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diff --git a/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex-design.rst b/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex-design.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..59c2a64efb --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/locking/rt-mutex-design.rst @@ -0,0 +1,574 @@ +============================== +RT-mutex implementation design +============================== + +Copyright (c) 2006 Steven Rostedt + +Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 + + +This document tries to describe the design of the rtmutex.c implementation. +It doesn't describe the reasons why rtmutex.c exists. For that please see +Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst. Although this document does explain problems +that happen without this code, but that is in the concept to understand +what the code actually is doing. + +The goal of this document is to help others understand the priority +inheritance (PI) algorithm that is used, as well as reasons for the +decisions that were made to implement PI in the manner that was done. + + +Unbounded Priority Inversion +---------------------------- + +Priority inversion is when a lower priority process executes while a higher +priority process wants to run. This happens for several reasons, and +most of the time it can't be helped. Anytime a high priority process wants +to use a resource that a lower priority process has (a mutex for example), +the high priority process must wait until the lower priority process is done +with the resource. This is a priority inversion. What we want to prevent +is something called unbounded priority inversion. That is when the high +priority process is prevented from running by a lower priority process for +an undetermined amount of time. + +The classic example of unbounded priority inversion is where you have three +processes, let's call them processes A, B, and C, where A is the highest +priority process, C is the lowest, and B is in between. A tries to grab a lock +that C owns and must wait and lets C run to release the lock. But in the +meantime, B executes, and since B is of a higher priority than C, it preempts C, +but by doing so, it is in fact preempting A which is a higher priority process. +Now there's no way of knowing how long A will be sleeping waiting for C +to release the lock, because for all we know, B is a CPU hog and will +never give C a chance to release the lock. This is called unbounded priority +inversion. + +Here's a little ASCII art to show the problem:: + + grab lock L1 (owned by C) + | + A ---+ + C preempted by B + | + C +----+ + + B +--------> + B now keeps A from running. + + +Priority Inheritance (PI) +------------------------- + +There are several ways to solve this issue, but other ways are out of scope +for this document. Here we only discuss PI. + +PI is where a process inherits the priority of another process if the other +process blocks on a lock owned by the current process. To make this easier +to understand, let's use the previous example, with processes A, B, and C again. + +This time, when A blocks on the lock owned by C, C would inherit the priority +of A. So now if B becomes runnable, it would not preempt C, since C now has +the high priority of A. As soon as C releases the lock, it loses its +inherited priority, and A then can continue with the resource that C had. + +Terminology +----------- + +Here I explain some terminology that is used in this document to help describe +the design that is used to implement PI. + +PI chain + - The PI chain is an ordered series of locks and processes that cause + processes to inherit priorities from a previous process that is + blocked on one of its locks. This is described in more detail + later in this document. + +mutex + - In this document, to differentiate from locks that implement + PI and spin locks that are used in the PI code, from now on + the PI locks will be called a mutex. + +lock + - In this document from now on, I will use the term lock when + referring to spin locks that are used to protect parts of the PI + algorithm. These locks disable preemption for UP (when + CONFIG_PREEMPT is enabled) and on SMP prevents multiple CPUs from + entering critical sections simultaneously. + +spin lock + - Same as lock above. + +waiter + - A waiter is a struct that is stored on the stack of a blocked + process. Since the scope of the waiter is within the code for + a process being blocked on the mutex, it is fine to allocate + the waiter on the process's stack (local variable). This + structure holds a pointer to the task, as well as the mutex that + the task is blocked on. It also has rbtree node structures to + place the task in the waiters rbtree of a mutex as well as the + pi_waiters rbtree of a mutex owner task (described below). + + waiter is sometimes used in reference to the task that is waiting + on a mutex. This is the same as waiter->task. + +waiters + - A list of processes that are blocked on a mutex. + +top waiter + - The highest priority process waiting on a specific mutex. + +top pi waiter + - The highest priority process waiting on one of the mutexes + that a specific process owns. + +Note: + task and process are used interchangeably in this document, mostly to + differentiate between two processes that are being described together. + + +PI chain +-------- + +The PI chain is a list of processes and mutexes that may cause priority +inheritance to take place. Multiple chains may converge, but a chain +would never diverge, since a process