It has been observed that apps may block in sys_sync for long time if there is parallel mount request for large size storage block device in a loaded environment. For example, sys_sync is reported to be hunged when a large size disk (e.g. 4TB/8TB disks) is connected. sys_mount may take time for reading large amount of metedata - free space accounting by reading bitmap during mount. The larger the volume, the larger the size of the bitmaps read during mount. During mount operation s_umount lock is taken by sys_mount. The lock is not released till the mount is completed. The sync() process keeps on waiting till s_umount is relased by sys_mount. Scenario: Process1 Process2 sys_sync() sys_mount() iterate_supers do_mount() ... vfs_kern_mount() ... mount_fs() (Filesystem_mount) ... mount_bdev() ... sget() ... alloc_super() ... down_write_nested(&s->s_umount, ... SINGLE_DEPTH_NESTING); ... => LOCK HELD by MOUNT ... ... ... ... down_read(&sb->s_umount); ... => WAITING FOR LOCK ... ... ... ... fill_super() ... => time TAKING (per filesystem) ... up_write(&sb->s_umount); ... => LOCK RELEASE by mount process ... ... => STUCK TILL MOUNT is completed Since, the superblock gets added to the list during the mount path alloc_super, so the 'sb' is visible in the s_list. But the behaviour of waiting to sync() a filesystem which is not active yet, seems ambigous here. To avoid this issue, may be we should consider about having to check only the ACTIVE filesystem for doing operations from the superblock list. Once mount i.e. fill_super is completed, MS_BORN is set on the superblock flags. If MS_BORN flag is not set on superblock flags, it means mount is not completed yet, there is no point in waiting for sys_sync in that superblock. Signed-off-by: Vivek Trivedi <t.vivek@xxxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Amit Sahrawat <a.sahrawat@xxxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx> --- Changes in v2: - it is more consistent to use MS_BORN instead of MS_ACTIVE as it is already used in iterate_supers(), just under s_umount - apply same change in iterate_supers_type() to keep them consistent fs/super.c | 7 +++++++ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) diff --git a/fs/super.c b/fs/super.c index b8b6a08..d9b96d6 100644 --- a/fs/super.c +++ b/fs/super.c @@ -587,6 +587,10 @@ void iterate_supers(void (*f)(struct super_block *, void *), void *arg) list_for_each_entry(sb, &super_blocks, s_list) { if (hlist_unhashed(&sb->s_instances)) continue; + + if (!(sb->s_flags & MS_BORN)) + continue; + sb->s_count++; spin_unlock(&sb_lock); @@ -621,6 +625,9 @@ void iterate_supers_type(struct file_system_type *type, spin_lock(&sb_lock); hlist_for_each_entry(sb, &type->fs_supers, s_instances) { + if (!(sb->s_flags & MS_BORN)) + continue; + sb->s_count++; spin_unlock(&sb_lock); -- 1.9.1