]> err.no Git - linux-2.6/commit
nohz: prevent tick stop outside of the idle loop
authorThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:27:28 +0000 (17:27 +0200)
committerThomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:10:28 +0000 (18:10 +0200)
commitb8f8c3cf0a4ac0632ec3f0e15e9dc0c29de917af
tree183825db00f4e9252603a51a1be6f8874a963dbc
parent857f3fd7a496ddf4329345af65a4a2b16dd25fe8
nohz: prevent tick stop outside of the idle loop

Jack Ren and Eric Miao tracked down the following long standing
problem in the NOHZ code:

scheduler switch to idle task
enable interrupts

Window starts here

----> interrupt happens (does not set NEED_RESCHED)
       irq_exit() stops the tick

----> interrupt happens (does set NEED_RESCHED)

return from schedule()

cpu_idle(): preempt_disable();

Window ends here

The interrupts can happen at any point inside the race window. The
first interrupt stops the tick, the second one causes the scheduler to
rerun and switch away from idle again and we end up with the tick
disabled.

The fact that it needs two interrupts where the first one does not set
NEED_RESCHED and the second one does made the bug obscure and extremly
hard to reproduce and analyse. Kudos to Jack and Eric.

Solution: Limit the NOHZ functionality to the idle loop to make sure
that we can not run into such a situation ever again.

cpu_idle()
{
preempt_disable();

while(1) {
 tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick(1); <- tell NOHZ code that we
            are in the idle loop

 while (!need_resched())
       halt();

 tick_nohz_restart_sched_tick(); <- disables NOHZ mode
 preempt_enable_no_resched();
 schedule();
 preempt_disable();
}
}

In hindsight we should have done this forever, but ...

/me grabs a large brown paperbag.

Debugged-by: Jack Ren <jack.ren@marvell.com>,
Debugged-by: eric miao <eric.y.miao@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
14 files changed:
arch/arm/kernel/process.c
arch/avr32/kernel/process.c
arch/blackfin/kernel/process.c
arch/mips/kernel/process.c
arch/powerpc/kernel/idle.c
arch/powerpc/platforms/iseries/setup.c
arch/sh/kernel/process_32.c
arch/sparc64/kernel/process.c
arch/um/kernel/process.c
arch/x86/kernel/process_32.c
arch/x86/kernel/process_64.c
include/linux/tick.h
kernel/softirq.c
kernel/time/tick-sched.c