linux-kernel - Re: [patch 12/12] mm: page_alloc: do not lock up low-order allocations upon OOM

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Thu, 26 Mar 2015 16:32:53 +0100
From:	Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.cz>
To:	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>
Cc:	linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@...ove.SAKURA.ne.jp>,
	Huang Ying <ying.huang@...el.com>,
	Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>,
	Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>,
	Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>
Subject: Re: [patch 12/12] mm: page_alloc: do not lock up low-order
 allocations upon OOM

On Wed 25-03-15 02:17:16, Johannes Weiner wrote:
> When both page reclaim and the OOM killer fail to free memory, there
> are no more options for the allocator to make progress on its own.
> 
> Don't risk hanging these allocations.  Leave it to the allocation site
> to implement the fallback policy for failing allocations.

The changelog communicates the impact of this patch _very_ poorly. The
potential regression space is quite large. Every syscall which is not
allowed to return ENOMEM and it relies on an allocation would have to be
audited or a common mechanism to catch them deployed.

I really believe this is a good thing _longterm_ but I still do not
think it is the upstream material anytime soon without extensive testing
which is even not mentioned here.

> Signed-off-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>
> ---
>  mm/page_alloc.c | 19 ++++++-------------
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 9e45e97aa934..f2b1a17416c4 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -2331,12 +2331,10 @@ void warn_alloc_failed(gfp_t gfp_mask, int order, const char *fmt, ...)
>  
>  static inline struct page *
>  __alloc_pages_may_oom(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order, int alloc_flags,
> -	const struct alloc_context *ac, unsigned long *did_some_progress)
> +		      const struct alloc_context *ac)
>  {
>  	struct page *page = NULL;
>  
> -	*did_some_progress = 0;
> -
>  	/*
>  	 * This allocating task can become the OOM victim itself at
>  	 * any point before acquiring the lock.  In that case, exit
> @@ -2376,13 +2374,9 @@ __alloc_pages_may_oom(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order, int alloc_flags,
>  			goto out;
>  	}
>  
> -	if (out_of_memory(ac->zonelist, gfp_mask, order, ac->nodemask, false)) {
> -		*did_some_progress = 1;
> -	} else {
> +	if (!out_of_memory(ac->zonelist, gfp_mask, order, ac->nodemask, false))
>  		/* Oops, these shouldn't happen with the OOM killer disabled */
> -		if (WARN_ON_ONCE(gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL))
> -			*did_some_progress = 1;
> -	}
> +		WARN_ON_ONCE(gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL);
>  
>  	/*
>  	 * Allocate from the OOM killer reserves.
> @@ -2799,13 +2793,12 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
>  	}
>  
>  	/* Reclaim has failed us, start killing things */
> -	page = __alloc_pages_may_oom(gfp_mask, order, alloc_flags, ac,
> -				     &did_some_progress);
> +	page = __alloc_pages_may_oom(gfp_mask, order, alloc_flags, ac);
>  	if (page)
>  		goto got_pg;
>  
> -	/* Retry as long as the OOM killer is making progress */
> -	if (did_some_progress)
> +	/* Wait for user to order more dimms, cuz these are done */
> +	if (gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL)
>  		goto retry;
>  
>  noretry:
> -- 
> 2.3.3
> 

-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/