linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH v5 1/3] printk-rb: new printk ringbuffer implementation (writer)

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Date:   Mon, 2 Dec 2019 16:59:55 +0100
From:   Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
To:     John Ogness <john.ogness@...utronix.de>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky.work@...il.com>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Andrea Parri <andrea.parri@...rulasolutions.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Sergey Senozhatsky <sergey.senozhatsky@...il.com>,
        Brendan Higgins <brendanhiggins@...gle.com>,
        kexec@...ts.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v5 1/3] printk-rb: new printk ringbuffer
 implementation (writer)

On Mon 2019-12-02 16:48:41, Petr Mladek wrote:
> > +/* Reserve a new descriptor, invalidating the oldest if necessary. */
> > +static bool desc_reserve(struct printk_ringbuffer *rb, u32 *id_out)
> > +{
> > +	struct prb_desc_ring *desc_ring = &rb->desc_ring;
> > +	struct prb_desc *desc;
> > +	u32 id_prev_wrap;
> > +	u32 head_id;
> > +	u32 id;
> > +
> > +	head_id = atomic_read(&desc_ring->head_id);
> > +
> > +	do {
> > +		desc = to_desc(desc_ring, head_id);
> > +
> > +		id = DESC_ID(head_id + 1);
> > +		id_prev_wrap = DESC_ID_PREV_WRAP(desc_ring, id);
> > +
> > +		if (id_prev_wrap == atomic_read(&desc_ring->tail_id)) {
> > +			if (!desc_push_tail(rb, id_prev_wrap))
> > +				return false;
> > +		}
> > +	} while (!atomic_try_cmpxchg(&desc_ring->head_id, &head_id, id));
> 
> Hmm, in theory, ABA problem might cause that we successfully
> move desc_ring->head_id when tail has not been pushed yet.
> 
> As a result we would never call desc_push_tail() until
> it overflows again.
> 
> I am not sure if we need to take care of it. The code is called with
> interrupts disabled. IMHO, only NMI could cause ABA problem
> in reality. But the game (debugging) is lost anyway when NMI ovewrites
> the buffer several times.

BTW: If I am counting correctly. The ABA problem would happen when
exactly 2^30 (1G) messages is written in the mean time.

> Also it should not be a complete failure. We still could bail out when
> the previous state was not reusable. We are on the safe side
> when it was reusable.
> 
> Also we could probably detect when desc_ring->tail_id is not
> updated any longer and do something about it.
> 
> > +
> > +	desc = to_desc(desc_ring, id);
> > +
> > +	/* Set the descriptor's ID and also set its state to reserved. */
> > +	atomic_set(&desc->state_var, id | 0);
> 
> We should check here that the original state id from the previous
> wrap in reusable state (or 0 for bootstrap). On error, we know that
> there was the ABA problem and would need to do something about it.

I believe that it should be enough to add this check and
bail out in case of error.

Best Regards,
Petr