[Let's CC some cgroup people] On Wed 01-06-11 15:07:40, Igor Mammedov wrote: > On 06/01/2011 02:39 PM, Michal Hocko wrote: > >On Wed 01-06-11 12:44:04, Igor Mammedov wrote: > >>Freshly allocated 'mem_cgroup_per_node' list entries must be > >>initialized before the rest of the kernel can see them. Otherwise > >>zero initialized list fields can lead to race condition at > >>mem_cgroup_force_empty_list: > >> pc = list_entry(list->prev, struct page_cgroup, lru); > >>where 'pc' will be something like 0xfffffffc if list->prev is 0 > >>and cause page fault later when 'pc' is dereferenced. > > > >Have you ever seen such a race? I do not see how this could happen. > >mem_cgroup_force_empty_list is called only from > >mem_cgroup_force_empty_write (aka echo whatever> group/force_empty) > >or mem_cgroup_pre_destroy when the group is destroyed. > > > >The initialization code is, however, called before a group is > >given for use AFAICS. > > > >I am not saying tha the change is bad, I like it, but I do not think it > >is a fix for potential race condition. > > > > Yes I've seen it (RHBZ#700565). I am not subscribed so I will not get there. > It causes random crashes in virt env ocasionally. It's easier to > reproduce if you overcommit cpu. Hmm, I have missed that cgroup_create calls create callback for all subsystems that the group should be attached to. But this shouldn't be any problem as cgroup_call_pre_destroy (called from cgroup_rmdir) cannot be called before the directory is actually created. cgroup_create_dir is called after cgroup has been created for all subsystems so the directory entry will show up only after everything is initialized AFAICS. So I still do not see how we can race. Anyway, if you are able to reproduce the problem then I would say that the problem is somewhere in the generic cgroup code rather than in memory controler. The patch just papers over a real bug IMO. But I may be wrong as I am not definitely an expert in the area. > > >>Signed-off-by: Igor Mammedov<imammedo@xxxxxxxxxx> > >>--- > >> mm/memcontrol.c | 2 +- > >> 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-) > >> > >>diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c > >>index bd9052a..ee7cb4c 100644 > >>--- a/mm/memcontrol.c > >>+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c > >>@@ -4707,7 +4707,6 @@ static int alloc_mem_cgroup_per_zone_info(struct mem_cgroup *mem, int node) > >> if (!pn) > >> return 1; > >> > >>- mem->info.nodeinfo[node] = pn; > >> for (zone = 0; zone< MAX_NR_ZONES; zone++) { > >> mz =&pn->zoneinfo[zone]; > >> for_each_lru(l) > >>@@ -4716,6 +4715,7 @@ static int alloc_mem_cgroup_per_zone_info(struct mem_cgroup *mem, int node) > >> mz->on_tree = false; > >> mz->mem = mem; > >> } > >>+ mem->info.nodeinfo[node] = pn; > >> return 0; > >> } > >> > >>-- > >>1.7.1 -- Michal Hocko SUSE Labs SUSE LINUX s.r.o. Lihovarska 1060/12 190 00 Praha 9 Czech Republic -- 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>