linux-kernel - [PATCH tip/core/rcu 1/8] rcu: upgrade stallwarn.txt documentation for CPU-bound RT processes

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Message-Id: <1285203053-22068-1-git-send-email-paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Date:	Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:50:46 -0700
From:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:	mingo@...e.hu, laijs@...fujitsu.com, dipankar@...ibm.com,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca,
	josh@...htriplett.org, niv@...ibm.com, tglx@...utronix.de,
	peterz@...radead.org, rostedt@...dmis.org, Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu,
	dhowells@...hat.com, eric.dumazet@...il.com,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 1/8] rcu: upgrade stallwarn.txt documentation for CPU-bound RT processes

CPU-bound real-time processes can cause RCU CPU stall warnings, and
much other trouble as well.  Document the fact that they can cause
RCU CPU stall warnings.

Suggested-by: Darren Hart <dvhltc@...ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
---
 Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt |   18 ++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt
index 44c6dcc..862c08e 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt
@@ -80,6 +80,24 @@ o	A CPU looping with bottom halves disabled.  This condition can
 o	For !CONFIG_PREEMPT kernels, a CPU looping anywhere in the kernel
 	without invoking schedule().
 
+o	A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT kernel, which might
+	happen to preempt a low-priority task in the middle of an RCU
+	read-side critical section.   This is especially damaging if
+	that low-priority task is not permitted to run on any other CPU,
+	in which case the next RCU grace period can never complete, which
+	will eventually cause the system to run out of memory and hang.
+	While the system is in the process of running itself out of
+	memory, you might see stall-warning messages.
+
+o	A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT kernel that
+	is running at a higher priority than the RCU softirq threads.
+	This will prevent RCU callbacks from ever being invoked,
+	and in a CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernel will further prevent
+	RCU grace periods from ever completing.  Either way, the
+	system will eventually run out of memory and hang.  In the
+	CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU case, you might see stall-warning
+	messages.
+
 o	A bug in the RCU implementation.
 
 o	A hardware failure.  This is quite unlikely, but has occurred
-- 
1.7.0.6

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