[Devel] Race in memcg kmem?

[Vladimir Davydov]

On 12/12/2013 05:21 PM, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Wed 11-12-13 10:22:06, Vladimir Davydov wrote:
>> On 12/11/2013 03:13 AM, Glauber Costa wrote:
>>> On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 5:59 PM, Vladimir Davydov
> [...]
>>>> -- memcg_update_cache_size(s, num_groups) --
>>>> grows s->memcg_params to accomodate data for num_groups memcg's
>>>> @s is the root cache whose memcg_params we want to grow
>>>> @num_groups is the new number of kmem-active cgroups (defines the new
>>>> size of memcg_params array).
>>>>
>>>> The function:
>>>>
>>>> B1) allocates and assigns a new cache:
>>>>     cur_params = s->memcg_params;
>>>>     s->memcg_params = kzalloc(size, GFP_KERNEL);
>>>>
>>>> B2) copies per-memcg cache ptrs from the old memcg_params array to the
>>>> new one:
>>>>     for (i = 0; i < memcg_limited_groups_array_size; i++) {
>>>>         if (!cur_params->memcg_caches[i])
>>>>             continue;
>>>>         s->memcg_params->memcg_caches[i] =
>>>>                     cur_params->memcg_caches[i];
>>>>     }
>>>>
>>>> B3) frees the old array:
>>>>     kfree(cur_params);
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Since these two functions do not share any mutexes, we can get the
>>> They do share a mutex, the slab mutex.
> Worth sticking in a lock_dep_assert?

AFAIU, lockdep_assert_held() is not applicable here:
memcg_create_kmem_cache() is called w/o the slab_mutex held, but it
calls kmem_cache_create_kmemcg(), which takes and releases this mutex,
working as a barrier. Placing lockdep_assert_held() into the latter
won't make things any clearer. IMO, we need a big good comment in
memcg_create_kmem_cache() proving its correctness.

Thanks.