[PATCH] Fix race in set_max_huge_pages for multiple updaters ofnr_huge_pages

From: Eric Paris
Date: Fri Nov 18 2005 - 12:51:35 EST


If there are multiple updaters to /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
simultaneously it is possible for the nr_huge_pages variable to become
incorrect. There is no locking in the set_max_huge_pages function
around alloc_fresh_huge_page which is able to update nr_huge_pages. Two
callers to alloc_fresh_huge_page could race against each other as could
a call to alloc_fresh_huge_page and a call to update_and_free_page.
This patch just expands the area covered by the hugetlb_lock to cover
the call into alloc_fresh_huge_page. I'm not sure how we could say that
a sysctl section is performance critical where more specific locking
would be needed.

My reproducer was to run a couple copies of the following script
simultaneously

while [ true ]; do
echo 1000 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 500 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 750 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 100 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages
done

and then watch /proc/meminfo and eventually you will see things like

HugePages_Total: 100
HugePages_Free: 109

After applying the patch all seemed well.

Signed-off-by: Eric Paris <eparis@xxxxxxxxxx>
----

hugetlb.c | 10 +++++++---
1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

--- linux-2.6.14.2/mm/hugetlb.c.old
+++ linux-2.6.14.2/mm/hugetlb.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
static struct list_head hugepage_freelists[MAX_NUMNODES];
static unsigned int nr_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
static unsigned int free_huge_pages_node[MAX_NUMNODES];
+/* This lock protects updates to hugepage_freelists, nr_huge_pages, and free_huge_pages */
static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(hugetlb_lock);

static void enqueue_huge_page(struct page *page)
@@ -172,10 +173,13 @@
static unsigned long set_max_huge_pages(unsigned long count)
{
while (count > nr_huge_pages) {
- struct page *page = alloc_fresh_huge_page();
- if (!page)
- return nr_huge_pages;
+ struct page *page;
spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock);
+ page = alloc_fresh_huge_page();
+ if (!page) {
+ spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
+ return nr_huge_pages;
+ }
enqueue_huge_page(page);
spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
}

-
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