can't be blocked on more than one +mutex at a time. + +Example:: + + Process: A, B, C, D, E + Mutexes: L1, L2, L3, L4 + + A owns: L1 + B blocked on L1 + B owns L2 + C blocked on L2 + C owns L3 + D blocked on L3 + D owns L4 + E blocked on L4 + +The chain would be:: + + E->L4->D->L3->C->L2->B->L1->A + +To show where two chains merge, we could add another process F and +another mutex L5 where B owns L5 and F is blocked on mutex L5. + +The chain for F would be:: + + F->L5->B->L1->A + +Since a process may own more than one mutex, but never be blocked on more than +one, the chains merge. + +Here we show both chains:: + + E->L4->D->L3->C->L2-+ + | + +->B->L1->A + | + F->L5-+ + +For PI to work, the processes at the right end of these chains (or we may +also call it the Top of the chain) must be equal to or higher in priority +than the processes to the left or below in the chain. + +Also since a mutex may have more than one process blocked on it, we can +have multiple chains merge at mutexes. If we add another process G that is +blocked on mutex L2:: + + G->L2->B->L1->A + +And once again, to show how this can grow I will show the merging chains +again:: + + E->L4->D->L3->C-+ + +->L2-+ + | | + G-+ +->B->L1->A + | + F->L5-+ + +If process G has the highest priority in the chain, then all the tasks up +the chain (A and B in this example), must have their priorities increased +to that of G. + +Mutex Waiters Tree +------------------ + +Every mutex keeps track of all the waiters that are blocked on itself. The +mutex has a rbtree to store these waiters by priority. This tree is protected +by a spin lock that is located in the struct of the mutex. This lock is called +wait_lock. + + +Task PI Tree +------------ + +To keep track of the PI chains, each process has its own PI rbtree. This is +a tree of all top waiters of the mutexes that are owned by the process. +Note that this tree only holds the top waiters and not all waiters that are +blocked on mutexes owned by the process. + +The top of the task's PI tree is always the highest priority task that +is waiting on a mutex that is owned by the task. So if the task has +inherited a priority, it will always be the priority of the task that is +at the top of this tree. + +This tree is stored in the task structure of a process as a rbtree called +pi_waiters. It is protected by a spin lock also in the task structure, +called pi_lock. This lock may also be taken in interrupt context, so when +locking the pi_lock, interrupts must be disabled. + + +Depth of the PI Chain +--------------------- + +The maximum depth of the PI chain is not dynamic, and could actually be +defined. But is very complex to figure it out, since it depends on all +the nesting of mutexes. Let's look at the example where we have 3 mutexes, +L1, L2, and L3, and four separate functions func1, func2, func3 and func4. +The following shows a locking order of L1->L2->L3, but may not actually +be directly nested that way:: + + void func1(void) + { + mutex_lock(L1); + + /* do anything */ + + mutex_unlock(L1); + } + + void func2(void) + { + mutex_lock(L1); + mutex_lock(L2); + + /* do something */ + + mutex_unlock(L2); + mutex_unlock(L1); + } + + void func3(void) + { + mutex_lock(L2); + mutex_lock(L3); + + /* do something else */ + + mutex_unlock(L3); + mutex_unlock(L2); + } + + void func4(void) + { + mutex_lock(L3); + + /* do something again */ + + mutex_unlock(L3); + } + +Now we add 4 processes that run each of these functions separately. +Processes A, B, C, and D which run functions func1, func2, func3 and func4 +respectively, and such that D runs first and A last. With D being preempted +in func4 in the "do something again" area, we have a locking that follows:: + + D owns L3 + C blocked on L3 + C owns L2 + B blocked on L2 + B owns L1 + A blocked on L1 + + And thus we have the chain A->L1->B->L2->C->L3->D. + +This gives us a PI depth of 4 (four processes), but looking at any of the +functions individually, it seems as though they only have at most a locking +depth of two. So, although the locking depth is defined at compile time, +it still is very difficult to find the possibilities of that depth. + +Now since mutexes can be defined by user-land applications, we don't want a DOS +type of application that nests large amounts of mutexes to create a large +PI chain, and have the code holding spin locks while looking at a large +amount of data. So to prevent this, the implementation not only implements +a maximum lock depth, but also only holds at most two different locks at a +time, as it walks the PI chain. More about this below. + + +Mutex owner and flags +--------------------- + +The mutex structure contains a pointer to the owner of the mutex. If the +mutex is not owned, this owner is set to NULL. Since all architectures +have the task structure on at least a two byte alignment (and if this is +not true, the rtmutex.c code will be broken!), this allows for the least +significant bit to be used as a flag. Bit 0 is used as the "Has Waiters" +flag. It's set whenever there are waiters on a mutex. + +See Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.rst for further details. + +cmpxchg Tricks +-------------- + +Some architectures implement an atomic cmpxchg (Compare and Exchange). This +is used (when applicable) to keep the fast path of grabbing and releasing +mutexes short. + +cmpxchg is basically the following function performed atomically:: + + unsigned long _cmpxchg(unsigned long *A, unsigned long *B, unsigned long *C) + { + unsigned long T = *A; + if (*A == *B) { + *A = *C; + } + return T; + } + #define