fix shrink_dcache_parent() livelock

Two (or more) concurrent calls of shrink_dcache_parent() on the same dentry may
cause shrink_dcache_parent() to loop forever.

Here's what appears to happen:

1 - CPU0: select_parent(P) finds C and puts it on dispose list, returns 1

2 - CPU1: select_parent(P) locks P->d_lock

3 - CPU0: shrink_dentry_list() locks C->d_lock
   dentry_kill(C) tries to lock P->d_lock but fails, unlocks C->d_lock

4 - CPU1: select_parent(P) locks C->d_lock,
         moves C from dispose list being processed on CPU0 to the new
dispose list, returns 1

5 - CPU0: shrink_dentry_list() finds dispose list empty, returns

6 - Goto 2 with CPU0 and CPU1 switched

Basically select_parent() steals the dentry from shrink_dentry_list() and thinks
it found a new one, causing shrink_dentry_list() to think it's making progress
and loop over and over.

One way to trigger this is to make udev calls stat() on the sysfs file while it
is going away.

Having a file in /lib/udev/rules.d/ with only this one rule seems to the trick:

ATTR{vendor}=="0x8086", ATTR{device}=="0x10ca", ENV{PCI_SLOT_NAME}="%k", ENV{MATCHADDR}="$attr{address}", RUN+="/bin/true"

Then execute the following loop:

while true; do
        echo -bond0 > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters
        echo +bond0 > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters
        echo -bond1 > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters
        echo +bond1 > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters
done

One fix would be to check all callers and prevent concurrent calls to
shrink_dcache_parent().  But I think a better solution is to stop the
stealing behavior.

This patch adds a new dentry flag that is set when the dentry is added to the
dispose list.  The flag is cleared in dentry_lru_del() in case the dentry gets a
new reference just before being pruned.

If the dentry has this flag, select_parent() will skip it and let
shrink_dentry_list() retry pruning it.  With select_parent() skipping those
dentries there will not be the appearance of progress (new dentries found) when
there is none, hence shrink_dcache_parent() will not loop forever.

Set the flag is also set in prune_dcache_sb() for consistency as suggested by
Linus.

Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@suse.cz>
CC: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/fs/dcache.c b/fs/dcache.c
index 3c6d3113a255..616fedff011a 100644
--- a/fs/dcache.c
+++ b/fs/dcache.c
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@ static void dentry_lru_add(struct dentry *dentry)
 static void __dentry_lru_del(struct dentry *dentry)
 {
         list_del_init(&dentry->d_lru);
+        dentry->d_flags &= ~DCACHE_SHRINK_LIST;
         dentry->d_sb->s_nr_dentry_unused--;
         dentry_stat.nr_unused--;
 }
@@ -806,6 +807,7 @@ relock:
                         spin_unlock(&dentry->d_lock);
                 } else {
                         list_move_tail(&dentry->d_lru, &tmp);
+                        dentry->d_flags |= DCACHE_SHRINK_LIST;
                         spin_unlock(&dentry->d_lock);
                         if (!--count)
                                 break;
@@ -1097,14 +1099,19 @@ resume:
 
                 /*
                  * move only zero ref count dentries to the dispose list.
+                 *
+                 * Those which are presently on the shrink list, being processed
+                 * by shrink_dentry_list(), shouldn't be moved.  Otherwise the
+                 * loop in shrink_dcache_parent() might not make any progress
+                 * and loop forever.
                  */
-                if (!dentry->d_count) {
+                if (dentry->d_count) {
+                        dentry_lru_del(dentry);
+                } else if (!(dentry->d_flags & DCACHE_SHRINK_LIST)) {
                         dentry_lru_move_list(dentry, dispose);
+                        dentry->d_flags |= DCACHE_SHRINK_LIST;
                         found++;
-                } else {
-                        dentry_lru_del(dentry);
                 }
-
                 /*
                  * We can return to the caller if we have found some (this
                  * ensures forward progress). We'll be coming back to find