From: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: mingo@elte.hu, laijs@cn.fujitsu.com, dipankar@in.ibm.com,
akpm@linux-foundation.org, mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca,
josh@joshtriplett.org, niv@us.ibm.com, tglx@linutronix.de,
peterz@infradead.org, rostedt@goodmis.org,
Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, dhowells@redhat.com,
eric.dumazet@gmail.com,
"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 1/8] rcu: upgrade stallwarn.txt documentation for CPU-bound RT processes
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:50:46 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1285203053-22068-1-git-send-email-paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20100923005033.GA22006@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
CPU-bound real-time processes can cause RCU CPU stall warnings, and
much other trouble as well. Document the fact that they can cause
RCU CPU stall warnings.
Suggested-by: Darren Hart <dvhltc@us.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
---
Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt
index 44c6dcc..862c08e 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt
@@ -80,6 +80,24 @@ o A CPU looping with bottom halves disabled. This condition can
o For !CONFIG_PREEMPT kernels, a CPU looping anywhere in the kernel
without invoking schedule().
+o A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT kernel, which might
+ happen to preempt a low-priority task in the middle of an RCU
+ read-side critical section. This is especially damaging if
+ that low-priority task is not permitted to run on any other CPU,
+ in which case the next RCU grace period can never complete, which
+ will eventually cause the system to run out of memory and hang.
+ While the system is in the process of running itself out of
+ memory, you might see stall-warning messages.
+
+o A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT kernel that
+ is running at a higher priority than the RCU softirq threads.
+ This will prevent RCU callbacks from ever being invoked,
+ and in a CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernel will further prevent
+ RCU grace periods from ever completing. Either way, the
+ system will eventually run out of memory and hang. In the
+ CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU case, you might see stall-warning
+ messages.
+
o A bug in the RCU implementation.
o A hardware failure. This is quite unlikely, but has occurred
--
1.7.0.6
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2010-09-23 0:51 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-09-23 0:50 [PATCH tip/core/rcu 0/8] random RCU fixes and updates Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` Paul E. McKenney [this message]
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 2/8] rcu: performance fixes to TINY_PREEMPT_RCU callback checking Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 3/8] rcu: fix _oddness handling of verbose stall warnings Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 4/8] kernel: Removing undead ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 5/8] rcu: only one evaluation of arg in rcu_dereference_check() unless sparse Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 13:13 ` Arnd Bergmann
2010-09-23 17:23 ` Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 6/8] rcu: fix sparse errors in rcutorture.c Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 7/8] rcu: Add tracing data to support queueing models Paul E. McKenney
2010-09-23 0:50 ` [PATCH tip/core/rcu 8/8] rcu: Add advice to PROVE_RCU_REPEATEDLY kernel config parameter Paul E. McKenney
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=1285203053-22068-1-git-send-email-paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com \
--to=paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com \
--cc=Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu \
--cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=dhowells@redhat.com \
--cc=dipankar@in.ibm.com \
--cc=eric.dumazet@gmail.com \
--cc=josh@joshtriplett.org \
--cc=laijs@cn.fujitsu.com \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca \
--cc=mingo@elte.hu \
--cc=niv@us.ibm.com \
--cc=peterz@infradead.org \
--cc=rostedt@goodmis.org \
--cc=tglx@linutronix.de \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox
all inboxes | Powered by JetHome®