Re: [PATCH] tick/broadcast: Plug clockevents replacement race

[Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>]

Le Mon, Aug 12, 2024 at 04:19:48PM +0200, Thomas Gleixner a écrit :
> 朱恺乾 reported and decoded the following race condition when a broadcast
> device is replaced:
> 
> CPUA					CPUB
>  __tick_broadcast_oneshot_control()
>    bc = tick_broadcast_device.evtdev;
> 					tick_install_broadcast_device(dev)
>         				clockevents_exchange_device(cur, dev)
> 					   shutdown(cur);
> 					   detach(cur);
> 					   cur->handler = noop;
> 					   tick_broadcast_device.evtdev = dev;
> 
>   tick_broadcast_set_event(bc, next_event); <- FAIL: arms a detached device.
> 
> If the original broadcast device has a restricted interrupt affinity mask
> and the last CPU in that mask goes offline then the BUG() in
> tick_cleanup_dead_cpu() triggers because the clockevent device is not in
> detached state.
> 
> The reason for this is that tick_install_broadcast_device() is not
> serialized vs. tick broadcast operations.
> 
> The obvious cure is to serialize tick_install_broadcast_device() with
> tick_broadcast_lock against a concurrent tick broadcast operation.
> 
> That requires to split clockevents_exchange_device() into two parts, one
> which does the exchange, shutdown and detach operation and the other which
> drops the module reference count. This is required because the module
> reference cannot be dropped while holding tick_broadcast_lock.

The reason why the module reference can not be dropped while holding
tick_broadcast_lock is not obvious though. What can go wrong?

Thanks.