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From: "Stephen C. Tweedie" <sct@redhat.com>
To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
Cc: "Stephen C. Tweedie" <sct@redhat.com>,
	Savochkin Andrey Vladimirovich <saw@msu.ru>,
	Andrea Arcangeli <andrea@e-mind.com>,
	steve@netplus.net, "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm+eric@ccr.net>,
	brent verner <damonbrent@earthlink.net>,
	"Garst R. Reese" <reese@isn.net>,
	Kalle Andersson <kalle.andersson@mbox303.swipnet.se>,
	Zlatko Calusic <Zlatko.Calusic@CARNet.hr>,
	Ben McCann <bmccann@indusriver.com>,
	Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	bredelin@ucsd.edu, linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu,
	Rik van Riel <H.H.vanRiel@phys.uu.nl>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org
Subject: Re: MM deadlock [was: Re: arca-vm-8...]
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 22:49:47 GMT	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <199901102249.WAA01684@dax.scot.redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.990110103201.7668D-100000@penguin.transmeta.com>

Hi,

On Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:35:10 -0800 (PST), Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@transmeta.com> said:

> On Sun, 10 Jan 1999, Stephen C. Tweedie wrote:
>> 
>> Ack.  I've been having a closer look, and making the superblock lock
>> recursive doesn't work

> That's fine - the superblock lock doesn't need to be re-entrant, because
> __GFP_IO is quite sufficient for that one.

I'm no longer convinced about that.  I think it's much much worse.  A
bread() on an ext2 bitmap buffer with the superblock held is only safe
if the IO can complete without _ever_ relying on a GFP_IO allocation.
That means that any interrupt allocations required in that space have to
be satisfiable by kswapd without GFP_IO, or kswapd could deadlock on us.
It means that if our superblock-locked IO has to stall waiting for an
nbd server process or a raid daemon, then those daemons cannot safely do
GFP_IO.  It's really gross.

I think it's actually ugly enough that we cannot make it safe: we can
really only be sure if we prevent all GFP_IO from any process which
might be involved in our deadlock loop, or if we avoid doing any IO with
the superblock lock held.  

It really looks as if the right way around this is to prevent GFP_IO
from deadlocking in the first place, by moving the asynchronous page
writes out of kswapd/try_to_free_page and into a separate worker thread.
That way we can continue to try to reclaim memory somewhere else without
deadlocking.  In that case the only thing we are left having to worry
about is doing a synchronous swapout, where we end up blocking waiting
for the IO thread to complete.  

In fact, to make it really safe we'd need to avoid synchronous swapout
altogether: otherwise we can have

	    A			kswiod		nbd server process
	    lock_super();
	    bread(ndb device);
	    try_to_free_page();
	    rw_swap_page_async();
				filemap_write_page();
				lock_super();
	    wait_on_buffer();
						try_to_free_page();
						rw_swap_page_sync();
						Oops, kswiod is stalled.

Can we get away without synchronous swapout?  Notice that in this case,
kswiod may be blocked but kswapd itself will not be.  As long as the nbd
server does not try to do a synchronous swap, it won't deadlock on
kswiod.  In other words, it is safe to wait for avaibility of another
free page, but it is not safe to wait for completion of any single,
specific swap IO.  If kswapd itself no longer performs the IO, then we
can always free more memory, until we get to the complete death stage
where there are absolutely no clean pages left in the system.

If we do this, then both the inode and the superblock deadlocks
disappear.

