|
Patch series "use per-vma locks for /proc/pid/maps reads", v8.
Reading /proc/pid/maps requires read-locking mmap_lock which prevents any
other task from concurrently modifying the address space. This guarantees
coherent reporting of virtual address ranges, however it can block
important updates from happening. Oftentimes /proc/pid/maps readers are
low priority monitoring tasks and them blocking high priority tasks
results in priority inversion.
Locking the entire address space is required to present fully coherent
picture of the address space, however even current implementation does not
strictly guarantee that by outputting vmas in page-size chunks and
dropping mmap_lock in between each chunk. Address space modifications are
possible while mmap_lock is dropped and userspace reading the content is
expected to deal with possible concurrent address space modifications.
Considering these relaxed rules, holding mmap_lock is not strictly needed
as long as we can guarantee that a concurrently modified vma is reported
either in its original form or after it was modified.
This patchset switches from holding mmap_lock while reading /proc/pid/maps
to taking per-vma locks as we walk the vma tree. This reduces the
contention with tasks modifying the address space because they would have
to contend for the same vma as opposed to the entire address space.
Previous version of this patchset [1] tried to perform /proc/pid/maps
reading under RCU, however its implementation is quite complex and the
results are worse than the new version because it still relied on
mmap_lock speculation which retries if any part of the address space gets
modified. New implementaion is both simpler and results in less
contention. Note that similar approach would not work for /proc/pid/smaps
reading as it also walks the page table and that's not RCU-safe.
Paul McKenney's designed a test [2] to measure mmap/munmap latencies while
concurrently reading /proc/pid/maps. The test has a pair of processes
scanning /proc/PID/maps, and another process unmapping and remapping 4K
pages from a 128MB range of anonymous memory. At the end of each 10
second run, the latency of each mmap() or munmap() operation is measured,
and for each run the maximum and mean latency is printed. The map/unmap
process is started first, its PID is passed to the scanners, and then the
map/unmap process waits until both scanners are running before starting
its timed test. The scanners keep scanning until the specified
/proc/PID/maps file disappears.
The latest results from Paul:
Stock mm-unstable, all of the runs had maximum latencies in excess of 0.5
milliseconds, and with 80% of the runs' latencies exceeding a full
millisecond, and ranging up beyond 4 full milliseconds. In contrast, 99%
of the runs with this patch series applied had maximum latencies of less
than 0.5 milliseconds, with the single outlier at only 0.608 milliseconds.
From a median-performance (as opposed to maximum-latency) viewpoint, this
patch series also looks good, with stock mm weighing in at 11 microseconds
and patch series at 6 microseconds, better than a 2x improvement.
Before the change:
./run-proc-vs-map.sh --nsamples 100 --rawdata -- --busyduration 2
0.011 0.008 0.521
0.011 0.008 0.552
0.011 0.008 0.590
0.011 0.008 0.660
...
0.011 0.015 2.987
0.011 0.015 3.038
0.011 0.016 3.431
0.011 0.016 4.707
After the change:
./run-proc-vs-map.sh --nsamples 100 --rawdata -- --busyduration 2
0.006 0.005 0.026
0.006 0.005 0.029
0.006 0.005 0.034
0.006 0.005 0.035
...
0.006 0.006 0.421
0.006 0.006 0.423
0.006 0.006 0.439
0.006 0.006 0.608
The patchset also adds a number of tests to check for /proc/pid/maps data
coherency. They are designed to detect any unexpected data tearing while
performing some common address space modifications (vma split, resize and
remap). Even before these changes, reading /proc/pid/maps might have
inconsistent data because the file is read page-by-page with mmap_lock
being dropped between the pages. An example of user-visible inconsistency
can be that the same vma is printed twice: once before it was modified and
then after the modifications. For example if vma was extended, it might
be found and reported twice. What is not expected is to see a gap where
there should have been a vma both before and after modification. This
patchset increases the chances of such tearing, therefore it's even more
important now to test for unexpected inconsistencies.
