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[PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups

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  [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> - 2016-12-20 14:50 +0100
    [PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator slowpath Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> - 2016-12-20 15:00 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> - 2017-01-02 16:50 +0100
      Re: [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp> - 2017-01-03 02:40 +0100
        Re: [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> - 2017-01-03 09:50 +0100
          Re: [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp> - 2017-01-03 15:40 +0100
            Re: [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz> - 2017-01-03 17:30 +0100

#1545115 — [PATCH 0/3 -v3] GFP_NOFAIL cleanups

Hi,
This has been posted [1] initially to later be reduced to a single patch
[2].  Johannes then suggested [3] to split up the second patch and make
the access to memory reserves by __GF_NOFAIL requests which do not
invoke the oom killer a separate change. This is patch 3 now.

Tetsuo has noticed [4] that recent changes have changed GFP_NOFAIL
semantic for costly order requests. I believe that the primary reason
why this happened is that our GFP_NOFAIL checks are too scattered
and it is really easy to forget about adding one. That's why I am
proposing patch 1 which consolidates all the nofail handling at a single
place. This should help to make this code better maintainable.

Patch 2 on top is a further attempt to make GFP_NOFAIL semantic less
surprising. As things stand currently GFP_NOFAIL overrides the oom killer
prevention code which is both subtle and not really needed. The patch 2
has more details about issues this might cause. We have also seen
a report where __GFP_NOFAIL|GFP_NOFS requests cause the oom killer which
is premature.

Patch 3 is an attempt to reduce chances of GFP_NOFAIL requests being
preempted by other memory consumers by giving them access to memory
reserves.

[1] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161123064925.9716-1-mhocko@kernel.org
[2] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161214150706.27412-1-mhocko@kernel.org
[3] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161216173151.GA23182@cmpxchg.org
[4] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1479387004-5998-1-git-send-email-penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp

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#1545118 — [PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator slowpath

From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>

Tetsuo Handa has pointed out that 0a0337e0d1d1 ("mm, oom: rework oom
detection") has subtly changed semantic for costly high order requests
with __GFP_NOFAIL and withtout __GFP_REPEAT and those can fail right now.
My code inspection didn't reveal any such users in the tree but it is
true that this might lead to unexpected allocation failures and
subsequent OOPs.

__alloc_pages_slowpath wrt. GFP_NOFAIL is hard to follow currently.
There are few special cases but we are lacking a catch all place to be
sure we will not miss any case where the non failing allocation might
fail. This patch reorganizes the code a bit and puts all those special
cases under nopage label which is the generic go-to-fail path. Non
failing allocations are retried or those that cannot retry like
non-sleeping allocation go to the failure point directly. This should
make the code flow much easier to follow and make it less error prone
for future changes.

While we are there we have to move the stall check up to catch
potentially looping non-failing allocations.

Changes since v1
- do not skip direct reclaim for TIF_MEMDIE && GFP_NOFAIL as per Hillf
- do not skip __alloc_pages_may_oom for TIF_MEMDIE && GFP_NOFAIL as
  per Tetsuo

Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Acked-by: Hillf Danton <hillf.zj@alibaba-inc.com>
---
 mm/page_alloc.c | 75 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------
 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 1c24112308d6..c8eed66d8abb 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -3647,35 +3647,21 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
 		goto got_pg;
 
 	/* Caller is not willing to reclaim, we can't balance anything */
-	if (!can_direct_reclaim) {
-		/*
-		 * All existing users of the __GFP_NOFAIL are blockable, so warn
-		 * of any new users that actually allow this type of allocation
-		 * to fail.
-		 */
-		WARN_ON_ONCE(gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL);
+	if (!can_direct_reclaim)
 		goto nopage;
-	}
 
-	/* Avoid recursion of direct reclaim */
-	if (current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC) {
-		/*
-		 * __GFP_NOFAIL request from this context is rather bizarre
-		 * because we cannot reclaim anything and only can loop waiting
-		 * for somebody to do a work for us.
-		 */
-		if (WARN_ON_ONCE(gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL)) {
-			cond_resched();
-			goto retry;
-		}
-		goto nopage;
+	/* Make sure we know about allocations which stall for too long */
+	if (time_after(jiffies, alloc_start + stall_timeout)) {
+		warn_alloc(gfp_mask,
+			"page allocation stalls for %ums, order:%u",
+			jiffies_to_msecs(jiffies-alloc_start), order);
+		stall_timeout += 10 * HZ;
 	}
 