--Stephen.
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  parent reply	other threads:[~1999-01-10 22:50 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 243+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
     [not found] <199812290146.BAA12687@terrorserver.swansea.linux.org.uk>
1998-12-31 18:00 ` 2.2.0 Bug summary Andrea Arcangeli
1998-12-31 18:34   ` [patch] new-vm improvement [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary] Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-01  0:16     ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-01 17:16       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-01 16:44     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-01 20:02       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-01 23:46         ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-02  6:55           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-02  8:33             ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-02 14:48             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-02 15:38             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-02 18:10               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-02 20:52               ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-03  2:59                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-04 18:08                   ` [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] new-vm improvement , [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary]] Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-04 20:56                     ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-04 21:10                       ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-04 22:04                       ` Alan Cox
1999-01-04 21:55                         ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-04 22:51                           ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-05  0:32                             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-05  0:52                               ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-05  3:02                               ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-05 11:49                                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-05 13:23                                   ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-05 15:42                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-05 16:16                                       ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-05 15:35                               ` arca-vm-8 [Re: [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] new-vm , improvement , [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary]]] Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-06 14:48                                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-06 23:31                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-07  3:32                                     ` Results: 2.2.0-pre5 vs arcavm10 vs arcavm9 vs arcavm7 Steve Bergman
1999-01-07 12:02                                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-07 20:27                                         ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-07 23:56                                           ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-07 17:35                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-07 18:44                                         ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-07 19:33                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-07 21:10                                             ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-07 19:38                                           ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-07 19:40                                           ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-09  6:28                                           ` 2.2.0-pre[56] swap performance poor with > 1 thrashing task Dax Kelson
1999-01-09  6:32                                             ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-09  6:44                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-09 18:58                                                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-11  9:21                                                 ` Buffer handling (setting PG_referenced on access) Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-11 17:44                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-11 20:14                                                     ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-16 17:35                                                 ` 2.2.0-pre[56] swap performance poor with > 1 thrashing task Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-09  7:48                                             ` Benjamin Redelings I
1999-01-09  6:53                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-09 22:39                                       ` Results: pre6 vs pre6+zlatko's_patch vs pre5 vs arcavm13 Steve Bergman
1999-01-10  0:28                                         ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-10  5:35                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 18:33                                             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 18:43                                             ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-10 19:08                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 19:23                                                 ` Vladimir Dergachev
1999-01-10 20:09                                                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 20:29                                                 ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-10 21:41                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 23:33                                                     ` testing/pre-7 and do_poll() Chip Salzenberg
1999-01-11  6:02                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-11  6:26                                                         ` Chip Salzenberg
1999-01-11  6:46                                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-11  6:59                                                             ` Chip Salzenberg
1999-01-11  7:02                                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-11 22:08                                                                 ` Shawn Leas
1999-01-11 22:13                                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-12  0:25                                                                     ` estafford
1999-01-12  8:25                                                                       ` Shawn Leas
1999-01-12  7:06                                                                     ` Gregory Maxwell
1999-01-11 20:20                                                       ` Adam Heath
1999-01-11 16:57                                                   ` Results: pre6 vs pre6+zlatko's_patch vs pre5 vs arcavm13 Steve Bergman
1999-01-11 19:36                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-11 23:03                                                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-11 23:38                                                         ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-12  2:02                                                         ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-12  3:21                                                           ` Results: Zlatko's new vm patch Steve Bergman
1999-01-12  5:33                                                             ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-12 14:49                                                               ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-12 16:58                                                               ` Joseph Anthony
1999-01-12 18:16                                                                 ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-12 20:15                                                                   ` Michael K Vance
1999-01-13 19:25                                                                     ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-12 18:24                                                               ` Michael K Vance
1999-01-13  0:01                                                               ` Where to find pre7. Was: " Robert Thorncrantz
1999-01-13 20:47                                                             ` [patch] arca-vm-19 [Re: Results: Zlatko's new vm patch] Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-14 12:30                                                               ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-15 23:56                                                                 ` [patch] NEW: arca-vm-21, swapout via shrink_mmap using PG_dirty Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-16 16:49                                                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-17 23:47                                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-18  5:11                                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-18  7:28                                                                         ` Eric W. Biederman
1999-01-18 10:00                                                                           ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-18  9:15                                                                         ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-18 17:49                                                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-18 19:22                                                                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 20:40                                               ` Results: pre6 vs pre6+zlatko's_patch vs pre5 vs arcavm13 Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 20:50                                                 ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 21:01                                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 21:51                                                     ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-10 22:50                                                       ` Results: arcavm15, et. al Steve Bergman
1999-01-11  0:20                                                         ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-11 13:21                                                         ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-11  3:47                                         ` Results: pre6 vs pre6+zlatko's_patch vs pre5 vs arcavm13 Gregory Maxwell
1999-01-06 23:35                                   ` arca-vm-8 [Re: [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] new-vm , improvement , [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary]]] Linus Torvalds
1999-01-07  4:30                                     ` Eric W. Biederman
1999-01-07 17:56                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-07 18:18                                         ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-07 19:19                                           ` arca-vm-8 [Re: [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] Alan Cox
1999-01-07 18:55                                         ` arca-vm-8 [Re: [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] new-vm , improvement , [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary]]] Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-07 22:57                                         ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-08  1:16                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-08 10:45                                             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-08 19:06                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-09  9:43                                           ` MM deadlock [was: Re: arca-vm-8...] Savochkin Andrey Vladimirovich
1999-01-09 18:00                                             ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-09 18:41                                               ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 21:41                                                 ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-10 21:47                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-09 21:50                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 11:56                                                 ` Savochkin Andrey Vladimirovich
1999-01-10 17:59                                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 22:33                                                   ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-10 16:59                                                 ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-10 18:13                                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 18:35                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 19:45                                                     ` Alan Cox
