Re: [PATCH] vmscan: add barrier to prevent evictable page in unevictable list
From: Johannes Weiner <hidden>
Date: 2011-09-28 08:15:32
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On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 10:45:30AM +0900, Minchan Kim wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
When racing between putback_lru_page and shmem_unlock happens, progrom execution order is as follows, but clear_bit in processor #1 could be reordered right before spin_unlock of processor #1. Then, the page would be stranded on the unevictable list. spin_lock SetPageLRU spin_unlock clear_bit(AS_UNEVICTABLE) spin_lock if PageLRU() if !test_bit(AS_UNEVICTABLE) move evictable list smp_mb if !test_bit(AS_UNEVICTABLE) move evictable list spin_unlock But, pagevec_lookup in scan_mapping_unevictable_pages has rcu_read_[un]lock so it could protect reordering before reaching test_bit(AS_UNEVICTABLE) on processor #1 so this problem never happens. But it's a unexpected side effect and we should solve this problem properly. This patch adds a barrier after mapping_clear_unevictable. side-note: I didn't meet this problem but just found during review. Cc: Johannes Weiner <redacted> Cc: KOSAKI Motohiro <redacted> Cc: Mel Gorman <redacted> Cc: Rik van Riel <redacted> Cc: Lee Schermerhorn <redacted> Signed-off-by: Minchan Kim <redacted> --- mm/shmem.c | 1 + mm/vmscan.c | 11 ++++++----- 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)diff --git a/mm/shmem.c b/mm/shmem.c index 2d35772..22cb349 100644 --- a/mm/shmem.c +++ b/mm/shmem.c@@ -1068,6 +1068,7 @@ int shmem_lock(struct file *file, int lock, struct user_struct *user) user_shm_unlock(inode->i_size, user); info->flags &= ~VM_LOCKED; mapping_clear_unevictable(file->f_mapping); + smp_mb__after_clear_bit(); scan_mapping_unevictable_pages(file->f_mapping);
I always get nervous when I see undocumented barriers. Maybe add a teensy tiny comment here? /* * Ensure that a racing putback_lru_page() can see * the pages of this mapping are evictable when we * skip them due to !PageLRU during the scan. */ Or something like that. Otherwise, nice catch :-) Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <redacted> -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. 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@kvack.org"> email@kvack.org </a>