-	/* Avoid allocations with no watermarks from looping endlessly */
-	if (test_thread_flag(TIF_MEMDIE) && !(gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL))
+	/* Avoid recursion of direct reclaim */
+	if (current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC)
 		goto nopage;
 
-
 	/* Try direct reclaim and then allocating */
 	page = __alloc_pages_direct_reclaim(gfp_mask, order, alloc_flags, ac,
 							&did_some_progress);
@@ -3699,14 +3685,6 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
 	if (order > PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER && !(gfp_mask & __GFP_REPEAT))
 		goto nopage;
 
-	/* Make sure we know about allocations which stall for too long */
-	if (time_after(jiffies, alloc_start + stall_timeout)) {
-		warn_alloc(gfp_mask,
-			"page allocation stalls for %ums, order:%u",
-			jiffies_to_msecs(jiffies-alloc_start), order);
-		stall_timeout += 10 * HZ;
-	}
-
 	if (should_reclaim_retry(gfp_mask, order, ac, alloc_flags,
 				 did_some_progress > 0, &no_progress_loops))
 		goto retry;
@@ -3728,6 +3706,10 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
 	if (page)
 		goto got_pg;
 
+	/* Avoid allocations with no watermarks from looping endlessly */
+	if (test_thread_flag(TIF_MEMDIE))
+		goto nopage;
+
 	/* Retry as long as the OOM killer is making progress */
 	if (did_some_progress) {
 		no_progress_loops = 0;
@@ -3735,6 +3717,37 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
 	}
 
 nopage:
+	/*
+	 * Make sure that __GFP_NOFAIL request doesn't leak out and make sure
+	 * we always retry
+	 */
+	if (gfp_mask & __GFP_NOFAIL) {
+		/*
+		 * All existing users of the __GFP_NOFAIL are blockable, so warn
+		 * of any new users that actually require GFP_NOWAIT
+		 */
+		if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!can_direct_reclaim))
+			goto fail;
+
+		/*
+		 * PF_MEMALLOC request from this context is rather bizarre
+		 * because we cannot reclaim anything and only can loop waiting
+		 * for somebody to do a work for us
+		 */
+		WARN_ON_ONCE(current->flags & PF_MEMALLOC);
+
+		/*
+		 * non failing costly orders are a hard requirement which we
+		 * are not prepared for much so let's warn about these users
+		 * so that we can identify them and convert them to something
+		 * else.
+		 */
+		WARN_ON_ONCE(order > PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER);
+
+		cond_resched();
+		goto retry;
+	}
+fail:
 	warn_alloc(gfp_mask,
 			"page allocation failure: order:%u", order);
 got_pg:
-- 
2.10.2

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#1549262

On Tue 20-12-16 14:49:01, Michal Hocko wrote:
> Hi,
> This has been posted [1] initially to later be reduced to a single patch
> [2].  Johannes then suggested [3] to split up the second patch and make
> the access to memory reserves by __GF_NOFAIL requests which do not
> invoke the oom killer a separate change. This is patch 3 now.
> 
> Tetsuo has noticed [4] that recent changes have changed GFP_NOFAIL
> semantic for costly order requests. I believe that the primary reason
> why this happened is that our GFP_NOFAIL checks are too scattered
> and it is really easy to forget about adding one. That's why I am
> proposing patch 1 which consolidates all the nofail handling at a single
> place. This should help to make this code better maintainable.
> 
> Patch 2 on top is a further attempt to make GFP_NOFAIL semantic less
> surprising. As things stand currently GFP_NOFAIL overrides the oom killer
> prevention code which is both subtle and not really needed. The patch 2
> has more details about issues this might cause. We have also seen
> a report where __GFP_NOFAIL|GFP_NOFS requests cause the oom killer which
> is premature.
> 
> Patch 3 is an attempt to reduce chances of GFP_NOFAIL requests being
> preempted by other memory consumers by giving them access to memory
> reserves.

