Date:	Thu, 01 Mar 2007 09:37:06 +0100
From:	Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu>
To:	akpm@...ux-foundation.org
CC:	miklos@...redi.hu, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [patch 03/22] fix deadlock in balance_dirty_pages

> > > > This deadlock happens, when dirty pages from one filesystem are
> > > > written back through another filesystem.  It easiest to demonstrate
> > > > with fuse although it could affect looback mounts as well (see
> > > > following patches).
> > > > 
> > > > Let's call the filesystems A(bove) and B(elow).  Process Pr_a is
> > > > writing to A, and process Pr_b is writing to B.
> > > > 
> > > > Pr_a is bash-shared-mapping.  Pr_b is the fuse filesystem daemon
> > > > (fusexmp_fh), for simplicity let's assume that Pr_b is single
> > > > threaded.
> > > > 
> > > > These are the simplified stack traces of these processes after the
> > > > deadlock:
> > > > 
> > > > Pr_a (bash-shared-mapping):
> > > > 
> > > >   (block on queue)
> > > >   fuse_writepage
> > > >   generic_writepages
> > > >   writeback_inodes
> > > >   balance_dirty_pages
> > > >   balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr
> > > >   set_page_dirty_mapping_balance
> > > >   do_no_page
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Pr_b (fusexmp_fh):
> > > > 
> > > >   io_schedule_timeout
> > > >   congestion_wait
> > > >   balance_dirty_pages
> > > >   balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr
> > > >   generic_file_buffered_write
> > > >   generic_file_aio_write
> > > >   ext3_file_write
> > > >   do_sync_write
> > > >   vfs_write
> > > >   sys_pwrite64
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks to the aggressive nature of Pr_a, it can happen, that
> > > > 
> > > >   nr_file_dirty > dirty_thresh + margin
> > > > 
> > > > This is due to both nr_dirty growing and dirty_thresh shrinking, which
> > > > in turn is due to nr_file_mapped rapidly growing.  The exact size of
> > > > the margin at which the deadlock happens is not known, but it's around
> > > > 100 pages.
> > > > 
> > > > At this point Pr_a enters balance_dirty_pages and starts to write back
> > > > some if it's dirty pages.  After submitting some requests, it blocks
> > > > on the request queue.
> > > > 
> > > > The first write request will trigger Pr_b to perform a write()
> > > > syscall.  This will submit a write request to the block device and
> > > > then may enter balance_dirty_pages().
> > > > 
> > > > The condition for exiting balance_dirty_pages() is
> > > > 
> > > >  - either that write_chunk pages have been written
> > > > 
> > > >  - or nr_file_dirty + nr_writeback < dirty_thresh
> > > > 
> > > > It is entirely possible that less than write_chunk pages were written,
> > > > in which case balance_dirty_pages() will not exit even after all the
> > > > submitted requests have been succesfully completed.
> > > > 
> > > > Which means that the write() syscall does not return.
> > > 
> > > But the balance_dirty_pages() loop does more than just wait for those two
> > > conditions.  It will also submit _more_ dirty pages for writeout.  ie: it
> > > should be feeding more of file A's pages into writepage.
> > > 
> > > Why isn't that happening?
> > 
> > All of A's data is actually written by B.  So just submitting more
> > pages to some queue doesn't help, it will just make the queue longer.
> > 
> > If the queue length were not limited, and B would have limitless
> > threads, and the write() wouldn't exclude other writes to the same
> > file (i_mutex), then there would be no deadlock.
> > 
> > But for fuse the first and the last condition isn't met.
> > 
> > For the loop device the second condition isn't met, loop is single
> > threaded.
> 
> Sigh.  What's this about i_mutex?  That appears to be some critical
> information which _still_ isn't being communicated.
> 

This:

ssize_t generic_file_aio_write(struct kiocb *iocb, const struct iovec *iov,
		unsigned long nr_segs, loff_t pos)
{
	struct file *file = iocb->ki_filp;
	struct address_space *mapping = file->f_mapping;
	struct inode *inode = mapping->host;
	ssize_t ret;

	BUG_ON(iocb->ki_pos != pos);

	mutex_lock(&inode->i_mutex);
	ret = __generic_file_aio_write_nolock(iocb, iov, nr_segs,
			&iocb->ki_pos);
	mutex_unlock(&inode->i_mutex);


It's in the stack trace.  I thought it was obvious.

Miklos
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