Re: [PATCH RFC] sysrq: rcu-ify __handle_sysrq

From: Jiri Kosina
Date: Wed Apr 23 2014 - 17:44:53 EST


On Wed, 23 Apr 2014, Andrew Morton wrote:

> > > > Echoing values into /proc/sysrq-trigger seems to be a popular way to
> > > > get information out of the kernel. However, dumping information about
> > > > thousands of processes, or hundreds of CPUs to serial console can
> > > > result in IRQs being blocked for minutes, resulting in various kinds
> > > > of cascade failures.
> > > >
> > > > The most common failure is due to interrupts being blocked for a very
> > > > long time. This can lead to things like failed IO requests, and other
> > > > things the system cannot easily recover from.
> > >
> > > I bet nobody wants that console output anyway. You do the sysrq then
> > > run dmesg or look in /var/log/messages to see what happened. People
> > > who are experiencing problems such as this should run `dmesg -n 1'
> > > before writing to sysrq-trigger.
> >
> > I don't agree. I have used sysrq-t multiple times in situations where
> > userspace was already dead, but sysrq was still able to provide valuable
> > information about the state of the kernel.
> >
>
> I'm talking about /proc/sysrq-trigger, not the magic key combo.

At the end of the day, that reaches the same __handle_sysrq() codepath,
no?

--
Jiri Kosina
SUSE Labs
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