Re: [PATCH] sched: fix infinity loop in update_blocked_averages

From: Vincent Guittot
Date: Fri Dec 28 2018 - 04:30:25 EST


On Fri, 28 Dec 2018 at 03:02, Tejun Heo <tj@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 05:53:52PM -0800, Tejun Heo wrote:
> > Vincent knows that part way better than me but I think the safest way
> > would be doing the optimization removal iff tmp_alone_branch is
> > already pointing to leaf_cfs_rq_list. IIUC, it's pointing to
> > something else only while a branch is being built and deferring
> > optimization removal by an avg update cycle isn't gonna make any
> > difference anyway.

But the lock should not be released during the build of a branch and
tmp_alone_branch must always points to rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list at the end
and before the lock is released

I think that there is a bigger problem with commit a9e7f6544b9c and
cfs_rq throttling:
Let take the example of the following topology TG2 --> TG1 --> root
1-The 1st time a task is enqueued, we will add TG2 cfs_rq then TG1
cfs_rq to leaf_cfs_rq_list and we are sure to do the whole branch in
one path because it has never been used and can't be throttled so
tmp_alone_branch will point to leaf_cfs_rq_list at the end.
2-Then TG1 is throttled
3-and we add TG3 as a new child of TG1.
4-The 1st enqueue of a task on TG3 will add TG3 cfs_rq just before TG1
cfs_rq and tmp_alone_branch will stay on rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list.

With commit a9e7f6544b9c, we can del a cfs_rq from
rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list. So if the load of TG1 cfs_rq becomes null before
step 2 above, TG1 cfs_rq is removed from the list.
Then at step 4, TG3 cfs_rq is added at the beg of rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list
but tmp_alone_branch still points to TG3 cfs_rq because its throttled
parent can't be enqueued when the lock is released
tmp_alone_branch doesn't point to rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list whereas it should.

so if TG3 cfs_rq is removed or destroyed before tmp_alone_branch
points on another TG cfs_rq, the next TG cfs_rq that will be added,
will be linked outside rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list

In addition, we can break the ordering of the cfs_rq in
rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list but this ordering is used to update and
propagate the update from leaf down to root.

>
> So, something like the following. Xie, can you see whether the
> following patch resolves the problem?
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> index d1907506318a..88b9118b5191 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> @@ -7698,7 +7698,8 @@ static void update_blocked_averages(int cpu)
> * There can be a lot of idle CPU cgroups. Don't let fully
> * decayed cfs_rqs linger on the list.
> */
> - if (cfs_rq_is_decayed(cfs_rq))
> + if (cfs_rq_is_decayed(cfs_rq) &&
> + rq->tmp_alone_branch == &rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list)
> list_del_leaf_cfs_rq(cfs_rq);

This patch reduces the cases but I don't thinks it's enough because it
doesn't cover the case of unregister_fair_sched_group()
And we can still break the ordering of the cfs_rq

>
> /* Don't need periodic decay once load/util_avg are null */