diff mbox series

[v2,1/2] PCI/IOV: Revert "PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs sriov_numvfs reads vs writes"

Message ID 170752273224.1693615.11371097645648272257.stgit@bgt-140510-bm01.eng.stellus.in (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Delegated to: Bjorn Helgaas
Headers show
Series PCI/IOV: sriov_numvfs bug fixes | expand

Commit Message

Jim Harris Feb. 9, 2024, 11:52 p.m. UTC
If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
a deadlock.

The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
kernel.

This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
---
 drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)

Comments

Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan Feb. 10, 2024, 3:20 a.m. UTC | #1
On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> a deadlock.
>
> The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> kernel.

Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
/write, please add some comments about why it is not an
issue anymore.

>
> This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> ---
>  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
>  				 char *buf)
>  {
>  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> -	u16 num_vfs;
> -
> -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
>  
> -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
>  }
>  
>  /*
>
Leon Romanovsky Feb. 11, 2024, 8:48 a.m. UTC | #2
On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> 
> On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> > vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> > userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> > since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> > same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> > a deadlock.
> >
> > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> > sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> > kernel.
> 
> Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> issue anymore.

It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be serialized by kernel
is not correct by definition. 

Thanks

> 
> >
> > This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> > Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
> >
> > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> > Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> > ---
> >  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
> >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
> >  				 char *buf)
> >  {
> >  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> > -	u16 num_vfs;
> > -
> > -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> > -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> > -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> > -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
> >  
> > -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> > +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
> >  }
> >  
> >  /*
> >
> -- 
> Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> Linux Kernel Developer
>
Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan Feb. 11, 2024, 7:15 p.m. UTC | #3
On 2/11/24 12:48 AM, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
>> On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
>>> If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
>>> vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
>>> userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
>>> since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
>>> same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
>>> a deadlock.
>>>
>>> The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
>>> sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
>>> kernel.
>> Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
>> /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
>> issue anymore.
> It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be serialized by kernel
> is not correct by definition. 

What:           /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../sriov_numvfs
Date:           November 2012
Contact:        Donald Dutile <ddutile@redhat.com>
Description:
                This file appears when a physical PCIe device supports SR-IOV.
                Userspace applications can read and write to this file to
                determine and control the enablement or disablement of Virtual
                Functions (VFs) on the physical function (PF). A read of this
                file will return the number of VFs that are enabled on this PF.

I am not very clear about the user of this SysFs. But, as per above description,
this sysfs seems to controls the number of VFs. A typical usage is to allow user
to write a value and then read to check the enabled/disabled number of VMs,
right?

If you are not synchronizing, then the value returned may not reflect the actual
number of enabled / disabled VFs. So wont this change affect the existing user
of this SysFS.

>
> Thanks
>
>>> This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
>>> Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
>>>
>>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
>>> Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
>>> Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
>>> Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
>>> ---
>>>  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
>>>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
>>> index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
>>> --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
>>> +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
>>> @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
>>>  				 char *buf)
>>>  {
>>>  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
>>> -	u16 num_vfs;
>>> -
>>> -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
>>> -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
>>> -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
>>> -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
>>>  
>>> -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
>>> +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
>>>  }
>>>  
>>>  /*
>>>
>> -- 
>> Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
>> Linux Kernel Developer
>>
Leon Romanovsky Feb. 12, 2024, 9:31 a.m. UTC | #4
On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 11:15:44AM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> 
> On 2/11/24 12:48 AM, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> >> On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> >>> If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> >>> vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> >>> userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> >>> since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> >>> same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> >>> a deadlock.
> >>>
> >>> The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> >>> sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> >>> kernel.
> >> Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> >> /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> >> issue anymore.
> > It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be serialized by kernel
> > is not correct by definition. 
> 
> What:           /sys/bus/pci/devices/.../sriov_numvfs
> Date:           November 2012
> Contact:        Donald Dutile <ddutile@redhat.com>
> Description:
>                 This file appears when a physical PCIe device supports SR-IOV.
>                 Userspace applications can read and write to this file to
>                 determine and control the enablement or disablement of Virtual
>                 Functions (VFs) on the physical function (PF). A read of this
>                 file will return the number of VFs that are enabled on this PF.
> 
> I am not very clear about the user of this SysFs. But, as per above description,
> this sysfs seems to controls the number of VFs. A typical usage is to allow user
> to write a value and then read to check the enabled/disabled number of VMs,
> right?

No, typical usage is to write a value and observe spawned VFs. The read from
sysfs is allowed for completeness and performed in sequence with write. Any
attempt to read and write in parallel is prone to races by definition as
they are not controlled by the kernel.

> 
> If you are not synchronizing, then the value returned may not reflect the actual
> number of enabled / disabled VFs. So wont this change affect the existing user
> of this SysFS.

No, it won't. Users were supposed to synchronize their read and write
before calling sysfs. If they didn't do it, they already have broken code.

Please read original discussion pointed by Jim.

Thanks

> 
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> >>> This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> >>> Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
> >>>
> >>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> >>> Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> >>> Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> >>> Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> >>> ---
> >>>  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
> >>>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
> >>>
> >>> diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> >>> index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> >>> --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> >>> +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> >>> @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
> >>>  				 char *buf)
> >>>  {
> >>>  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> >>> -	u16 num_vfs;
> >>> -
> >>> -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> >>> -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> >>> -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> >>> -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
> >>>  
> >>> -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> >>> +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
> >>>  }
> >>>  
> >>>  /*
> >>>
> >> -- 
> >> Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> >> Linux Kernel Developer
> >>
> -- 
> Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> Linux Kernel Developer
> 
>
Bjorn Helgaas Feb. 12, 2024, 8:27 p.m. UTC | #5
On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> > > vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> > > userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> > > since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> > > same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> > > a deadlock.
> > >
> > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> > > sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> > > kernel.

The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:

  ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
    cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \

which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  The problem was
that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs read got a stale value
(see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).

So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.

> > Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> > /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> > issue anymore.
> 
> It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
> serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 

I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
clearly wrong, and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.

We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.

It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.

I think we should also add:

  Fixes: 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs sriov_numvfs reads vs writes")

as a trigger for backporting this to kernels that include
35ff867b7657.

Bjorn

> > > This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> > > Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
> > >
> > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> > > Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> > > ---
> > >  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
> > >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> > > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
> > >  				 char *buf)
> > >  {
> > >  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> > > -	u16 num_vfs;
> > > -
> > > -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> > > -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> > > -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> > > -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
> > >  
> > > -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> > > +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
> > >  }
> > >  
> > >  /*
> > >
> > -- 
> > Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> > Linux Kernel Developer
> >
Jim Harris Feb. 12, 2024, 10:59 p.m. UTC | #6
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> > > > vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> > > > userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> > > > since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> > > > same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> > > > a deadlock.
> > > >
> > > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> > > > sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> > > > kernel.
> 
> The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
> 
>   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
>     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
> 
> which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  The problem was
> that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs read got a stale value
> (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).

I don't think 'