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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
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| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/locking/futex-requeue-pi.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Fix error output of boot instance creation failure
Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
strsep(). Print the saved name instead.
While at it, print the error code of the failure.
- Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams
Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
histogram and crash the kernel.
Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
data.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test
The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
returned.
- Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size
If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
buffer sub-buffer size.
- Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory
In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.
Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
upon creation.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code
The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.
- Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure
On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
using it.
In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
not free the parent's descriptor.
- Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
failed replacement leaves it at -1.
But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.
- Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error
Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/locking/futex-requeue-pi.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/locking/futex-requeue-pi.rst | 132 |
1 files changed, 132 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/locking/futex-requeue-pi.rst b/Documentation/locking/futex-requeue-pi.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dd4ecf452 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/locking/futex-requeue-pi.rst @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +================ +Futex Requeue PI +================ + +Requeueing of tasks from a non-PI futex to a PI futex requires +special handling in order to ensure the underlying rt_mutex is never +left without an owner if it has waiters; doing so would break the PI +boosting logic [see rt-mutex-design.rst] For the purposes of +brevity, this action will be referred to as "requeue_pi" throughout +this document. Priority inheritance is abbreviated throughout as +"PI". + +Motivation +---------- + +Without requeue_pi, the glibc implementation of +pthread_cond_broadcast() must resort to waking all the tasks waiting +on a pthread_condvar and letting them try to sort out which task +gets to run first in classic thundering-herd formation. An ideal +implementation would wake the highest-priority waiter, and leave the +rest to the natural wakeup inherent in unlocking the mutex +associated with the condvar. + +Consider the simplified glibc calls:: + + /* caller must lock mutex */ + pthread_cond_wait(cond, mutex) + { + lock(cond->__data.__lock); + unlock(mutex); + do { + unlock(cond->__data.__lock); + futex_wait(cond->__data.__futex); + lock(cond->__data.__lock); + } while(...) + unlock(cond->__data.__lock); + lock(mutex); + } + + pthread_cond_broadcast(cond) + { + lock(cond->__data.__lock); + unlock(cond->__data.__lock); + futex_requeue(cond->data.__futex, cond->mutex); + } + +Once pthread_cond_broadcast() requeues the tasks, the cond->mutex +has waiters. Note that pthread_cond_wait() attempts to lock the +mutex only after it has returned to user space. This will leave the +underlying rt_mutex with waiters, and no owner, breaking the +previously mentioned PI-boosting algorithms. + +In order to support PI-aware pthread_condvar's, the kernel needs to +be able to requeue tasks to PI futexes. This support implies that +upon a successful futex_wait system call, the caller would return to +user space already holding the PI futex. The glibc implementation +would be modified as follows:: + + + /* caller must lock mutex */ + pthread_cond_wait_pi(cond, mutex) + { + lock(cond->__data.__lock); + unlock(mutex); + do { + unlock(cond->__data.__lock); + futex_wait_requeue_pi(cond->__data.__futex); + lock(cond->__data.__lock); + } while(...) + unlock(cond->__data.__lock); + /* the kernel acquired the mutex for us */ + } + + pthread_cond_broadcast_pi(cond) + { + lock(cond->__data.__lock); + unlock(cond->__data.__lock); + futex_requeue_pi(cond->data.__futex, cond->mutex); + } + +The actual glibc implementation will likely test for PI and make the +necessary changes inside the existing calls rather than creating new +calls for the PI cases. Similar changes are needed for +pthread_cond_timedwait() and pthread_cond_signal(). + +Implementation +-------------- + +In order to ensure the rt_mutex has an owner if it has waiters, it +is necessary for both the requeue code, as well as the waiting code, +to be able to acquire the rt_mutex before returning to user space. +The requeue code cannot simply wake the waiter and leave it to +acquire the rt_mutex as it would open a race window between the +requeue call returning to user space and the waiter waking and +starting to run. This is especially true in the uncontended case. + +The solution involves two new rt_mutex helper routines, +rt_mutex_start_proxy_lock() and rt_mutex_finish_proxy_lock(), which +allow the requeue code to acquire an uncontended rt_mutex on behalf +of the waiter and to enqueue the waiter on a contended rt_mutex. +Two new system calls provide the kernel<->user interface to +requeue_pi: FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI and FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI. + +FUTEX_WAIT_REQUEUE_PI is called by the waiter (pthread_cond_wait() +and pthread_cond_timedwait()) to block on the initial futex and wait +to be requeued to a PI-aware futex. The implementation is the +result of a high-speed collision between futex_wait() and +futex_lock_pi(), with some extra logic to check for the additional +wake-up scenarios. + +FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI is called by the waker +(pthread_cond_broadcast() and pthread_cond_signal()) to requeue and +possibly wake the waiting tasks. Internally, this system call is +still handled by futex_requeue (by passing requeue_pi=1). Before +requeueing, futex_requeue() attempts to acquire the requeue target +PI futex on behalf of the top waiter. If it can, this waiter is +woken. futex_requeue() then proceeds to requeue the remaining +nr_wake+nr_requeue tasks to the PI futex, calling +rt_mutex_start_proxy_lock() prior to each requeue to prepare the +task as a waiter on the underlying rt_mutex. It is possible that +the lock can be acquired at this stage as well, if so, the next +waiter is woken to finish the acquisition of the lock. + +FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI accepts nr_wake and nr_requeue as arguments, but +their sum is all that really matters. futex_requeue() will wake or +requeue up to nr_wake + nr_requeue tasks. It will wake only as many +tasks as it can acquire the lock for, which in the majority of cases +should be 0 as good programming practice dictates that the caller of +either pthread_cond_broadcast() or pthread_cond_signal() acquire the +mutex prior to making the call. FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI requires that +nr_wake=1. nr_requeue should be INT_MAX for broadcast and 0 for +signal. |