a friendly ping on this

> [1] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161123064925.9716-1-mhocko@kernel.org
> [2] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161214150706.27412-1-mhocko@kernel.org
> [3] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161216173151.GA23182@cmpxchg.org
> [4] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1479387004-5998-1-git-send-email-penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in
> the body to majordomo@kvack.org.  For more info on Linux MM,
> see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ .
> Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@kvack.org"> email@kvack.org </a>

-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs

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#1549490

Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Tue 20-12-16 14:49:01, Michal Hocko wrote:
> > Hi,
> > This has been posted [1] initially to later be reduced to a single patch
> > [2].  Johannes then suggested [3] to split up the second patch and make
> > the access to memory reserves by __GF_NOFAIL requests which do not
> > invoke the oom killer a separate change. This is patch 3 now.
> > 
> > Tetsuo has noticed [4] that recent changes have changed GFP_NOFAIL
> > semantic for costly order requests. I believe that the primary reason
> > why this happened is that our GFP_NOFAIL checks are too scattered
> > and it is really easy to forget about adding one. That's why I am
> > proposing patch 1 which consolidates all the nofail handling at a single
> > place. This should help to make this code better maintainable.
> > 
> > Patch 2 on top is a further attempt to make GFP_NOFAIL semantic less
> > surprising. As things stand currently GFP_NOFAIL overrides the oom killer
> > prevention code which is both subtle and not really needed. The patch 2
> > has more details about issues this might cause. We have also seen
> > a report where __GFP_NOFAIL|GFP_NOFS requests cause the oom killer which
> > is premature.
> > 
> > Patch 3 is an attempt to reduce chances of GFP_NOFAIL requests being
> > preempted by other memory consumers by giving them access to memory
> > reserves.
> 
> a friendly ping on this
> 
> > [1] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161123064925.9716-1-mhocko@kernel.org
> > [2] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161214150706.27412-1-mhocko@kernel.org
> > [3] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161216173151.GA23182@cmpxchg.org
> > [4] http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1479387004-5998-1-git-send-email-penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp

I'm OK with "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator
slowpath" given that we describe that we make __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than
__GFP_NORETRY with this patch in the changelog.

But I don't think "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
automatically" is correct. Firstly, we need to confirm

  "The pre-mature OOM killer is a real issue as reported by Nils Holland"

in the changelog is still true because we haven't tested with "[PATCH] mm, memcg:
fix the active list aging for lowmem requests when memcg is enabled" applied and
without "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
automatically" and "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which do not
trigger OOM killer" applied.

Secondly, as you are using __GFP_NORETRY in "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc
helpers" as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer

	/*
	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
	 */
	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;

, we can use __GFP_NORETRY as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
rather than applying "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for
__GFP_NOFAIL automatically".

Additionally, although currently there seems to be no
kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) users, kvmalloc_node() in
"[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc helpers" will be confused when a
kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) user comes in in the future because
"[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator slowpath" makes
__GFP_NOFAIL stronger than __GFP_NORETRY.

My concern with "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which
do not trigger OOM killer" is

  "AFAIU, this is an allocation path which doesn't block a forward progress
   on a regular IO. It is merely a check whether there is a new medium in
   the CDROM (aka regular polling of the device). I really fail to see any
   reason why this one should get any access to memory reserves at all."

in http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161218163727.GC8440@dhcp22.suse.cz .
Indeed that trace is a __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM and it might not be blocking
other workqueue items which a regular I/O depend on, I think there are
!__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM memory allocation requests for issuing SCSI commands
which could potentially start failing due to helping GFP_NOFS | __GFP_NOFAIL
allocations with memory reserves. If a SCSI disk I/O request fails due to
GFP_ATOMIC memory allocation failures because we allow a FS I/O request to
use memory reserves, it adds a new problem.

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#1549614

On Tue 03-01-17 10:36:31, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
[...]
> I'm OK with "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator
> slowpath" given that we describe that we make __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than
> __GFP_NORETRY with this patch in the changelog.

Again. __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL is nonsense! I do not really see any
reason to describe all the nonsense combinations of gfp flags.

> But I don't think "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
> automatically" is correct. Firstly, we need to confirm
> 
>   "The pre-mature OOM killer is a real issue as reported by Nils Holland"
> 
> in the changelog is still true because we haven't tested with "[PATCH] mm, memcg:
> fix the active list aging for lowmem requests when memcg is enabled" applied and
> without "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
> automatically" and "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which do not
> trigger OOM killer" applied.

