[PATCH v6 16/16] mm: Use memalloc_nofs_save in readahead path

From: Matthew Wilcox
Date: Mon Feb 17 2020 - 13:49:42 EST


From: "Matthew Wilcox (Oracle)" <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Ensure that memory allocations in the readahead path do not attempt to
reclaim file-backed pages, which could lead to a deadlock. It is
possible, though unlikely this is the root cause of a problem observed
by Cong Wang.

Signed-off-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reported-by: Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@xxxxxxxxx>
Suggested-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>
---
mm/readahead.c | 14 ++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/mm/readahead.c b/mm/readahead.c
index 566693f4e539..ae8abab939a3 100644
--- a/mm/readahead.c
+++ b/mm/readahead.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
#include <linux/mm_inline.h>
#include <linux/blk-cgroup.h>
#include <linux/fadvise.h>
+#include <linux/sched/mm.h>

#include "internal.h"

@@ -157,6 +158,18 @@ void page_cache_readahead_limit(struct address_space *mapping,
._nr_pages = 0,
};

+ /*
+ * Partway through the readahead operation, we will have added
+ * locked pages to the page cache, but will not yet have submitted
+ * them for I/O. Adding another page may need to allocate memory,
+ * which can trigger memory reclaim. Telling the VM we're in
+ * the middle of a filesystem operation will cause it to not
+ * touch file-backed pages, preventing a deadlock. Most (all?)
+ * filesystems already specify __GFP_NOFS in their mapping's
+ * gfp_mask, but let's be explicit here.
+ */
+ unsigned int nofs = memalloc_nofs_save();
+
/*
* Preallocate as many pages as we will need.
*/
@@ -210,6 +223,7 @@ void page_cache_readahead_limit(struct address_space *mapping,
if (readahead_count(&rac))
read_pages(&rac, &page_pool);
BUG_ON(!list_empty(&page_pool));
+ memalloc_nofs_restore(nofs);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(page_cache_readahead_limit);

--
2.25.0