cmpxchg(a,b,c) _cmpxchg(&a,&b,&c) + +This is really nice to have, since it allows you to only update a variable +if the variable is what you expect it to be. You know if it succeeded if +the return value (the old value of A) is equal to B. + +The macro rt_mutex_cmpxchg is used to try to lock and unlock mutexes. If +the architecture does not support CMPXCHG, then this macro is simply set +to fail every time. But if CMPXCHG is supported, then this will +help out extremely to keep the fast path short. + +The use of rt_mutex_cmpxchg with the flags in the owner field help optimize +the system for architectures that support it. This will also be explained +later in this document. + + +Priority adjustments +-------------------- + +The implementation of the PI code in rtmutex.c has several places that a +process must adjust its priority. With the help of the pi_waiters of a +process this is rather easy to know what needs to be adjusted. + +The functions implementing the task adjustments are rt_mutex_adjust_prio +and rt_mutex_setprio. rt_mutex_setprio is only used in rt_mutex_adjust_prio. + +rt_mutex_adjust_prio examines the priority of the task, and the highest +priority process that is waiting any of mutexes owned by the task. Since +the pi_waiters of a task holds an order by priority of all the top waiters +of all the mutexes that the task owns, we simply need to compare the top +pi waiter to its own normal/deadline priority and take the higher one. +Then rt_mutex_setprio is called to adjust the priority of the task to the +new priority. Note that rt_mutex_setprio is defined in kernel/sched/core.c +to implement the actual change in priority. + +Note: + For the "prio" field in task_struct, the lower the number, the + higher the priority. A "prio" of 5 is of higher priority than a + "prio" of 10. + +It is interesting to note that rt_mutex_adjust_prio can either increase +or decrease the priority of the task. In the case that a higher priority +process has just blocked on a mutex owned by the task, rt_mutex_adjust_prio +would increase/boost the task's priority. But if a higher priority task +were for some reason to leave the mutex (timeout or signal), this same function +would decrease/unboost the priority of the task. That is because the pi_waiters +always contains the highest priority task that is waiting on a mutex owned +by the task, so we only need to compare the priority of that top pi waiter +to the normal priority of the given task. + + +High level overview of the PI chain walk +---------------------------------------- + +The PI chain walk is implemented by the function rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain. + +The implementation has gone through several iterations, and has ended up +with what we believe is the best. It walks the PI chain by only grabbing +at most two locks at a time, and is very efficient. + +The rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain can be used either to boost or lower process +priorities. + +rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain is called with a task to be checked for PI +(de)boosting (the owner of a mutex that a process is blocking on), a flag to +check for deadlocking, the mutex that the task owns, a pointer to a waiter +that is the process's waiter struct that is blocked on the mutex (although this +parameter may be NULL for deboosting), a pointer to the mutex on which the task +is blocked, and a top_task as the top waiter of the mutex. + +For this explanation, I will not mention deadlock detection. This explanation +will try to stay at a high level. + +When this function is called, there are no locks held. That also means +that the state of the owner and lock can change when entered into this function. + +Before this function is called, the task has already had rt_mutex_adjust_prio +performed on it. This means that the task is set to the priority that it +should be at, but the rbtree nodes of the task's waiter have not been updated +with the new priorities, and this task may not be in the proper locations +in the pi_waiters and waiters trees that the task is blocked on. This function +solves all that. + +The main operation of this function is summarized by Thomas Gleixner in +rtmutex.c. See the 'Chain walk basics and protection scope' comment for further +details. + +Taking of a mutex (The walk through) +------------------------------------ + +OK, now let's take a look at the detailed walk through of what happens when +taking a mutex. + +The first thing that is tried is the fast taking of the mutex. This is +done when we have CMPXCHG enabled (otherwise the fast taking automatically +fails). Only when the owner field of the mutex is NULL can the lock be +taken with the CMPXCHG and nothing else needs to be done. + +If there is contention on the lock, we go about the slow path +(rt_mutex_slowlock). + +The slow path function is where the task's waiter structure is created on +the stack. This is because the waiter structure is only needed for the +scope of this function. The waiter structure holds the nodes to store +the task on the waiters tree of the mutex, and if need be, the pi_waiters +tree of the owner. + +The wait_lock of the mutex is taken since the slow path of unlocking the +mutex also takes this lock. + +We then call try_to_take_rt_mutex. This is where the architecture that +does not implement CMPXCHG would always grab the lock (if there's no +contention). + +try_to_take_rt_mutex is used every time the task tries to grab a mutex in the +slow path. The first thing that is done here is an atomic setting