Yes I have dropped the reference to this report already in my local
patch because in this particular case the issue was somewhere else
indeed!

> Secondly, as you are using __GFP_NORETRY in "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc
> helpers" as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
> 
> 	/*
> 	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
> 	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
> 	 */
> 	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
> 		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;
> 
> , we can use __GFP_NORETRY as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
> rather than applying "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for
> __GFP_NOFAIL automatically".
> 
> Additionally, although currently there seems to be no
> kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) users, kvmalloc_node() in
> "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc helpers" will be confused when a
> kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) user comes in in the future because
> "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator slowpath" makes
> __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than __GFP_NORETRY.

Using NOFAIL in kv[mz]alloc simply makes no sense at all. The vmalloc
fallback would be simply unreachable!

> My concern with "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which
> do not trigger OOM killer" is
> 
>   "AFAIU, this is an allocation path which doesn't block a forward progress
>    on a regular IO. It is merely a check whether there is a new medium in
>    the CDROM (aka regular polling of the device). I really fail to see any
>    reason why this one should get any access to memory reserves at all."
> 
> in http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161218163727.GC8440@dhcp22.suse.cz .
> Indeed that trace is a __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM and it might not be blocking
> other workqueue items which a regular I/O depend on, I think there are
> !__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM memory allocation requests for issuing SCSI commands
> which could potentially start failing due to helping GFP_NOFS | __GFP_NOFAIL
> allocations with memory reserves. If a SCSI disk I/O request fails due to
> GFP_ATOMIC memory allocation failures because we allow a FS I/O request to
> use memory reserves, it adds a new problem.

Do you have any example of such a request? Anything that requires
a forward progress during IO should be using mempools otherwise it
is broken pretty much by design already. Also IO depending on NOFS
allocations sounds pretty much broken already. So I suspect the above
reasoning is just bogus.

That being said, to summarize your arguments again. 1) you do not like
that a combination of __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL is not documented
to never fail, 2) based on that you argue that kv[mvz]alloc with
__GFP_NOFAIL will never reach vmalloc and 3) that there might be some IO
paths depending on NOFS|NOFAIL allocation which would have harder time
to make forward progress.

I would call 1 and 2 just bogus and 3 highly dubious at best. Do not
get me wrong but this is not what I call a useful review feedback yet
alone a reason to block these patches. If there are any reasons to not
merge them these are not those.

-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs

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#1549819

Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Tue 03-01-17 10:36:31, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
> [...]
> > I'm OK with "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator
> > slowpath" given that we describe that we make __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than
> > __GFP_NORETRY with this patch in the changelog.
> 
> Again. __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL is nonsense! I do not really see any
> reason to describe all the nonsense combinations of gfp flags.

Before [PATCH 1/3]:

  __GFP_NORETRY is used as "Do not invoke the OOM killer. Fail allocation
  request even if __GFP_NOFAIL is specified if direct reclaim/compaction
  did not help."

  __GFP_NOFAIL is used as "Never fail allocation request unless __GFP_NORETRY
  is specified even if direct reclaim/compaction did not help."

After [PATCH 1/3]:

  __GFP_NORETRY is used as "Do not invoke the OOM killer. Fail allocation
  request unless __GFP_NOFAIL is specified."

  __GFP_NOFAIL is used as "Never fail allocation request even if direct
  reclaim/compaction did not help. Invoke the OOM killer unless __GFP_NORETRY is
  specified."

Thus, __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL perfectly makes sense as
"Never fail allocation request if direct reclaim/compaction did not help.
But do not invoke the OOM killer even if direct reclaim/compaction did not help."

> 
> > But I don't think "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
> > automatically" is correct. Firstly, we need to confirm
> > 
> >   "The pre-mature OOM killer is a real issue as reported by Nils Holland"
> > 
> > in the changelog is still true because we haven't tested with "[PATCH] mm, memcg:
> > fix the active list aging for lowmem requests when memcg is enabled" applied and
> > without "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
> > automatically" and "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which do not
> > trigger OOM killer" applied.
> 
> Yes I have dropped the reference to this report already in my local
> patch because in this particular case the issue was somewhere else
> indeed!

