Current use of smp call function to kick the nohz idle balance can deadlock in this scenario. 1. cpu-A did a generic_exec_single() to cpu-B and after queuing its call single data (csd) to the call single queue, cpu-A took a timer interrupt. Actual IPI to cpu-B to process the call single queue is not yet sent. 2. As part of the timer interrupt handler, cpu-A decided to kick cpu-B for the idle load balancing (sets cpu-B's rq->nohz_balance_kick to 1) and __smp_call_function_single() with nowait will queue the csd to the cpu-B's queue. But the generic_exec_single() won't send an IPI to cpu-B as the call single queue was not empty. 3. cpu-A is busy with lot of interrupts 4. Meanwhile cpu-B is entering and exiting idle and noticed that it has it's rq->nohz_balance_kick set to '1'. So it will go ahead and do the idle load balancer and clear its rq->nohz_balance_kick. 5. At this point, csd queued as part of the step-2 above is still locked and waiting to be serviced on cpu-B. 6. cpu-A is still busy with interrupt load and now it got another timer interrupt and as part of it decided to kick cpu-B for another idle load balancing (as it finds cpu-B's rq->nohz_balance_kick cleared in step-4 above) and does __smp_call_function_single() with the same csd that is still locked. 7. And we get a deadlock waiting for the csd_lock() in the __smp_call_function_single(). Main issue here is that cpu-B can service the idle load balancer kick request from cpu-A even with out receiving the IPI and this lead to doing multiple __smp_call_function_single() on the same csd leading to deadlock. To kick a cpu, scheduler already has the reschedule vector reserved. Use that mechanism (kick_process()) instead of using the generic smp call function mechanism to kick off the nohz idle load balancing and avoid the deadlock. [ This issue is present from 2.6.35+ kernels, but marking it -stable only from v3.0+ as the proposed fix depends on the scheduler_ipi() that is introduced recently. ] Reported-by: Prarit Bhargava Signed-off-by: Suresh Siddha Cc: stable@kernel.org # v3.0+ --- kernel/sched.c | 14 +++++++++++--- kernel/sched_fair.c | 27 +++++++-------------------- 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-) Index: linux-2.6-tip/kernel/sched.c =================================================================== --- linux-2.6-tip.orig/kernel/sched.c +++ linux-2.6-tip/kernel/sched.c @@ -2733,7 +2733,7 @@ void scheduler_ipi(void) struct rq *rq = this_rq(); struct task_struct *list = xchg(&rq->wake_list, NULL); - if (!list) + if (!list && !idle_cpu(cpu_of(rq))) return; /* @@ -2750,7 +2750,16 @@ void scheduler_ipi(void) * somewhat pessimize the simple resched case. */ irq_enter(); - sched_ttwu_do_pending(list); + + if (list) + sched_ttwu_do_pending(list); + + /* + * Check if someone kicked us for doing the nohz idle load balance. + */ + if (unlikely((rq->idle == current) && rq->nohz_balance_kick && + !need_resched())) + raise_softirq_irqoff(SCHED_SOFTIRQ); irq_exit(); } @@ -8303,7 +8312,6 @@ void __init sched_init(void) rq_attach_root(rq, &def_root_domain); #ifdef CONFIG_NO_HZ rq->nohz_balance_kick = 0; - init_sched_softirq_csd(&per_cpu(remote_sched_softirq_cb, i)); #endif #endif init_rq_hrtick(rq); Index: linux-2.6-tip/kernel/sched_fair.c =================================================================== --- linux-2.6-tip.orig/kernel/sched_fair.c +++ linux-2.6-tip/kernel/sched_fair.c @@ -4269,22 +4269,6 @@ out_unlock: } #ifdef CONFIG_NO_HZ - -static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct call_single_data, remote_sched_softirq_cb); - -static void trigger_sched_softirq(void *data) -{ - raise_softirq_irqoff(SCHED_SOFTIRQ); -} - -static inline void init_sched_softirq_csd(struct call_single_data *csd) -{ - csd->func = trigger_sched_softirq; - csd->info = NULL; - csd->flags = 0; - csd->priv = 0; -} - /* * idle load balancing details * - One of the idle CPUs nominates itself as idle load_balancer, while @@ -4450,11 +4434,14 @@ static void nohz_balancer_kick(int cpu) } if (!cpu_rq(ilb_cpu)->nohz_balance_kick) { - struct call_single_data *cp; - cpu_rq(ilb_cpu)->nohz_balance_kick = 1; - cp = &per_cpu(remote_sched_softirq_cb, cpu); - __smp_call_function_single(ilb_cpu, cp, 0); + /* + * Use kick_process instead of resched_cpu. + * This way we generate a sched IPI on the target cpu which + * is idle. And the softirq performing nohz idle load balance + * will be run before returning from the IPI. + */ + kick_process(idle_task(ilb_cpu)); } return; } -- 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/