Re: [PATCH] f2fs: avoid deadlock in gc thread under low memory

From: Jaegeuk Kim
Date: Wed Apr 13 2022 - 22:18:13 EST


On 04/14, Wu Yan wrote:
> On 4/14/22 01:00, Jaegeuk Kim wrote:
> > On 04/13, Rokudo Yan wrote:
> > > There is a potential deadlock in gc thread may happen
> > > under low memory as below:
> > >
> > > gc_thread_func
> > > -f2fs_gc
> > > -do_garbage_collect
> > > -gc_data_segment
> > > -move_data_block
> > > -set_page_writeback(fio.encrypted_page);
> > > -f2fs_submit_page_write
> > > as f2fs_submit_page_write try to do io merge when possible, so the
> > > encrypted_page is marked PG_writeback but may not submit to block
> > > layer immediately, if system enter low memory when gc thread try
> > > to move next data block, it may do direct reclaim and enter fs layer
> > > as below:
> > > -move_data_block
> > > -f2fs_grab_cache_page(index=?, for_write=false)
> > > -grab_cache_page
> > > -find_or_create_page
> > > -pagecache_get_page
> > > -__page_cache_alloc -- __GFP_FS is set
> > > -alloc_pages_node
> > > -__alloc_pages
> > > -__alloc_pages_slowpath
> > > -__alloc_pages_direct_reclaim
> > > -__perform_reclaim
> > > -try_to_free_pages
> > > -do_try_to_free_pages
> > > -shrink_zones
> > > -mem_cgroup_soft_limit_reclaim
> > > -mem_cgroup_soft_reclaim
> > > -mem_cgroup_shrink_node
> > > -shrink_node_memcg
> > > -shrink_list
> > > -shrink_inactive_list
> > > -shrink_page_list
> > > -wait_on_page_writeback -- the page is marked
> > > writeback during previous move_data_block call
> > >
> > > the gc thread wait for the encrypted_page writeback complete,
> > > but as gc thread held sbi->gc_lock, the writeback & sync thread
> > > may blocked waiting for sbi->gc_lock, so the bio contain the
> > > encrypted_page may nerver submit to block layer and complete the
> > > writeback, which cause deadlock. To avoid this deadlock condition,
> > > we mark the gc thread with PF_MEMALLOC_NOFS flag, then it will nerver
> > > enter fs layer when try to alloc cache page during move_data_block.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Rokudo Yan <wu-yan@xxxxxxx>
> > > ---
> > > fs/f2fs/gc.c | 6 ++++++
> > > 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/fs/f2fs/gc.c b/fs/f2fs/gc.c
> > > index e020804f7b07..cc71f77b98c8 100644
> > > --- a/fs/f2fs/gc.c
> > > +++ b/fs/f2fs/gc.c
> > > @@ -38,6 +38,12 @@ static int gc_thread_func(void *data)
> > > wait_ms = gc_th->min_sleep_time;
> > > + /*
> > > + * Make sure that no allocations from gc thread will ever
> > > + * recurse to the fs layer to avoid deadlock as it will
> > > + * hold sbi->gc_lock during garbage collection
> > > + */
> > > + memalloc_nofs_save();
> >
> > I think this cannot cover all the f2fs_gc() call cases. Can we just avoid by:
> >
> > --- a/fs/f2fs/gc.c
> > +++ b/fs/f2fs/gc.c
> > @@ -1233,7 +1233,7 @@ static int move_data_block(struct inode *inode, block_t bidx,
> > CURSEG_ALL_DATA_ATGC : CURSEG_COLD_DATA;
> >
> > /* do not read out */
> > - page = f2fs_grab_cache_page(inode->i_mapping, bidx, false);
> > + page = f2fs_grab_cache_page(inode->i_mapping, bidx, true);
> > if (!page)
> > return -ENOMEM;
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > > set_freezable();
> > > do {
> > > bool sync_mode, foreground = false;
> > > --
> > > 2.25.1
>
> Hi, Jaegeuk
>
> I'm not sure if any other case may trigger the issue, but the stack traces I
> have caught so far are all the same as below:
>
> f2fs_gc-253:12 D 226966.808196 572 302561 150976 0x1200840 0x0 572
> 237207473347056
> <ffffff889d88668c> __switch_to+0x134/0x150
> <ffffff889e764b6c> __schedule+0xd5c/0x1100
> <ffffff889e76554c> io_schedule+0x90/0xc0
> <ffffff889d9fb880> wait_on_page_bit+0x194/0x208
> <ffffff889da167b4> shrink_page_list+0x62c/0xe74
> <ffffff889da1d354> shrink_inactive_list+0x2c0/0x698
> <ffffff889da181f4> shrink_node_memcg+0x3dc/0x97c
> <ffffff889da17d44> mem_cgroup_shrink_node+0x144/0x218
> <ffffff889da6610c> mem_cgroup_soft_limit_reclaim+0x188/0x47c
> <ffffff889da17a40> do_try_to_free_pages+0x204/0x3a0
> <ffffff889da176c8> try_to_free_pages+0x35c/0x4d0
> <ffffff889da05d60> __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x7a4/0x10d0
> <ffffff889d9fc82c> pagecache_get_page+0x184/0x2ec

Is this deadlock trying to grab a lock, instead of waiting for writeback?
Could you share all the backtraces of the tasks?

For writeback above, looking at the code, f2fs_gc uses three mappings, meta,
node, and data, and meta/node inodes are masking GFP_NOFS in f2fs_iget(),
while data inode does not. So, the above f2fs_grab_cache_page() in
move_data_block() is actually calling w/o NOFS.

> <ffffff889dbf8860> do_garbage_collect+0xfe0/0x2828
> <ffffff889dbf7434> f2fs_gc+0x4a0/0x8ec
> <ffffff889dbf6bf4> gc_thread_func+0x240/0x4d4
> <ffffff889d8de9b0> kthread+0x17c/0x18c
> <ffffff889d88567c> ret_from_fork+0x10/0x18
>
> Thanks
> yanwu