OK.

> 
> > Secondly, as you are using __GFP_NORETRY in "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc
> > helpers" as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
> > 
> > 	/*
> > 	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
> > 	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
> > 	 */
> > 	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
> > 		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;
> > 
> > , we can use __GFP_NORETRY as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
> > rather than applying "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for
> > __GFP_NOFAIL automatically".
> > 

As I wrote above, __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL perfectly makes sense.

> > Additionally, although currently there seems to be no
> > kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) users, kvmalloc_node() in
> > "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc helpers" will be confused when a
> > kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) user comes in in the future because
> > "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator slowpath" makes
> > __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than __GFP_NORETRY.
> 
> Using NOFAIL in kv[mz]alloc simply makes no sense at all. The vmalloc
> fallback would be simply unreachable!

My intention is shown below.

 void *kvmalloc_node(size_t size, gfp_t flags, int node)
 {
 	gfp_t kmalloc_flags = flags;
 	void *ret;
 
 	/*
 	 * vmalloc uses GFP_KERNEL for some internal allocations (e.g page tables)
 	 * so the given set of flags has to be compatible.
 	 */
 	WARN_ON_ONCE((flags & GFP_KERNEL) != GFP_KERNEL);
 
 	/*
 	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
 	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
 	 */
-	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
+	if (size > PAGE_SIZE) {
 		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;
+		kmalloc_flags &= ~__GFP_NOFAIL;
+	}
 
 	ret = kmalloc_node(size, kmalloc_flags, node);
 
 	/*
 	 * It doesn't really make sense to fallback to vmalloc for sub page
 	 * requests
 	 */
 	if (ret || size <= PAGE_SIZE)
 		return ret;
 
 	return __vmalloc_node_flags(size, node, flags);
 }

> 
> > My concern with "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which
> > do not trigger OOM killer" is
> > 
> >   "AFAIU, this is an allocation path which doesn't block a forward progress
> >    on a regular IO. It is merely a check whether there is a new medium in
> >    the CDROM (aka regular polling of the device). I really fail to see any
> >    reason why this one should get any access to memory reserves at all."
> > 
> > in http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20161218163727.GC8440@dhcp22.suse.cz .
> > Indeed that trace is a __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM and it might not be blocking
> > other workqueue items which a regular I/O depend on, I think there are
> > !__GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM memory allocation requests for issuing SCSI commands
> > which could potentially start failing due to helping GFP_NOFS | __GFP_NOFAIL
> > allocations with memory reserves. If a SCSI disk I/O request fails due to
> > GFP_ATOMIC memory allocation failures because we allow a FS I/O request to
> > use memory reserves, it adds a new problem.
> 
> Do you have any example of such a request? Anything that requires
> a forward progress during IO should be using mempools otherwise it
> is broken pretty much by design already. Also IO depending on NOFS
> allocations sounds pretty much broken already. So I suspect the above
> reasoning is just bogus.

You are missing my point. My question is "who needs memory reserves".
I'm not saying that disk I/O depends on GFP_NOFS allocation. I'm worrying
that [PATCH 3/3] consumes memory reserves when disk I/O also depends on
memory reserves.

My understanding is that when accessing SCSI disks, SCSI protocol is used.
SCSI driver allocates memory at runtime for using SCSI protocol using
GFP_ATOMIC. And GFP_ATOMIC uses some of memory reserves. But [PATCH 3/3]
also uses memory reserves. If memory reserves are consumed by [PATCH 3/3]
to the level where GFP_ATOMIC cannot succeed, I think it causes troubles.

I'm unable to obtain nice backtraces, but I think we can confirm that
there are GFP_ATOMIC allocations (e.g. sg_alloc_table_chained() calls
__sg_alloc_table(GFP_ATOMIC)) when we are using SCSI disks.

stap -DSTAP_NO_OVERLOAD=1 -DMAXSKIPPED=10000000 -e 'global in_scope; global traces;
probe begin { println("Ready."); }
probe kernel.function("scsi_*").call { in_scope[tid()]++; }
probe kernel.function("scsi_*").return { in_scope[tid()]--; }
probe kernel.function("__alloc_pages_nodemask") {
  if (in_scope[tid()] != 0) {
    bt = backtrace();
    if (!([bt,$gfp_mask] in traces)) {
      traces[bt,$gfp_mask] = 1;
      printf("mode=0x%x,order=%u by %s(%u)\n",
             $gfp_mask, $order, execname(), pid());
      print_backtrace();
      println();
    }
  }
}'

