Thread (14 messages) 14 messages, 3 authors, 2016-06-02

Re: zone_reclaimable() leads to livelock in __alloc_pages_slowpath()

From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
Date: 2016-06-02 15:11:54
Also in: lkml

On Wed 01-06-16 23:38:30, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
On 06/01, Michal Hocko wrote:
quoted
On Wed 01-06-16 01:56:26, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
quoted
On 05/31, Michal Hocko wrote:
quoted
On Sun 29-05-16 23:25:40, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
quoted
This single change in get_scan_count() under for_each_evictable_lru() loop

	-	size = lruvec_lru_size(lruvec, lru);
	+	size = zone_page_state_snapshot(lruvec_zone(lruvec), NR_LRU_BASE + lru);

fixes the problem too.

Without this change shrink*() continues to scan the LRU_ACTIVE_FILE list
while it is empty. LRU_INACTIVE_FILE is not empty (just a few pages) but
we do not even try to scan it, lruvec_lru_size() returns zero.
OK, you seem to be really seeing a different issue than me.
quite possibly, but
quoted
My debugging
patch was showing when nothing was really isolated from the LRU lists
(both for shrink_{in}active_list.
in my debugging session too. LRU_ACTIVE_FILE was empty, so there is nothing to
isolate even if shrink_active_list() is (wrongly called) with nr_to_scan != 0.
LRU_INACTIVE_FILE is not empty but it is not scanned because nr_to_scan == 0.

But I am afraid I misunderstood you, and you meant something else.
What I wanted to say is that my debugging hasn't shown a single case
when nothing would be isolated. Which seems to be the case for you.
Ah, got it, thanks. Yes, I see that there is no "nothing scanned" in
oom-test.qcow_serial.log.gz from http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=146417822608902
you sent. I applied this patch and I do see "nothing scanned".

But, unlike you, I do not see the messages from free-pages... perhaps you
have more active tasks. To remind, I tested this with the single user-space
process, /bin/sh running with pid==1, then I did "while true; do ./oom; done".
Well, I was booting into a standard init which will have a couple of
processes. So yes this would make a slight difference.
 
So of course I do not know if you see another issue or the same, but now I am
wondering if the change in get_scan_count() above fixes the problem for you.
I have played with it but the interfering freed pages just ruined the
whole zone_reclaimable expectations.
 
Probably not, but the fact you do not see "nothing scanned" can't prove this,
it is possible that shrink_*_list() was not called because vm_stat == 0 but
zone_reclaimable() sees the per-cpu counter. In this case 0db2cb8da89d can
make a difference, but see below.
quoted
quoted
quoted
But I am thinking whether we should simply revert 0db2cb8da89d ("mm,
vmscan: make zone_reclaimable_pages more precise") in 4.6 stable tree.
Does that help as well?
I'll test this tomorrow,
So it doesn't help.
OK, so we at least know this is not a regression.
quoted
but even if it helps I am not sure... Yes, this
quoted
way zone_reclaimable() and get_scan_count() will see the same numbers, but
how this can help to make zone_reclaimable() == F at the end?
It won't in some cases.
And unless I am notally confused  hit exactly this case.
quoted
And that has been the case for ages so I do not
think we need any steps for the stable.
OK, agreed.
quoted
What meant to address is a
potential regression caused by 0db2cb8da89d which would make this more
likely because of the mismatch
Again, I can be easily wrong, but I do not see how 0db2cb8da89d could make
the things worse...

Unless both get_scan_count() and zone_reclaimable() use "snapshot" variant,
we can't guarantee zone_reclaimable() becomes false. The fact that they see
different numbers (after 0db2cb8da89d) doesn't really matter.

Anyway, this was already fixed, so lets forget it ;)
Yes, especially as this doesn't seem to be a regression.

Thanks for your effort anyway.
-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs

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