From: Zheng Liu To: linux-bcache@vger.kernel.org Cc: Zheng Liu , Joshua Schmid , Zhu Yanhai , Kent Overstreet Subject: [PATCH v2] bcache: fix a livelock in btree lock Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:32:09 +0800 (02/25/2015 04:32:09 AM) From: Zheng Liu This commit tries to fix a livelock in bcache. This livelock might happen when we causes a huge number of cache misses simultaneously. When we get a cache miss, bcache will execute the following path. ->cached_dev_make_request() ->cached_dev_read() ->cached_lookup() ->bch->btree_map_keys() ->btree_root() <------------------------ ->bch_btree_map_keys_recurse() | ->cache_lookup_fn() | ->cached_dev_cache_miss() | ->bch_btree_insert_check_key() -| [If btree->seq is not equal to seq + 1, we should return EINTR and traverse btree again.] In bch_btree_insert_check_key() function we first need to check upgrade flag (op->lock == -1), and when this flag is true we need to release read btree->lock and try to take write btree->lock. During taking and releasing this write lock, btree->seq will be monotone increased in order to prevent other threads modify this in cache miss (see btree.h:74). But if there are some cache misses caused by some requested, we could meet a livelock because btree->seq is always changed by others. Thus no one can make progress. This commit will try to take write btree->lock if it encounters a race when we traverse btree. Although it sacrifice the scalability but we can ensure that only one can modify the btree. Signed-off-by: Zheng Liu Tested-by: Joshua Schmid Cc: Joshua Schmid Cc: Zhu Yanhai Cc: Kent Overstreet --- changelog: v2: fix a bug that stops all concurrency writes unconditionally. drivers/md/bcache/btree.c | 4 +++- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c b/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c index 218f21a..43829d9 100644 --- a/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c +++ b/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c @@ -2163,8 +2163,10 @@ int bch_btree_insert_check_key(struct btree *b, struct btree_op *op, rw_lock(true, b, b->level); if (b->key.ptr[0] != btree_ptr || - b->seq != seq + 1) + b->seq != seq + 1) { + op->lock = b->level; goto out; + } } SET_KEY_PTRS(check_key, 1);