[  183.887841] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[  183.888847] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 0 at /root/systemtap.tmp/share/systemtap/runtime/linux/addr-map.c:42 lookup_bad_addr.isra.33+0x84/0x90 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.892011] Modules linked in: stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182(O) nf_conntrack_netbios_ns nf_conntrack_broadcast ip6t_rpfilter ipt_REJECT nf_reject_ipv4 ip6t_REJECT nf_reject_ipv6 xt_conntrack ip_set nfnetlink ebtable_nat ebtable_broute bridge stp llc ip6table_nat nf_conntrack_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_nat_ipv6 ip6table_mangle ip6table_raw iptable_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_nat_ipv4 nf_nat nf_conntrack iptable_mangle iptable_raw ebtable_filter ebtables ip6table_filter ip6_tables iptable_filter coretemp crct10dif_pclmul crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel aesni_intel crypto_simd cryptd glue_helper vmw_vsock_vmci_transport ppdev vmw_balloon vsock pcspkr sg parport_pc parport vmw_vmci i2c_piix4 shpchp ip_tables xfs libcrc32c sd_mod sr_mod cdrom ata_generic pata_acpi crc32c_intel
[  183.905779]  serio_raw mptspi scsi_transport_spi vmwgfx mptscsih ahci drm_kms_helper libahci syscopyarea sysfillrect mptbase sysimgblt fb_sys_fops ttm ata_piix drm e1000 i2c_core libata
[  183.909128] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G           O    4.10.0-rc2-next-20170103 #486
[  183.910839] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 07/02/2015
[  183.912815] Call Trace:
[  183.913326]  <IRQ>
[  183.913729]  dump_stack+0x85/0xc9
[  183.914366]  __warn+0xd1/0xf0
[  183.914930]  warn_slowpath_null+0x1d/0x20
[  183.915691]  lookup_bad_addr.isra.33+0x84/0x90 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.917539]  unwind_frame.constprop.79+0xbed/0x1270 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.919238]  _stp_stack_kernel_get+0x16e/0x4d0 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.920870]  ? gfp_pfmemalloc_allowed+0x80/0x80
[  183.921737]  _stp_stack_kernel_print+0x3e/0xc0 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.923583]  probe_3838+0x1f6/0x8c0 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.925005]  ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x1/0x4e0
[  183.925875]  ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x1/0x4e0
[  183.926724]  ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x1/0x4e0
[  183.927598]  enter_kprobe_probe+0x1e5/0x310 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.929164]  kprobe_ftrace_handler+0xe9/0x150
[  183.930260]  ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x5/0x4e0
[  183.931123]  ftrace_ops_assist_func+0xbf/0x110
[  183.932012]  ? sched_clock+0x9/0x10
[  183.932815]  ? sched_clock_cpu+0x84/0xb0
[  183.933550]  0xffffffffa00430d5
[  183.934947]  ? gfp_pfmemalloc_allowed+0x80/0x80
[  183.936581]  __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x5/0x4e0
[  183.938409]  alloc_pages_current+0x97/0x1b0
[  183.939971]  ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x5/0x4e0
[  183.941567]  ? alloc_pages_current+0x97/0x1b0
[  183.943173]  new_slab+0x3a8/0x6a0
