On 8/2/21 8:13 AM, Paolo Valente wrote:

The function bfq_setup_merge prepares the merging between two
bfq_queues, say bfqq and new_bfqq. To this goal, it assigns
bfqq->new_bfqq = new_bfqq. Then, each time some I/O for bfqq arrives,
the process that generated that I/O is disassociated from bfqq and
associated with new_bfqq (merging is actually a redirection). In this
respect, bfq_setup_merge increases new_bfqq->ref in advance, adding
the number of processes that are expected to be associated with
new_bfqq.

Unfortunately, the stable-merging mechanism interferes with this
setup. After bfqq->new_bfqq has been set by bfq_setup_merge, and
before all the expected processes have been associated with
bfqq->new_bfqq, bfqq may happen to be stably merged with a different
queue than the current bfqq->new_bfqq. In this case, bfqq->new_bfqq
gets changed. So, some of the processes that have been already
accounted for in the ref counter of the previous new_bfqq will not be
associated with that queue.  This creates an unbalance, because those
references will never be decremented.

This commit fixes this issue by reestablishing the previous, natural
behaviour: once bfqq->new_bfqq has been set, it will not be changed
until all expected redirections have occurred.

Applied, thanks.

-- 
Jens Axboe