From: Toshiyuki Okajima <toshi.okajima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On linux-2.6.36-rc2, if we execute the following script, we can encounter the hangup of '/bin/sync' command: ================================================================================ #!/bin/sh echo -n "HANG UP TEST: " /bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/img bs=1k count=1 seek=1M 2> /dev/null /sbin/mkfs.ext4 -Fq /tmp/img /bin/mount -o loop -t ext4 /tmp/img /mnt /bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/file bs=1 count=1 \ seek=$((16*1024*1024*1024*1024-4096)) 2> /dev/null /bin/sync /bin/umount /mnt echo "DONE" exit 0 ================================================================================ We can see the following backtrace if we get the kdump when this hangup occurs: ================================================================================ kthread() => bdi_writeback_thread() => wb_do_writeback() => wb_writeback() => writeback_inodes_wb() => writeback_sb_inodes() => writeback_single_inode() => ext4_da_writepages() ---+ ^ infinite | | loop | +-------------+ ================================================================================ The reason why this hangup happens is described as follows: 1) We write the last extent block of the file whose size is the maximum size. 2) "BH_Delay" flag is set on the buffer_head of its block. 3) - the member, "m_lblk" of struct mpage_da_data is 4294967295 (UINT_MAX) - the member, "m_len" of struct mpage_da_data is 1 mpage_put_bnr_to_bhs() which is called via ext4_da_writepages() cannot clear "BH_Delay" flag of the buffer_head because the type of m_lblk is ext4_lblk_t and then m_lblk + m_len is overflow. Therefore an infinite loop occurs because ext4_da_writepages() cannot write the page (which corresponds to the block) since "BH_Delay" flag isn't cleared. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- static void mpage_put_bnr_to_bhs(struct mpage_da_data *mpd, struct ext4_map_blocks *map) { ... int blocks = map->m_len; ... do { // cur_logical = 4294967295 // map->m_lblk = 4294967295 // blocks = 1 // *** map->m_lblk + blocks == 0 (OVERFLOW!) *** // (cur_logical >= map->m_lblk + blocks) => true if (cur_logical >= map->m_lblk + blocks) break; if (buffer_delay(bh) || buffer_unwritten(bh)) { BUG_ON(bh->b_bdev != inode->i_sb->s_bdev); if (buffer_delay(bh)) { // *** cannot reach here! *** clear_buffer_delay(bh); bh->b_blocknr = pblock; } else { clear_buffer_unwritten(bh); BUG_ON(bh->b_blocknr != pblock); } } else if (buffer_mapped(bh)) BUG_ON(bh->b_blocknr != pblock); if (map->m_flags & EXT4_MAP_UNINIT) set_buffer_uninit(bh); cur_logical++; pblock++; } while ((bh = bh->b_this_page) != head); -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Therefore, in order to fix this hangup easily, we change the following judgment only.(This change can prevent an overflow from occurring) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- if (cur_logical >= map->m_lblk + blocks) | | v v if (cur_logical > map->m_lblk + blocks - 1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: However, if we mount with nodelalloc option, we cannot experience this hangup while this script is running. Signed-off-by: Toshiyuki Okajima <toshi.okajima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- fs/ext4/inode.c | 2 +- 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c index 4b8debe..4124fa2 100644 --- a/fs/ext4/inode.c +++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c @@ -2103,7 +2103,7 @@ static void mpage_put_bnr_to_bhs(struct mpage_da_data *mpd, } while ((bh = bh->b_this_page) != head); do { - if (cur_logical >= map->m_lblk + blocks) + if (cur_logical > map->m_lblk + blocks - 1) break; if (buffer_delay(bh) || buffer_unwritten(bh)) { -- 1.5.5.6 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ext4" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html