Re: mm, oom_reaper: How to handle race with oom_killer_disable() ?

[Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>]

On Fri 10-06-16 23:23:36, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
[...]
>   (1) freeze_processes() starts freezing user space threads.
>   (2) Somebody (maybe a kenrel thread) calls out_of_memory().
>   (3) The OOM killer calls mark_oom_victim() on a user space thread
>       P1 which is already in __refrigerator().
>   (4) oom_killer_disable() sets oom_killer_disabled = true.
>   (5) P1 leaves __refrigerator() and enters do_exit().
>   (6) The OOM reaper calls exit_oom_victim(P1) before P1 can call
>       exit_oom_victim(P1).
>   (7) oom_killer_disable() returns while P1 is not yet frozen
>       again (i.e. not yet marked as PF_FROZEN).
>   (8) P1 perform IO/interfere with the freezer.

You are right. I missed that kernel threads are still alive when writing
e26796066fdf929c ("oom: make oom_reaper freezable").

I am trying to remember why we are disabling oom killer before kernel
threads are frozen but not really sure about that right away. I guess it
has something to do with freeze_kernel_threads being called from
different contexts as well so freeze_processes was just more convinient
and was OK for correctness at the time.

> try_to_freeze_tasks(false) from freeze_kernel_threads() will freeze
> P1 again, but it seems to me that freeze_kernel_threads() is not
> always called when freeze_processes() suceeded.
> 
> Therefore, we need to do like
> 
> -	exit_oom_victim(tsk);
> +	mutex_lock(&oom_lock);
> +	if (!oom_killer_disabled)
> +		exit_oom_victim(tsk);
> +	mutex_unlock(&oom_lock);
> 
> in oom_reap_task(), don't we?

I do not like this very much. I would rather make sure that all
freezable kernel threads are frozen when disabling the oom killer.

[...]

> But we might be able to do like below patch rather than above patch.
> If below approach is OK, "[PATCH 10/10] mm, oom: hide mm which is shared
> with kthread or global init" will be able to call exit_oom_victim() when
> can_oom_reap became false.

I believe this is not really needed. I will follow up on the 10/10
later.
-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs

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