of +the "Has Waiters" flag of the mutex's owner field. By setting this flag +now, the current owner of the mutex being contended for can't release the mutex +without going into the slow unlock path, and it would then need to grab the +wait_lock, which this code currently holds. So setting the "Has Waiters" flag +forces the current owner to synchronize with this code. + +The lock is taken if the following are true: + + 1) The lock has no owner + 2) The current task is the highest priority against all other + waiters of the lock + +If the task succeeds to acquire the lock, then the task is set as the +owner of the lock, and if the lock still has waiters, the top_waiter +(highest priority task waiting on the lock) is added to this task's +pi_waiters tree. + +If the lock is not taken by try_to_take_rt_mutex(), then the +task_blocks_on_rt_mutex() function is called. This will add the task to +the lock's waiter tree and propagate the pi chain of the lock as well +as the lock's owner's pi_waiters tree. This is described in the next +section. + +Task blocks on mutex +-------------------- + +The accounting of a mutex and process is done with the waiter structure of +the process. The "task" field is set to the process, and the "lock" field +to the mutex. The rbtree node of waiter are initialized to the processes +current priority. + +Since the wait_lock was taken at the entry of the slow lock, we can safely +add the waiter to the task waiter tree. If the current process is the +highest priority process currently waiting on this mutex, then we remove the +previous top waiter process (if it exists) from the pi_waiters of the owner, +and add the current process to that tree. Since the pi_waiter of the owner +has changed, we call rt_mutex_adjust_prio on the owner to see if the owner +should adjust its priority accordingly. + +If the owner is also blocked on a lock, and had its pi_waiters changed +(or deadlock checking is on), we unlock the wait_lock of the mutex and go ahead +and run rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain on the owner, as described earlier. + +Now all locks are released, and if the current process is still blocked on a +mutex (waiter "task" field is not NULL), then we go to sleep (call schedule). + +Waking up in the loop +--------------------- + +The task can then wake up for a couple of reasons: + 1) The previous lock owner released the lock, and the task now is top_waiter + 2) we received a signal or timeout + +In both cases, the task will try again to acquire the lock. If it +does, then it will take itself off the waiters tree and set itself back +to the TASK_RUNNING state. + +In first case, if the lock was acquired by another task before this task +could get the lock, then it will go back to sleep and wait to be woken again. + +The second case is only applicable for tasks that are grabbing a mutex +that can wake up before getting the lock, either due to a signal or +a timeout (i.e. rt_mutex_timed_futex_lock()). When woken, it will try to +take the lock again, if it succeeds, then the task will return with the +lock held, otherwise it will return with -EINTR if the task was woken +by a signal, or -ETIMEDOUT if it timed out. + + +Unlocking the Mutex +------------------- + +The unlocking of a mutex also has a fast path for those architectures with +CMPXCHG. Since the taking of a mutex on contention always sets the +"Has Waiters" flag of the mutex's owner, we use this to know if we need to +take the slow path when unlocking the mutex. If the mutex doesn't have any +waiters, the owner field of the mutex would equal the current process and +the mutex can be unlocked by just replacing the owner field with NULL. + +If the owner field has the "Has Waiters" bit set (or CMPXCHG is not available), +the slow unlock path is taken. + +The first thing done in the slow unlock path is to take the wait_lock of the +mutex. This synchronizes the locking and unlocking of the mutex. + +A check is made to see if the mutex has waiters or not. On architectures that +do not have CMPXCHG, this is the location that the owner of the mutex will +determine if a waiter needs to be awoken or not. On architectures that +do have CMPXCHG, that check is done in the fast path, but it is still needed +in the slow path too. If a waiter of a mutex woke up because of a signal +or timeout between the time the owner failed the fast path CMPXCHG check and +the grabbing of the wait_lock, the mutex may not have any waiters, thus the +owner still needs to make this check. If there are no waiters then the mutex +owner field is set to NULL, the wait_lock is released and nothing more is +needed. + +If there are waiters, then we need to wake one up. + +On the wake up code, the pi_lock of the current owner is taken. The top +waiter of the lock is found and removed from the waiters tree of the mutex +as well as the pi_waiters tree of the current owner. The "Has Waiters" bit is +marked to prevent lower priority tasks from stealing the lock. + +Finally we unlock the pi_lock of the pending owner and wake it up. + + +Contact +------- + +For updates on this document, please email Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> + + +Credits +------- + +Author: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> + +Updated: Alex Shi <alex.shi@linaro.org> - 7/6/2017 + +Original Reviewers: + Ingo Molnar, Thomas Gleixner, Thomas Duetsch, and + Randy Dunlap + +Update (7/6/2017) Reviewers: Steven Rostedt and Sebastian Siewior + +Updates +------- + +This document was originally written for 2.6.17-rc3-mm1 +was updated on 4.12 |