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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt | 58 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..1423d2570d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +Using RCU's CPU Stall Detector + +The CONFIG_RCU_CPU_STALL_DETECTOR kernel config parameter enables +RCU's CPU stall detector, which detects conditions that unduly delay +RCU grace periods. The stall detector's idea of what constitutes +"unduly delayed" is controlled by a pair of C preprocessor macros: + +RCU_SECONDS_TILL_STALL_CHECK + + This macro defines the period of time that RCU will wait from + the beginning of a grace period until it issues an RCU CPU + stall warning. It is normally ten seconds. + +RCU_SECONDS_TILL_STALL_RECHECK + + This macro defines the period of time that RCU will wait after + issuing a stall warning until it issues another stall warning. + It is normally set to thirty seconds. + +RCU_STALL_RAT_DELAY + + The CPU stall detector tries to make the offending CPU rat on itself, + as this often gives better-quality stack traces. However, if + the offending CPU does not detect its own stall in the number + of jiffies specified by RCU_STALL_RAT_DELAY, then other CPUs will + complain. This is normally set to two jiffies. + +The following problems can result in an RCU CPU stall warning: + +o A CPU looping in an RCU read-side critical section. + +o A CPU looping with interrupts disabled. + +o A CPU looping with preemption disabled. + +o For !CONFIG_PREEMPT kernels, a CPU looping anywhere in the kernel + without invoking schedule(). + +o A bug in the RCU implementation. + +o A hardware failure. This is quite unlikely, but has occurred + at least once in a former life. A CPU failed in a running system, + becoming unresponsive, but not causing an immediate crash. + This resulted in a series of RCU CPU stall warnings, eventually + leading the realization that the CPU had failed. + +The RCU, RCU-sched, and RCU-bh implementations have CPU stall warning. +SRCU does not do so directly, but its calls to synchronize_sched() will +result in RCU-sched detecting any CPU stalls that might be occurring. + +To diagnose the cause of the stall, inspect the stack traces. The offending +function will usually be near the top of the stack. If you have a series +of stall warnings from a single extended stall, comparing the stack traces +can often help determine where the stall is occurring, which will usually +be in the function nearest the top of the stack that stays the same from +trace to trace. + +RCU bugs can often be debugged with the help of CONFIG_RCU_TRACE. |