1999-01-10 19:03                                                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-10 21:39                                                         ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-10 19:09                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 20:33                                                         ` Alan Cox
1999-01-10 20:07                                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-10 22:18                                                     ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-10 22:49                                                     ` Stephen C. Tweedie [this message]
1999-01-11  6:04                                                       ` Eric W. Biederman
1999-01-12 16:06                                                         ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-12 17:54                                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-12 18:44                                                             ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-12 19:05                                                               ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-13 17:48                                                                 ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-13 18:07                                                                   ` 2.2.0-pre6 ain't nice =( Kalle Andersson
1999-01-13 19:05                                                                   ` MM deadlock [was: Re: arca-vm-8...] Alan Cox
1999-01-13 19:23                                                                     ` MOLNAR Ingo
1999-01-13 19:26                                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-14 11:02                                                                       ` Mike Jagdis
1999-01-14 22:38                                                                         ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-15  7:40                                                                       ` Agus Budy Wuysang
1999-01-14 10:48                                                                   ` Mike Jagdis
1999-01-12 21:46                                                               ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-13  6:52                                                                 ` Zlatko Calusic
1999-01-13 13:45                                                                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-13 13:58                                                                   ` Chris Evans
1999-01-13 15:07                                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-13 22:11                                                                       ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-13 14:59                                                                   ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-13 18:10                                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-13 22:14                                                                       ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-14 14:53                                                                         ` Dr. Werner Fink
1999-01-21 16:50                                                                           ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-21 19:53                                                                             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-22 13:55                                                                               ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-22 19:45                                                                                 ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-23 23:20                                                                             ` Alan Cox
1999-01-24  0:19                                                                               ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-24 18:33                                                                                 ` Gregory Maxwell
1999-01-25  0:21                                                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-25  1:28                                                                                     ` Alan Cox
1999-01-25  3:35                                                                                       ` pmonta
1999-01-25  4:17                                                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-24 20:33                                                                                 ` Alan Cox
1999-01-25  0:27                                                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-25  1:38                                                                                     ` Alan Cox
1999-01-25  1:04                                                                                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-25  2:10                                                                                         ` Alan Cox
1999-01-25  3:16                                                                                           ` Garst R. Reese
1999-01-25 10:49                                                                                             ` Alan Cox
1999-01-25 14:06                                                                                           ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-25 21:59                                                                                       ` Gerard Roudier
1999-01-26 11:45                                                                                         ` Thomas Sailer
1999-01-26 20:48                                                                                           ` Gerard Roudier
1999-01-26 21:24                                                                                             ` Thomas Sailer
1999-01-27  0:25                                                                                             ` David Lang
1999-01-27 16:05                                                                                             ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-27 20:11                                                                                               ` Gerard Roudier
1999-01-26 13:06                                                                                         ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-26 14:28                                                                                           ` Alan Cox
1999-01-26 14:15                                                                                             ` MOLNAR Ingo
1999-01-26 14:36                                                                                               ` yodaiken
1999-01-26 15:21                                                                                                 ` MOLNAR Ingo
1999-01-27 10:31                                                                                                   ` yodaiken
1999-01-26 15:46                                                                                                 ` Alan Cox
1999-01-26 16:45                                                                                                   ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-30  7:01                                                                                                     ` yodaiken
1999-02-01 13:07                                                                                                       ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-26 16:37                                                                                               ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-27 11:35                                                                                               ` Jakub Jelinek
1999-01-26 14:21                                                                                             ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-25 16:25                                                                                 ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-25 16:52                                                                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-25 18:27                                                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-25 18:43                                                                                     ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-25 18:49                                                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-25 18:43                                                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-25 19:15                                                                                     ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-26  1:57                                                                                   ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-26 18:37                                                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-27 12:13                                                                                     ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-22 16:29                                                                           ` Eric W. Biederman
1999-01-25 13:14                                                                             ` Dr. Werner Fink
1999-01-25 17:56                                                                               ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-25 19:10                                                                               ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-25 20:49                                                                                 ` Dr. Werner Fink
1999-01-25 20:56                                                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-26 12:23                                                                                     ` Rik van Riel
1999-01-26 15:44                                                                                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-27 14:52                                                                                   ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-28 19:12                                                                                     ` Dr. Werner Fink
1999-01-13 17:55                                                                   ` [PATCH] " Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-13 18:52                                                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-13 22:10                                                                       ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-13 22:30                                                                         ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-11 11:20                                                       ` Pavel Machek
1999-01-11 17:35                                                         ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-11 14:11                                                     ` Savochkin Andrey Vladimirovich
1999-01-11 17:55                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-11 18:37                                                         ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-08  2:56                                         ` arca-vm-8 [Re: [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] new-vm , improvement , [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary]]] Eric W. Biederman
1999-01-09  0:50                                         ` David S. Miller
1999-01-09  2:13                                         ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-09  2:34                                           ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-09  9:30                                             ` Stephen C. Tweedie
1999-01-09 12:11                                           ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-07 14:11                                     ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-07 18:19                                       ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-07 20:35                                         ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-07 23:51                                           ` Linus Torvalds
1999-01-08  0:04                                             ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-04 22:43                         ` [patch] arca-vm-6, killed kswapd [Re: [patch] new-vm improvement , [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary]] Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-04 22:29                       ` Andrea Arcangeli
1999-01-05 13:33                   ` [patch] new-vm improvement [Re: 2.2.0 Bug summary] Ben McCann
1999-01-02 20:04             ` Steve Bergman
1999-01-02  3:03         ` Andrea Arcangeli

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