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Stupid futex question - 2.6.33-rc7-mmotm0210

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Valdis.K...@vt.edu

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Feb 18, 2010, 9:10:03 AM2/18/10
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Kernel: x86_64 2.6.33-rc7-mmotm0210

I'm debugging a problem where pulseaudio is getting killed with a SIGKILL
out of the blue. It appears to be a problem where pulseaudio sets
RLIMIT_RTTIME and the bound gets exceeded. Analysis with 'top' shows
a short spike of 96% system time, and the tail end of strace shows this:

[pid 25065] 01:50:20.371484 ioctl(28, USBDEVFS_CONTROL, 0x7fd3d76f630c) = 0 <0.000015>
[pid 25065] 01:50:20.371548 ioctl(28, 0x40045532, 0x7fd3d76f636c) = 0 <0.000016>
[pid 25065] 01:50:20.371611 open("/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p", O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC <unfinished ...>
[pid 25064] 01:50:20.371678 <... write resumed> ) = 8 <0.002104>
[pid 25064] 01:50:20.371718 futex(0xc2ec00, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 0, NULL <unfinished ...>
[pid 25066] 01:50:21.408392 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
PANIC: handle_group_exit: 25066 leader 25064
[pid 25065] 01:50:21.408442 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
PANIC: handle_group_exit: 25065 leader 25064
01:50:21.420354 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++

thread 25064 apparently gets gunned down due to RTTIME because it spent a whole
second in a futex() call - is it reasonable for futex() to not return for that
long?

In other words - kernel bug because futex() should return, or pulseaudio bug
for not understanding futex() can snooze a while?

If a kernel bug, anybody got a better idea than nuking the RLIMIT_RTTIME call,
waiting for it to repeat (takes between 1 minute and 1 hour or so), and
whomping it a few times with sysrq-T?

Peter Zijlstra

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Feb 18, 2010, 9:40:01 AM2/18/10
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is that second spend in processing sysrq-t?

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Valdis.K...@vt.edu

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Feb 18, 2010, 11:50:02 AM2/18/10
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(Adding some cc: to the list)

No, currently that second is spent in a futex() syscall - I'm wondering:

1) should it get killed for RLIMIT_RTTIME because it's been in a futex()
for multiple seconds? It seems suspicious - docs say a blocking syscall
resets RTTIME - so if futex() blocks it shouldn't kill, and if it's in the
kernel for a second without blocking it's a bug too.

2) Is sysrq-T my best bet here, or should I be trying something else first?

Peter Zijlstra

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Feb 18, 2010, 12:10:02 PM2/18/10
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On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 11:42 -0500, Valdis.K...@vt.edu wrote:

> 1) should it get killed for RLIMIT_RTTIME because it's been in a futex()
> for multiple seconds? It seems suspicious - docs say a blocking syscall
> resets RTTIME - so if futex() blocks it shouldn't kill, and if it's in the
> kernel for a second without blocking it's a bug too.

sys_futex() shouldn't be taking that long indeed, and if its not caused
by the sysrq interrupt then something funny is going on indeed.

You could poke around in kernel/futex.c:futex_wait() to see where it
thinks its spending it time? There's a single retry loop in there, maybe
instrument that to see if its retrying too many times..

Thomas Gleixner

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Feb 18, 2010, 1:50:02 PM2/18/10
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On Thu, 18 Feb 2010, Valdis.K...@vt.edu wrote:
> (Adding some cc: to the list)
>
> On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:37:59 +0100, Peter Zijlstra said:
> > On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 09:04 -0500, Valdis.K...@vt.edu wrote:
> > > Kernel: x86_64 2.6.33-rc7-mmotm0210
> > >
> > > I'm debugging a problem where pulseaudio is getting killed with a SIGKILL
> > > out of the blue. It appears to be a problem where pulseaudio sets
> > > RLIMIT_RTTIME and the bound gets exceeded. Analysis with 'top' shows
> > > a short spike of 96% system time, and the tail end of strace shows this:
> > >
> > > [pid 25065] 01:50:20.371484 ioctl(28, USBDEVFS_CONTROL, 0x7fd3d76f630c) = 0 <0.000015>
> > > [pid 25065] 01:50:20.371548 ioctl(28, 0x40045532, 0x7fd3d76f636c) = 0 <0.000016>
> > > [pid 25065] 01:50:20.371611 open("/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p", O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC <unfinished ...>
> > > [pid 25064] 01:50:20.371678 <... write resumed> ) = 8 <0.002104>
> > > [pid 25064] 01:50:20.371718 futex(0xc2ec00, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 0, NULL <unfinished ...>
> > > [pid 25066] 01:50:21.408392 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
> > > PANIC: handle_group_exit: 25066 leader 25064
> > > [pid 25065] 01:50:21.408442 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
> > > PANIC: handle_group_exit: 25065 leader 25064
> > > 01:50:21.420354 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
> > >
> > > thread 25064 apparently gets gunned down due to RTTIME because it spent a whole
> > > second in a futex() call - is it reasonable for futex() to not return for that
> > > long?

