Hello Andrew, On Mon, 2011-10-31 at 03:39 -0700, Andrew Morton wrote: > On Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:57:16 +0100 Michael Holzheu <holzheu at linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote: > > > > Should this be done earlier in the function? As it stands we'll have > > > multiple CPUs scribbling on buf[] at the same time and all trying to > > > print the same thing at the same time, dumping their stacks, etc. > > > Perhaps it would be better to single-thread all that stuff > > > > My fist patch took the spinlock at the beginning of panic(). But then > > Eric asked, if it wouldn't be better to get both panic printk's and I > > agreed. > > Hm, why? It will make a big mess. > > > > Also... this patch affects all CPU architectures, all configs, etc. > > > So we're expecting that every architecture's smp_send_stop() is able to > > > stop a CPU which is spinning in spin_lock(), possibly with local > > > interrupts disabled. Will this work? > > > > At least on s390 it will work. If there are architectures that can't > > stop disabled CPUs then this problem is already there without this > > patch. > > > > Example: > > > > 1. 1st CPU gets lock X and panics > > 2. 2nd CPU is disabled and gets lock X > > (irq-disabled) > > > 3. 1st CPU calls smp_send_stop() > > -> 2nd CPU loops disabled and can't be stopped > > Well OK. Maybe some architectures do have this problem - who would > notice? If that is the case, we just made the failure cases much more > common. Ok, next idea: What, if the CPUs wait irq-enabled in panic until they get stopped by smp_send_stop()? See patch below: --- From: Michael Holzheu <holzheu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: kdump: fix crash_kexec()/smp_send_stop() race in panic When two CPUs call panic at the same time there is a possible race condition that can stop kdump. The first CPU calls crash_kexec() and the second CPU calls smp_send_stop() in panic() before crash_kexec() finished on the first CPU. So the second CPU stops the first CPU and therefore kdump fails: 1st CPU: panic()->crash_kexec()->mutex_trylock(&kexec_mutex)-> do kdump 2nd CPU: panic()->crash_kexec()->kexec_mutex already held by 1st CPU ->smp_send_stop()-> stop 1st CPU (stop kdump) This patch fixes the problem by introducing a spinlock in panic that allows only one CPU to process crash_kexec() and the subsequent panic code. Signed-off-by: Michael Holzheu <holzheu at linux.vnet.ibm.com> --- kernel/panic.c | 11 ++++++++++- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) --- a/kernel/panic.c +++ b/kernel/panic.c @@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(panic_blink); */ NORET_TYPE void panic(const char * fmt, ...) { + static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(panic_lock); static char buf[1024]; va_list args; long i, i_next = 0; @@ -68,8 +69,16 @@ NORET_TYPE void panic(const char * fmt, * It's possible to come here directly from a panic-assertion and * not have preempt disabled. Some functions called from here want * preempt to be disabled. No point enabling it later though... + * + * Only one CPU is allowed to execute the panic code from here. For + * multiple parallel invocations of panic, all other CPUs will wait + * until they are stopped by the 1st CPU with smp_send_stop(). */ - preempt_disable(); + if (!spin_trylock(&panic_lock)) { + local_irq_enable(); + while (1) + cpu_relax(); + } console_verbose(); bust_spinlocks(1);