linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] block: fix a crash in do_task

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Date:   Fri, 31 May 2019 15:12:13 -0600
From:   Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>
To:     Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, Qian Cai <cai@....pw>
Cc:     akpm@...ux-foundation.org, hch@....de, oleg@...hat.com,
        gkohli@...eaurora.org, mingo@...hat.com, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] block: fix a crash in do_task_dead()

On 5/30/19 2:03 AM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 04:25:26PM -0400, Qian Cai wrote:
> 
>> Fixes: 0619317ff8ba ("block: add polled wakeup task helper")
> 
> What is the purpose of that patch ?! The Changelog doesn't mention any
> benefit or performance gain. So why not revert that?

Yeah that is actually pretty weak. There are substantial performance
gains for small IOs using this trick, the changelog should have
included those. I guess that was left on the list...

>> Signed-off-by: Qian Cai <cai@....pw>
>> ---
>>   include/linux/blkdev.h | 2 +-
>>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/include/linux/blkdev.h b/include/linux/blkdev.h
>> index 592669bcc536..290eb7528f54 100644
>> --- a/include/linux/blkdev.h
>> +++ b/include/linux/blkdev.h
>> @@ -1803,7 +1803,7 @@ static inline void blk_wake_io_task(struct task_struct *waiter)
>>   	 * that case, we don't need to signal a wakeup, it's enough to just
>>   	 * mark us as RUNNING.
>>   	 */
>> -	if (waiter == current)
>> +	if (waiter == current && in_task())
>>   		__set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
> 
> NAK, No that's broken too.
> 
> The right fix is something like:
> 
> 	if (waiter == current) {
> 		barrier();
> 		if (current->state & TASK_NORAL)
> 			__set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
> 	}
> 
> But even that is yuck to do outside of the scheduler code, as it looses
> tracepoints and stats.
> 
> So can we please just revert that original patch and start over -- if
> needed?

How about we just use your above approach? It looks fine to me (except
the obvious typo). I'd hate to give up this gain, in the realm of
fighting against stupid kernel offload solutions we need every cycle we
can get.

I know it's not super kosher, your patch, but I don't think it's that
bad hidden in a generic helper.

-- 
Jens Axboe