In [3] Lorenzo identified the following possible vma merging/splitting
scenarios:
Merges with changes to existing vmas:
1 Merge both - mapping a vma over another one and between two vmas which
can be merged after this replacement;
2. Merge left full - mapping a vma at the end of an existing one and
completely over its right neighbor;
3. Merge left partial - mapping a vma at the end of an existing one and
partially over its right neighbor;
4. Merge right full - mapping a vma before the start of an existing one
and completely over its left neighbor;
5. Merge right partial - mapping a vma before the start of an existing one
and partially over its left neighbor;
Merges without changes to existing vmas:
6. Merge both - mapping a vma into a gap between two vmas which can be
merged after the insertion;
7. Merge left - mapping a vma at the end of an existing one;
8. Merge right - mapping a vma before the start end of an existing one;
Splits
9. Split with new vma at the lower address;
10. Split with new vma at the higher address;
If such merges or splits happen concurrently with the /proc/maps reading
we might report a vma twice, once before the modification and once after
it is modified:
Case 1 might report overwritten and previous vma along with the final
merged vma;
Case 2 might report previous and the final merged vma;
Case 3 might cause us to retry once we detect the temporary gap caused by
shrinking of the right neighbor;
Case 4 might report overritten and the final merged vma;
Case 5 might cause us to retry once we detect the temporary gap caused by
shrinking of the left neighbor;
Case 6 might report previous vma and the gap along with the final marged
vma;
Case 7 might report previous and the final merged vma;
Case 8 might report the original gap and the final merged vma covering the
gap;
Case 9 might cause us to retry once we detect the temporary gap caused by
shrinking of the original vma at the vma start;
Case 10 might cause us to retry once we detect the temporary gap caused by
shrinking of the original vma at the vma end;
In all these cases the retry mechanism prevents us from reporting possible
temporary gaps.
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250418174959.1431962-1-surenb@google.com/
[2] https://github.com/paulmckrcu/proc-mmap_sem-test
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/all/e1863f40-39ab-4e5b-984a-c48765ffde1c@lucifer.local/
The /proc/pid/maps file is generated page by page, with the mmap_lock
released between pages. This can lead to inconsistent reads if the
underlying vmas are concurrently modified. For instance, if a vma split
or merge occurs at a page boundary while /proc/pid/maps is being read, the
same vma might be seen twice: once before and once after the change. This
duplication is considered acceptable for userspace handling. However,
observing a "hole" where a vma should be (e.g., due to a vma being
replaced and the space temporarily being empty) is unacceptable.
Implement a test that:
1. Forks a child process which continuously modifies its address
space, specifically targeting a vma at the boundary between two pages.
2. The parent process repeatedly reads the child's /proc/pid/maps.
3. The parent process checks the last vma of the first page and the
first vma of the second page for consistency, looking for the effects
of vma splits or merges.
The test duration is configurable via DURATION environment variable
expressed in seconds. The default test duration is 5 seconds.
Example Command: DURATION=10 ./proc-maps-race
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250418174959.1431962-1-surenb@google.com/ [1]
Link: https://github.com/paulmckrcu/proc-mmap_sem-test [2]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/e1863f40-39ab-4e5b-984a-c48765ffde1c@lucifer.local/ [3]
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250719182854.3166724-1-surenb@google.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250719182854.3166724-2-surenb@google.com
Signed-off-by: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>
Cc: Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@gmail.com>
Cc: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org>
Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@csgroup.eu>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: Jeongjun Park <aha310510@gmail.com>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Cc: Josef Bacik <josef@toxicpanda.com>
Cc: Kalesh Singh <kaleshsingh@google.com>
Cc: Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com>
Cc: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@oracle.com>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
Cc: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Cc: "Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Xu <peterx@redhat.com>
Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Cc: Shuah Khan <shuah@kernel.org>
Cc: Thomas Weißschuh <linux@weissschuh.net>
Cc: T.J. Mercier <tjmercier@google.com>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: Ye Bin <yebin10@huawei.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
|