[  183.944702]  ___slab_alloc+0x3a3/0x620
[  183.946157]  ? stp_lock_probe+0x4a/0xb0 [stap_40159b816dfa3e3814a532dc982f551b_1_4182]
[  183.948375]  ? mempool_alloc_slab+0x1c/0x20
[  183.950135]  ? mempool_alloc_slab+0x1c/0x20
[  183.951957]  __slab_alloc+0x46/0x7d
[  183.953415]  ? mempool_alloc_slab+0x1c/0x20
[  183.955001]  kmem_cache_alloc+0x2e8/0x370
[  183.956552]  ? aggr_pre_handler+0x3f/0x80
[  183.958428]  mempool_alloc_slab+0x1c/0x20
[  183.960042]  mempool_alloc+0x79/0x1b0
[  183.961512]  ? kprobe_ftrace_handler+0xa3/0x150
[  183.963082]  ? scsi_init_io+0x5/0x1d0
[  183.964501]  sg_pool_alloc+0x45/0x50
[  183.966064]  __sg_alloc_table+0xdf/0x150
[  183.967402]  ? sg_free_table_chained+0x30/0x30
[  183.969030]  sg_alloc_table_chained+0x3f/0x90
[  183.970405]  scsi_init_sgtable+0x31/0x70
[  183.971783]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.973506]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.974802]  sd_init_command+0x3c/0xb0 [sd_mod]
[  183.976187]  scsi_setup_cmnd+0xf0/0x150
[  183.977617]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.978849]  ? scsi_prep_fn+0x5/0x170
[  183.980119]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.981406]  scsi_request_fn+0x42/0x740
[  183.982760]  ? scsi_request_fn+0x5/0x740
[  183.984049]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.985438]  blk_run_queue+0x26/0x40
[  183.986751]  scsi_kick_queue+0x25/0x30
[  183.987891]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.989073]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.990175]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.991348]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.992450]  copy_oldmem_page+0xd0/0xd0
[  183.993677]  blk_done_softirq+0xa8/0xd0
[  183.994766]  __do_softirq+0xc0/0x52d
[  183.995792]  irq_exit+0xf5/0x110
[  183.996748]  smp_call_function_single_interrupt+0x33/0x40
[  183.998230]  call_function_single_interrupt+0x9d/0xb0
[  183.999521] RIP: 0010:native_safe_halt+0x6/0x10
[  184.000791] RSP: 0018:ffffffff81c03dd0 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffff04
[  184.002749] RAX: ffffffff81c18500 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000
[  184.004440] RDX: ffffffff81c18500 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: ffffffff81c18500
[  184.006281] RBP: ffffffff81c03dd0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[  184.008063] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000000000000
[  184.009842] R13: ffffffff81c18500 R14: ffffffff81c18500 R15: 0000000000000000
[  184.011758]  </IRQ>
[  184.012952]  default_idle+0x23/0x1d0
[  184.014085]  arch_cpu_idle+0xf/0x20
[  184.015204]  default_idle_call+0x23/0x40
[  184.016347]  do_idle+0x162/0x230
[  184.017353]  cpu_startup_entry+0x71/0x80
[  184.018686]  rest_init+0x138/0x140
[  184.019961]  ? rest_init+0x5/0x140
[  184.021034]  start_kernel+0x4ba/0x4db
[  184.022305]  ? set_init_arg+0x55/0x55
[  184.023405]  ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
[  184.024730]  x86_64_start_reservations+0x2a/0x2c
[  184.026121]  x86_64_start_kernel+0x14c/0x16f
[  184.027329]  start_cpu+0x14/0x14
[  184.028391] ---[ end trace cbfebb3ae93a99b9 ]---

