Hi,
I had a couple of questions which I'm hoping someone would be kind
enough to explain :)
Andrew Morton wrote:
guys, aplication crashes on million-dollar machines aren't nice. Please review
carefully
and urgently?
Begin forwarded message:
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:16:15 -0600
From: Mike Stroyan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Luck, Tony" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] ia64: race flushing icache in do_no_page path
This is a very similar problem to a copy-on-write cache flushing problem
that Tony Luck fixed in July 2006. In this case the do_no_page function
handles a fault in an executable or library that is mmapped from an
NFS file system. The code is copied into a newly reallocated page.
The lazy_mmu_prot_update() function should be used to flush old entries
from the icache for that page on ia64 processors. But that call is made
after a set_pte_at call that makes the page accessible to other threads
executing the same code. This was seen to cause application crashes
when an OpenMP application ran many threads calling same functions at
the same time. The first thread to reach a page starts to fault in the
new code. One of the other threads overtakes the first and executes old
data from the icache. That could result in bad instructions. It is more
obvious when an old cache line contains prefetched non-instruction bits
that result in an illegal instruction trap.
I wonder how this is different to all the other code which calls
lazy_mmu_prot_update() after set_pte_at(). do_swap_page, for example,
_could_ fault in executable code, couldn't it?
It is because do_swap_page uses flush_icache_page()? So why doesn't
the flush_icache_page() work in do_no_page as well? (It seems to look
like a superset of lazy_mmu_prot_update on ia64?!?).
And while we're looking at flush_icache_page, why is there none in
do_wp_page (I admit, I'm not really up to scratch on d/i cache aliasing
handling, but cachetlb.txt seems to suggest that cow_user_page fits the
description). That is, if we're already trying to cover our butts wrt
SMC, then do_wp_page _could_ be cow'ing executable code, couldn't it?
And for that matter, I admit I don't understand how the icache flushing
can be done lazily, only at change-protection time. Why is any
flush_dcache_page() site not a problem for an _existing_ executable pte
wrt d/i cache aliases?
BTW. while I'm ranting, I hope all this stuff has gone so complex for a
reason, and that being that the alternative simpler approach of more
flushes, less lazy, less complex, less buggy was tested and found to be
noticably slower... :)
The problem has only been seen on montecito processors which have
separate level 2 icache and dcache. This dcache to icache coherency
problem is more likely to occur there because of the much larger level
2 icache. I suspect that the non-NFS case is working because direct
DMA into the new page is making the instruction cache coherent. Any
file system that uses a non-DMA copy into the text page could show the
same problem.
Signed-off-by: Mike Stroyan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
diff --git a/mm/memory.c b/mm/memory.c
index e7066e7..50c8848 100644
--- a/mm/memory.c
+++ b/mm/memory.c
@@ -2291,6 +2291,7 @@ retry:
entry = mk_pte(new_page, vma->vm_page_prot);
if (write_access)
entry = maybe_mkwrite(pte_mkdirty(entry), vma);
+ lazy_mmu_prot_update(entry);
set_pte_at(mm, address, page_table, entry);
if (anon) {
inc_mm_counter(mm, anon_rss);
@@ -2312,7 +2313,6 @@ retry:
/* no need to invalidate: a not-present page shouldn't be cached */
update_mmu_cache(vma, address, entry);
- lazy_mmu_prot_update(entry);
unlock:
pte_unmap_unlock(page_table, ptl);
if (dirty_page) {
--
SUSE Labs, Novell Inc.
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