Well, it's in futex_wait(). If nothing unlocks the futex, then it
stays there forever.



> > > In other words - kernel bug because futex() should return, or pulseaudio bug
> > > for not understanding futex() can snooze a while?
> > >
> > > If a kernel bug, anybody got a better idea than nuking the RLIMIT_RTTIME call,
> > > waiting for it to repeat (takes between 1 minute and 1 hour or so), and
> > > whomping it a few times with sysrq-T?
> >
> > is that second spend in processing sysrq-t?
>
> No, currently that second is spent in a futex() syscall - I'm wondering:
>
> 1) should it get killed for RLIMIT_RTTIME because it's been in a futex()
> for multiple seconds? It seems suspicious - docs say a blocking syscall
> resets RTTIME - so if futex() blocks it shouldn't kill, and if it's in the
> kernel for a second without blocking it's a bug too.

If it schedules out, then the RLIMIT_RTTIME should not be hit.

There are several possibilities why this happens:

- the futex code has a bug which causes it to busy loop
- the rlimit code is wreckaged

> 2) Is sysrq-T my best bet here, or should I be trying something else first?

Can you enable the function tracer and check whether it reproduces
with the function tracer. If yes, then we can put a tracing_off() into
the code which handles the rlimit, so we can see in the trace what
happened before it triggered.

Thanks,

tglx

Darren Hart

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Feb 18, 2010, 11:10:02 PM2/18/10
to
Valdis.K...@vt.edu wrote:
> Kernel: x86_64 2.6.33-rc7-mmotm0210
>
> I'm debugging a problem where pulseaudio is getting killed with a SIGKILL
> out of the blue. It appears to be a problem where pulseaudio sets
> RLIMIT_RTTIME and the bound gets exceeded. Analysis with 'top' shows
> a short spike of 96% system time, and the tail end of strace shows this:
>
> [pid 25065] 01:50:20.371484 ioctl(28, USBDEVFS_CONTROL, 0x7fd3d76f630c) = 0 <0.000015>
> [pid 25065] 01:50:20.371548 ioctl(28, 0x40045532, 0x7fd3d76f636c) = 0 <0.000016>
> [pid 25065] 01:50:20.371611 open("/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p", O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC <unfinished ...>
> [pid 25064] 01:50:20.371678 <... write resumed> ) = 8 <0.002104>
> [pid 25064] 01:50:20.371718 futex(0xc2ec00, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 0, NULL <unfinished ...>

So it received the signal and the task waiting in
sys_futex(FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE...) wakes up to handle the signal and
return right? What do you see here that suggests the task is spinning
inside the futex syscall?

This is a non-rt kernel right? So spinning could occur on the hash
bucket lock if something else is really horked. That seems unlikely.

> [pid 25066] 01:50:21.408392 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
> PANIC: handle_group_exit: 25066 leader 25064
> [pid 25065] 01:50:21.408442 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
> PANIC: handle_group_exit: 25065 leader 25064
> 01:50:21.420354 +++ killed by SIGKILL +++
>
> thread 25064 apparently gets gunned down due to RTTIME because it spent a whole
> second in a futex() call - is it reasonable for futex() to not return for that
> long?

Certainly if a corresponding FUTEX_WAKE op was not sent.

--
Darrem

> In other words - kernel bug because futex() should return, or pulseaudio bug
> for not understanding futex() can snooze a while?

> If a kernel bug, anybody got a better idea than nuking the RLIMIT_RTTIME call,
> waiting for it to repeat (takes between 1 minute and 1 hour or so), and
> whomping it a few times with sysrq-T?
>


--
Darren Hart
IBM Linux Technology Center
Real-Time Linux Team

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