> 
> That being said, to summarize your arguments again. 1) you do not like
> that a combination of __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL is not documented
> to never fail,

Correct.

>                2) based on that you argue that kv[mvz]alloc with
> __GFP_NOFAIL will never reach vmalloc

Wrong.

>                                       and 3) that there might be some IO
> paths depending on NOFS|NOFAIL allocation which would have harder time
> to make forward progress.

Wrong.

> 
> I would call 1 and 2 just bogus and 3 highly dubious at best. Do not
> get me wrong but this is not what I call a useful review feedback yet
> alone a reason to block these patches. If there are any reasons to not
> merge them these are not those.

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#1549927

On 01/03/2017 03:38 PM, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
> Michal Hocko wrote:
>> On Tue 03-01-17 10:36:31, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
>> [...]
>> > I'm OK with "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator
>> > slowpath" given that we describe that we make __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than
>> > __GFP_NORETRY with this patch in the changelog.
>>
>> Again. __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL is nonsense! I do not really see any
>> reason to describe all the nonsense combinations of gfp flags.
>
> Before [PATCH 1/3]:
>
>   __GFP_NORETRY is used as "Do not invoke the OOM killer. Fail allocation
>   request even if __GFP_NOFAIL is specified if direct reclaim/compaction
>   did not help."
>
>   __GFP_NOFAIL is used as "Never fail allocation request unless __GFP_NORETRY
>   is specified even if direct reclaim/compaction did not help."
>
> After [PATCH 1/3]:
>
>   __GFP_NORETRY is used as "Do not invoke the OOM killer. Fail allocation
>   request unless __GFP_NOFAIL is specified."
>
>   __GFP_NOFAIL is used as "Never fail allocation request even if direct
>   reclaim/compaction did not help. Invoke the OOM killer unless __GFP_NORETRY is
>   specified."
>
> Thus, __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL perfectly makes sense as
> "Never fail allocation request if direct reclaim/compaction did not help.
> But do not invoke the OOM killer even if direct reclaim/compaction did not help."

It may technically do that, but how exactly is that useful, i.e. "make sense"? 
Patch 2/3 here makes sure that OOM killer is not invoked when the allocation 
context is "limited" and thus OOM might be premature (despite __GFP_NOFAIL).
What's the use case for __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL ?

>
>>
>> > But I don't think "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
>> > automatically" is correct. Firstly, we need to confirm
>> >
>> >   "The pre-mature OOM killer is a real issue as reported by Nils Holland"
>> >
>> > in the changelog is still true because we haven't tested with "[PATCH] mm, memcg:
>> > fix the active list aging for lowmem requests when memcg is enabled" applied and
>> > without "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for __GFP_NOFAIL
>> > automatically" and "[PATCH 3/3] mm: help __GFP_NOFAIL allocations which do not
>> > trigger OOM killer" applied.
>>
>> Yes I have dropped the reference to this report already in my local
>> patch because in this particular case the issue was somewhere else
>> indeed!
>
> OK.
>
>>
>> > Secondly, as you are using __GFP_NORETRY in "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc
>> > helpers" as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
>> >
>> > 	/*
>> > 	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
>> > 	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
>> > 	 */
>> > 	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
>> > 		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;
>> >
>> > , we can use __GFP_NORETRY as a mean to enforce not to invoke the OOM killer
>> > rather than applying "[PATCH 2/3] mm, oom: do not enfore OOM killer for
>> > __GFP_NOFAIL automatically".
>> >
>
> As I wrote above, __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL perfectly makes sense.
>
>> > Additionally, although currently there seems to be no
>> > kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) users, kvmalloc_node() in
>> > "[PATCH] mm: introduce kv[mz]alloc helpers" will be confused when a
>> > kv[mz]alloc(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) user comes in in the future because
>> > "[PATCH 1/3] mm: consolidate GFP_NOFAIL checks in the allocator slowpath" makes
>> > __GFP_NOFAIL stronger than __GFP_NORETRY.
>>
>> Using NOFAIL in kv[mz]alloc simply makes no sense at all. The vmalloc
>> fallback would be simply unreachable!
>
> My intention is shown below.
>
>  void *kvmalloc_node(size_t size, gfp_t flags, int node)
>  {
>  	gfp_t kmalloc_flags = flags;
>  	void *ret;
>
>  	/*
>  	 * vmalloc uses GFP_KERNEL for some internal allocations (e.g page tables)
>  	 * so the given set of flags has to be compatible.
>  	 */
>  	WARN_ON_ONCE((flags & GFP_KERNEL) != GFP_KERNEL);
>
>  	/*
>  	 * Make sure that larger requests are not too disruptive - no OOM
>  	 * killer and no allocation failure warnings as we have a fallback
>  	 */
> -	if (size > PAGE_SIZE)
> +	if (size > PAGE_SIZE) {
>  		kmalloc_flags |= __GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOWARN;
> +		kmalloc_flags &= ~__GFP_NOFAIL;

This does make kvmalloc_node more robust against callers that would try to use 
it with __GFP_NOFAIL, but is it a good idea to allow that right now? If there 
are none yet (AFAIK?), we should rather let the existing WARN_ON kick in (which 
won't happen if we strip __GFP_NOFAIL) and discuss a better solution for such 
new future caller.

Also this means the kmalloc() cannot do "__GFP_NORETRY | __GFP_NOFAIL" so I'm 
not sure how it's related with your points above - it's not an example of the 
combination that would show that "it makes perfect sense".

Thanks,
Vlastimil

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