach and hope to post a RFC soon.

> Thanks for your time.
> 
>> And of course we would stop creating the 'validate' sysfs files for
>> non-debug caches.