Re: A possible sys_wait* bug

From: KOSAKI Motohiro
Date: Fri Jul 02 2010 - 02:18:19 EST


> On 07/01, KOSAKI Motohiro wrote:
> >
> > > Basically, it is possibly for readers to continuously hold
> > > tasklist_lock
>
> Yes, this is the known problem.
>
> Perhaps do_wait() is not the worst example. sys_kill(-1),
> sys_ioprio_set() scan the global list.

Ah, I see.
Yup, Roland also pointed out this is NOT biggest risk, there are much
other way. My thinking coverage was too narrow. sorry.


> > > I think the most direct approach to the problem is to have the
> > > readers-writer locks be writer biased (i.e. as soon as a writer
> > > contends, we do not permit any new readers).
>
> I thought about this too, but this is deadlockable. At least,
> read_lock(tasklist) should nest, and it should work in irq context.
>
> We need the more fine-grained locking, but it is not clear to me what
> should be done in the long term. Afaics, this is very nontrivial.

Thank you for kindful explanation.


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