lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2007]   [Feb]   [4]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: [patch 9/9] mm: fix pagecache write deadlocks
On Sun, 4 Feb 2007 11:15:29 +0100 Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de> wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 04, 2007 at 01:44:45AM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > On Sun, 4 Feb 2007 09:51:07 +0100 (CET) Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de> wrote:
> >
> > > 2. If we find the destination page is non uptodate, unlock it (this could be
> > > made slightly more optimal), then find and pin the source page with
> > > get_user_pages. Relock the destination page and continue with the copy.
> > > However, instead of a usercopy (which might take a fault), copy the data
> > > via the kernel address space.
> >
> > argh. We just can't go adding all this gunk into the write() path.
> >
> > mmap_sem, a full pte-walk, taking of pte-page locks, etc. For every page.
> > Even single-process write() will suffer, let along multithreaded stuff,
> > where mmap_sem contention may be the bigger problem.
>
> The write path is broken. I prefer my kernels slow, than buggy.

That won't fly.

> > There's a build error in filemap_xip.c btw.

?

> >
> > We need to think different.
> >
> > What happened to the idea of doing an atomic copy into the non-uptodate
> > page and handling it somehow?
>
> That was my second idea.

Coulda sworn it was mine ;) I thought you ended up deciding it wasn't
practical because of the games we needed to play with ->commit_write.

> I didn't get any feedback on that patchset
> except to try this method, so I assume everyone hated it.
>
> I actually liked it, because it didn't have to do the writev
> segment-at-a-time for !uptodate pages like this one does. Considering
> this code gets called from mm-less contexts, maybe I'll have to go back
> to this approach.

OK.

> > Another option might be to effectively pin the whole mm during the copy:
> >
> > down_read(&current->mm->unpaging_lock);
> > get_user(addr); /* Fault the page in */
> > ...
> > copy_from_user()
> > up_read(&current->mm->unpaging_lock);
> >
> > then, anyone who wants to unmap pages from this mm requires
> > write_lock(unpaging_lock). So we know the results of that get_user()
> > cannot be undone.
>
> Fugly.

I invited you to think different - don't just fixate on one random
tossed-out-there suggestion.

> but you introduce the theoretical memory deadlock
> where a task cannot reclaim its own memory.

Nah, that'll never happen - both pages are already allocated.

It's better than taking mmap_sem and walking pagetables...
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2007-02-04 11:33    [W:2.666 / U:0.008 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site