From 2c96c7751d2bb822542b03ddfaca70933f5aaf02 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Paul E. McKenney" Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:34:02 -0700 Subject: rcu: upgrade stallwarn.txt documentation for CPU-bound RT processes CPU-bound real-time processes can cause RCU CPU stall warnings, and much other trouble as well. Document the fact that they can cause RCU CPU stall warnings. Suggested-by: Darren Hart Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney --- Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+) (limited to 'Documentation/RCU') diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt index 44c6dcc93d6..862c08ef1fd 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt @@ -80,6 +80,24 @@ o A CPU looping with bottom halves disabled. This condition can o For !CONFIG_PREEMPT kernels, a CPU looping anywhere in the kernel without invoking schedule(). +o A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT kernel, which might + happen to preempt a low-priority task in the middle of an RCU + read-side critical section. This is especially damaging if + that low-priority task is not permitted to run on any other CPU, + in which case the next RCU grace period can never complete, which + will eventually cause the system to run out of memory and hang. + While the system is in the process of running itself out of + memory, you might see stall-warning messages. + +o A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT kernel that + is running at a higher priority than the RCU softirq threads. + This will prevent RCU callbacks from ever being invoked, + and in a CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernel will further prevent + RCU grace periods from ever completing. Either way, the + system will eventually run out of memory and hang. In the + CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU case, you might see stall-warning + messages. + o A bug in the RCU implementation. o A hardware failure. This is quite unlikely, but has occurred -- cgit v1.2.3