[PATCH] sched: protect calculation of max_pull from integer wrap

From: Peter Williams
Date: Sun Mar 26 2006 - 20:18:50 EST


Problem:

As the comment above the calculation of max_pull in the function states, there is a need to ensure that negative results of the subtractions do not wrap around to large numbers. This has not been implemented for the (max_load - busiest_load_per_task) expression and the possible consequences are for undesirable movement of tasks from one group to another group. E.g. consider a numa system with two nodes, each
node containing four processors. If there are two processes in node-0 and with node-1 being completely idle, one of those processes will be moved to node-1 whereas the desired behavior is to retain those two processes in node-0.

Fix:

Make sure that max_load is greater than busiest_load_per_task before making the calculation. If it isn't max_pull will be zero and we skip directly to out_balanced.

Signed-off-by: Peter Williams <pwil3058@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

--
Peter Williams pwil3058@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious."
-- Ambrose Bierce
Index: MM-2.6.X/kernel/sched.c
===================================================================
--- MM-2.6.X.orig/kernel/sched.c 2006-03-27 11:07:52.000000000 +1100
+++ MM-2.6.X/kernel/sched.c 2006-03-27 12:08:47.000000000 +1100
@@ -2179,6 +2179,8 @@ find_busiest_group(struct sched_domain *
* by pulling tasks to us. Be careful of negative numbers as they'll
* appear as very large values with unsigned longs.
*/
+ if (max_load <= busiest_load_per_task)
+ goto out_balanced;

/* Don't want to pull so many tasks that a group would go idle */
max_pull = min(max_load - avg_load, max_load - busiest_load_per_task);