linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH next] memcg: fix deadlock by avoiding stat lock when anon

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Message-ID: <alpine.LSU.2.00.1202291648340.11821@eggly.anvils>
Date:	Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:18:09 -0800 (PST)
From:	Hugh Dickins <hughd@...gle.com>
To:	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>
cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@...fujitsu.com>,
	Konstantin Khlebnikov <khlebnikov@...nvz.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH next] memcg: fix deadlock by avoiding stat lock when
 anon

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012, Johannes Weiner wrote:
> 
> Saving the begin/end_update_page_stat() calls for the anon case where
> we know in advance we don't need them is one thing, but this also
> hides a dependencies that even eludes lockdep behind what looks like a
> minor optimization of the anon case.

Sounds like you'd appreciate a comment there: akpm has not put
this version in yet, so I'll send an updated version shortly.

> 
> Wouldn't this be more robust if we turned the ordering inside out in
> move_account instead?

I think we need more than the one user of this infrastructure before
that can be decided.

But I didn't actually consider that at all: perhaps prejudiced by the
way I had solved the race Konstantin pointed out in my patchset of 10
last week, by using the lruvec lock for move_lock_mem_cgroup too,
which fits with it being inside the page_cgroup lock.

Hmm, I notice move_lock_mem_cgroup is likewise spin_lock_irqsave:
if it needs to be (and I guess the idea is that it doesn't need to be
today, but for generality later on had better be), then it has to be
inside page_cgroup lock.

(If FILE_MAPPED were to be the only user of the infrastructure, I'd
actually prefer to remove the begin/end, and make move_account raise
the file page's mapcount temporarily, doing its own page_remove_rmap
after, to solve these races.  There's probably one or two VM_BUG_ONs
elsewhere that would need deleting to make that completely safe.
But I understand there may be more users to come - and mapcount
games might not fit your desire for robustness.)

Hugh
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