Re: [RFC 2/4] mm, page_alloc: fix fast-path race with cpuset update or removal

From: Michal Hocko
Date: Wed Jan 18 2017 - 04:36:41 EST


On Tue 17-01-17 23:16:08, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> Ganapatrao Kulkarni reported that the LTP test cpuset01 in stress mode triggers
> OOM killer in few seconds, despite lots of free memory. The test attemps to
> repeatedly fault in memory in one process in a cpuset, while changing allowed
> nodes of the cpuset between 0 and 1 in another process.
>
> One possible cause is that in the fast path we find the preferred zoneref
> according to current mems_allowed, so that it points to the middle of the
> zonelist, skipping e.g. zones of node 1 completely. If the mems_allowed is
> updated to contain only node 1, we never reach it in the zonelist, and trigger
> OOM before checking the cpuset_mems_cookie.
>
> This patch fixes the particular case by redoing the preferred zoneref search
> if we switch back to the original nodemask. The condition is also slightly
> changed so that when the last non-root cpuset is removed, we don't miss it.

OK, the patch makes sense but longterm we really have to get rid of this
insane switching between masks dances.

> Note that this is not a full fix, and more patches will follow.
>
> Reported-by: Ganapatrao Kulkarni <gpkulkarni@xxxxxxxxx>
> Fixes: 682a3385e773 ("mm, page_alloc: inline the fast path of the zonelist iterator")
> Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>

Acked-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>

> ---
> mm/page_alloc.c | 10 +++++++++-
> 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 593a11d8bc6b..dedadb4a779f 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -3783,9 +3783,17 @@ __alloc_pages_nodemask(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
> /*
> * Restore the original nodemask if it was potentially replaced with
> * &cpuset_current_mems_allowed to optimize the fast-path attempt.
> + * Also recalculate the starting point for the zonelist iterator or
> + * we could end up iterating over non-eligible zones endlessly.
> */
> - if (cpusets_enabled())
> + if (unlikely(ac.nodemask != nodemask)) {
> ac.nodemask = nodemask;
> + ac.preferred_zoneref = first_zones_zonelist(ac.zonelist,
> + ac.high_zoneidx, ac.nodemask);
> + if (!ac.preferred_zoneref->zone)
> + goto no_zone;
> + }
> +
> page = __alloc_pages_slowpath(alloc_mask, order, &ac);
>
> no_zone:
> --
> 2.11.0

--
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs