[3.19.y-ckt stable] Patch "bcache: fix a livelock when we cause a huge number of cache misses" has been added to the 3.19.y-ckt tree

[Kamal Mostafa]

This is a note to let you know that I have just added a patch titled

    bcache: fix a livelock when we cause a huge number of cache misses

to the linux-3.19.y-queue branch of the 3.19.y-ckt extended stable tree 
which can be found at:

    http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git/ubuntu/linux.git/log/?h=linux-3.19.y-queue

This patch is scheduled to be released in version 3.19.8-ckt14.

If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to this tree, please 
reply to this email.

For more information about the 3.19.y-ckt tree, see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Dev/ExtendedStable

Thanks.
-Kamal

---8<------------------------------------------------------------

>From 863fc2798421553ebee6b9166209d0046b5b4ea6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Zheng Liu <gnehzuil.liu at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2015 17:17:05 -0800
Subject: bcache: fix a livelock when we cause a huge number of cache misses

commit 2ef9ccbfcb90cf84bdba320a571b18b05c41101b upstream.

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)

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 <wenqing.lz at taobao.com>
Tested-by: Joshua Schmid <jschmid at suse.com>
Tested-by: Eric Wheeler <bcache at linux.ewheeler.net>
Cc: Joshua Schmid <jschmid at suse.com>
Cc: Zhu Yanhai <zhu.yanhai at gmail.com>
Cc: Kent Overstreet <kmo at daterainc.com>
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe at fb.com>
Signed-off-by: Kamal Mostafa <kamal at canonical.com>
---
 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 00cde40..9aaa8f8 100644
--- a/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c
+++ b/drivers/md/bcache/btree.c
@@ -2162,8 +2162,10 @@ 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);
--
1.9.1