On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 12:04:38 +0100 (BST) Daniel Drake <dsd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Running a serial console, if too many kernel messages are generated within > a short time causing a lot of serial I/O, the 8250 driver will generate > another kernel message reporting this, which just adds to the I/O. It has > a cascading effect and quickly results the system being brought to its knees > by a flood of "too much work" messages. > > Ratelimit the error message to avoid this. > > Signed-off-by: Daniel Drake <dsd@xxxxxxxxxx> > --- > drivers/serial/8250.c | 5 +++-- > 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/drivers/serial/8250.c b/drivers/serial/8250.c > index 24110f6..d3c5855 100644 > --- a/drivers/serial/8250.c > +++ b/drivers/serial/8250.c > @@ -1606,8 +1606,9 @@ static irqreturn_t serial8250_interrupt(int irq, void *dev_id) > > if (l == i->head && pass_counter++ > PASS_LIMIT) { > /* If we hit this, we're dead. */ > - printk(KERN_ERR "serial8250: too much work for " > - "irq%d\n", irq); > + if (printk_ratelimit()) > + printk(KERN_ERR "serial8250: too much work for " > + "irq%d\n", irq); > break; > } > } while (l != end); printk_ratelimit() shares a common ratelimiting state between all callers of printk_ratelimit(). This is pretty sucky because if one printk_ratelimit() caller is going crazy then this can cause punishment of other unrelated printk_ratelimit() callers who *aren't* going crazy. So it's generally better to use printk_ratelimited(), which will ratelimit this printkand no other printk, without affecting other printk_ratelimit[ed]() users. So, this: --- a/drivers/serial/8250.c~serial8250-ratelimit-too-much-work-error-fix +++ a/drivers/serial/8250.c @@ -1606,9 +1606,8 @@ static irqreturn_t serial8250_interrupt( if (l == i->head && pass_counter++ > PASS_LIMIT) { /* If we hit this, we're dead. */ - if (printk_ratelimit()) - printk(KERN_ERR "serial8250: too much work for " - "irq%d\n", irq); + printk_ratelimited(KERN_ERR + "serial8250: too much work for irq%d\n", irq); break; } } while (l != end); _ which, interestingly, doesn't compile because someone stuck a DEFINE_RATELIMIT_STATE() in include/linux/kernel.h and it ain't defined anywhere. Let me fix that up... -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-serial" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html