kernel-ark/arch/powerpc
Thomas Gleixner b8f8c3cf0a nohz: prevent tick stop outside of the idle loop
Jack Ren and Eric Miao tracked down the following long standing
problem in the NOHZ code:

	scheduler switch to idle task
	enable interrupts

Window starts here

	----> interrupt happens (does not set NEED_RESCHED)
	      	irq_exit() stops the tick

	----> interrupt happens (does set NEED_RESCHED)

	return from schedule()
	
	cpu_idle(): preempt_disable();

Window ends here

The interrupts can happen at any point inside the race window. The
first interrupt stops the tick, the second one causes the scheduler to
rerun and switch away from idle again and we end up with the tick
disabled.

The fact that it needs two interrupts where the first one does not set
NEED_RESCHED and the second one does made the bug obscure and extremly
hard to reproduce and analyse. Kudos to Jack and Eric.

Solution: Limit the NOHZ functionality to the idle loop to make sure
that we can not run into such a situation ever again.

cpu_idle()
{
	preempt_disable();

	while(1) {
		 tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick(1); <- tell NOHZ code that we
		 			          are in the idle loop

		 while (!need_resched())
		       halt();

		 tick_nohz_restart_sched_tick(); <- disables NOHZ mode
		 preempt_enable_no_resched();
		 schedule();
		 preempt_disable();
	}
}

In hindsight we should have done this forever, but ... 

/me grabs a large brown paperbag.

Debugged-by: Jack Ren <jack.ren@marvell.com>, 
Debugged-by: eric miao <eric.y.miao@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
2008-07-18 18:10:28 +02:00
..
boot Merge branch 'for-2.6.26' of master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/galak/powerpc into merge 2008-05-20 19:46:37 +10:00
configs [POWERPC] Update defconfigs for desktop/server systems 2008-05-20 20:04:12 +10:00
kernel nohz: prevent tick stop outside of the idle loop 2008-07-18 18:10:28 +02:00
kvm KVM: ppc: deliver INTERRUPT_FP_UNAVAIL to the guest 2008-05-04 14:44:45 +03:00
lib [POWERPC] ppc: More compile fixes 2008-05-12 22:57:51 +10:00
math-emu [POWERPC] Replace remaining __FUNCTION__ occurrences 2008-04-01 20:43:09 +11:00
mm [POWERPC] Fix __set_fixmap() for STRICT_MM_TYPECHECKS 2008-05-23 16:15:32 +10:00
oprofile Merge branch 'linux-2.6' 2008-04-14 21:11:02 +10:00
platforms nohz: prevent tick stop outside of the idle loop 2008-07-18 18:10:28 +02:00
sysdev [POWERPC] mpic: Fix use of uninitialized variable 2008-05-23 16:15:37 +10:00
xmon [POWERPC] spufs: fix concurrent delivery of class 0 & 1 exceptions 2008-05-05 13:33:44 +10:00
.gitignore
Kconfig [RAPIDIO] Add RapidIO option to kernel configuration 2008-04-29 19:40:27 +10:00
Kconfig.debug [POWERPC] Add IRQSTACKS support on ppc32 2008-04-29 15:57:34 +10:00
Makefile KVM: ppc: PowerPC 440 KVM implementation 2008-04-27 18:21:39 +03:00