Kconfig and Documentation for forkbomb killer. Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/vm/forkbomb.txt | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ mm/Kconfig | 16 ++++++++++ 2 files changed, 78 insertions(+) Index: mm-work2/Documentation/vm/forkbomb.txt =================================================================== --- /dev/null +++ mm-work2/Documentation/vm/forkbomb.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +Forkbomb.txt + +1. Intruduction + Maybe many programmer have an experience to write a fork-bomb program. + + One example of fork-bomb is a bomb which make system unstable by the + memory pressure caused by the number of tasks. This kind of fork-bomb + can be limited by ulimit(max user processes). If it happens, the user + who has the same owner ID of forkbomb will not be able to do anything + but other users(admin) may have a chance to kill them. (Of course, + if forkbomb is created by root, we have no chance to recover.) + + Another example of fork-bomb is a bomb which eats much memory. This + kind of forkbomb causes huge swapout and make system slow and finally, + OOM. In swapless system, the system will see OOM soon. To prevent this + type of bomb, memory cgroup or overcommit_memory will be a help. But + troubles happen when we don't expected..... + + To recover from fork-bomb, we need to kill all tasks which is in the + forkbomb tree, in general. But if the system is in OOM state, killing + them all tends to be difficult. + +2. Forkbomb Killer. + The kernel provides a forkbomb killer. (see mm/Kconfig FORKBOMB_KILLER) + If enabled, the forkbomb killer will provides 2 system files. + + /sys/kernel/mm/oom/mm_tracking_enabled + /sys/kernel/mm/oom/mm_tracking_reset_interval_msecs + + + If /sys/kernel/mm/oom/mm_tracking_enabled == enabled, the kernel records + all fork/vfork/exec information by an extra structure than usual task + management. This information is used for tracking a task tree. Unlike + process tree, this doesn't discard parent<->children information even + when the parent exits before children and make children as orphan processes. + By this, even with following script, task tracking information can be + preserved and we have a chance to chase all proceesses in a fork bomb. + + (example) # forkbomb(){ forkbomb|forkbomb & } ; forkbomb + + But this information tracking adds a small overhead at fork/vfork/exec/exit. + Default is enabled. + + /sys/kernel/mm/oom/mm_tracking_reset_interval_msecs + + Because we cannot preserve all information since the system boot, we need + to forget information. Forkbomb killer checks the system status in each + period. What checked now is + 1. the number of process. + 2. the number of kswapd runs. + 3. the number of alloc stalls. (memory reclaim) + If all of 1,2,3 aren't increased for mm_tracking_reset_interval_msecs, + all tracking information recorded before previous period will be + removed. + IOW, by making mm_tracking_reset_interval_msecs larger, you can check + forkbomb in a long period but will have more overheads. By making it + smaller, tracking records are removed earlier and tasks killed by + forkbomb killer will decrease (and you can avoid unnecessary kills.) + Default is 30secs. + + + Index: mm-work2/mm/Kconfig =================================================================== --- mm-work2.orig/mm/Kconfig +++ mm-work2/mm/Kconfig @@ -274,6 +274,22 @@ config HWPOISON_INJECT depends on MEMORY_FAILURE && DEBUG_KERNEL && PROC_FS select PROC_PAGE_MONITOR +config FORKBOMB_KILLER + bool "Killing a tree of tasks when a forkbomb is found" + depends on EXPERIMENTAL + default n + select MM_OWNER + help + Provide a fork-bomb-killer, which is triggered at OOM. + In usual case, OOM-Killer kills a memory eater processes. + But it kills tasks in conservative way and cannot be a help + if forkbomb is running. The admin may need to reboot system + if the influence of the bomb cannot be limited by rlimits or + some security settings. FORKBOMB Killer kills a tree of process + which have started recently and eats much memory. Please see, + Documentation/vm/forkbomb.txt for details. If unsure, say N. + + config NOMMU_INITIAL_TRIM_EXCESS int "Turn on mmap() excess space trimming before booting" depends on !MMU -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxx For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Fight unfair telecom internet charges in Canada: sign http://stopthemeter.ca/ Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx"> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>