Message-ID: <87bjlre6i7.fsf@toke.dk>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:10:40 +0100
From: Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@...hat.com>
To: Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@...nel.org>, netdev@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@...nel.org>, Eric Dumazet
 <eric.dumazet@...il.com>, "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>, Jakub
 Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>,
 ihor.solodrai@...ux.dev, "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>,
 makita.toshiaki@....ntt.co.jp, toshiaki.makita1@...il.com,
 bpf@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org, kernel-team@...udflare.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH net V2 2/2] veth: more robust handing of race to avoid
 txq getting stuck

Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@...nel.org> writes:

> Commit dc82a33297fc ("veth: apply qdisc backpressure on full ptr_ring to
> reduce TX drops") introduced a race condition that can lead to a permanently
> stalled TXQ. This was observed in production on ARM64 systems (Ampere Altra
> Max).
>
> The race occurs in veth_xmit(). The producer observes a full ptr_ring and
> stops the queue (netif_tx_stop_queue()). The subsequent conditional logic,
> intended to re-wake the queue if the consumer had just emptied it (if
> (__ptr_ring_empty(...)) netif_tx_wake_queue()), can fail. This leads to a
> "lost wakeup" where the TXQ remains stopped (QUEUE_STATE_DRV_XOFF) and
> traffic halts.
>
> This failure is caused by an incorrect use of the __ptr_ring_empty() API
> from the producer side. As noted in kernel comments, this check is not
> guaranteed to be correct if a consumer is operating on another CPU. The
> empty test is based on ptr_ring->consumer_head, making it reliable only for
> the consumer. Using this check from the producer side is fundamentally racy.
>
> This patch fixes the race by adopting the more robust logic from an earlier
> version V4 of the patchset, which always flushed the peer:
>
> (1) In veth_xmit(), the racy conditional wake-up logic and its memory barrier
> are removed. Instead, after stopping the queue, we unconditionally call
> __veth_xdp_flush(rq). This guarantees that the NAPI consumer is scheduled,
> making it solely responsible for re-waking the TXQ.
>
> (2) On the consumer side, the logic for waking the peer TXQ is moved out of
> veth_xdp_rcv() and placed at the end of the veth_poll() function. This
> placement is part of fixing the race, as the netif_tx_queue_stopped() check
> must occur after rx_notify_masked is potentially set to false during NAPI
> completion.
>  This handles the race where veth_poll() consumes all packets and completes
> NAPI before veth_xmit() on the producer side has called netif_tx_stop_queue().
> In this state, the producer's __veth_xdp_flush(rq) call will see
> rx_notify_masked is false and reschedule NAPI. This new NAPI poll, even if it
> processes no packets, is now guaranteed to run the netif_tx_queue_stopped()
> check, see the stopped queue, and wake it up, allowing veth_xmit() to proceed.
>
> (3) Finally, the NAPI completion check in veth_poll() is updated. If NAPI is
> about to complete (napi_complete_done), it now also checks if the peer TXQ
> is stopped. If the ring is empty but the peer TXQ is stopped, NAPI will
> reschedule itself. This prevents a new race where the producer stops the
> queue just as the consumer is finishing its poll, ensuring the wakeup is not
> missed.
>
> Fixes: dc82a33297fc ("veth: apply qdisc backpressure on full ptr_ring to reduce TX drops")
> Signed-off-by: Jesper Dangaard Brouer <hawk@...nel.org>

Reviewed-by: Toke Høiland-Jørgensen <toke@...hat.com>

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