linux-kernel - Re: [patch 00/29] lockup_detector: Cure hotplug deadlocks and replace duct tape

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Date:   Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:10:14 -0400
From:   Don Zickus <dzickus@...hat.com>
To:     Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Cc:     LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        Sebastian Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>,
        Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@...lanox.com>,
        Ulrich Obergfell <uobergfe@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [patch 00/29] lockup_detector: Cure hotplug deadlocks and
 replace duct tape

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 09:15:58AM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> The lockup detector is broken is several ways:
> 
>     - It's deadlock prone vs. CPU hotplug in various ways. Some of these
>       are due to recursive cpus_read_lock() others are due to
>       cpus_read_lock() from CPU hotplug callbacks which immediately lock
>       the machine because cpus are write locked.
> 
>     - The handling of the cpu hotplug threads happens sideways to the
>       smpboot thread infrastructure, which is racy and pointless
> 
>     - The handling of the user space sysctl interface is a complete
>       trainwreck as it fiddles directly with variables which can be
>       modified or evaluated by the running watchdogs.
> 
>     - The perf event initialization is a steaming pile of duct tape as it
>       idiotically tries to create perf events over and over even if perf is
>       not functional (no hardware, ....). To avoid excessive dmesg spam it
>       contains magic printk ratelimiting along with either wrong or useless
>       messages.
> 
>     - The code structure is horrible as ifdef sections are scattered all
>       over the place which makes it unreadable
> 
>     - There is more wreckage, but see the changelogs for the ugly details.
> 
> Before I get utterly grumpy, I just pretend that I don't give a sh*t!
> 
> The following series sanitizes the facility and addresses the problems.

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the patchset.  I agree with most your issues you complained
about, just wasn't smart enough to figure out the right way to solve them.
Despite your aggressive comments, I will review the code to see if it covers
the scenarios that have popped up over the years and run some testing on my
side.  Probably need a few days to do that.

Cheers,
Don

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 	tglx
> ---
>  arch/parisc/kernel/process.c   |    2 
>  arch/powerpc/kernel/watchdog.c |   22 -
>  arch/x86/events/intel/core.c   |   11 
>  include/linux/nmi.h            |  121 +++----
>  include/linux/smpboot.h        |    4 
>  kernel/cpu.c                   |    6 
>  kernel/smpboot.c               |   22 -
>  kernel/sysctl.c                |   22 -
>  kernel/watchdog.c              |  638 ++++++++++++++---------------------------
>  kernel/watchdog_hld.c          |  193 ++++++------
>  10 files changed, 433 insertions(+), 608 deletions(-)
> 
>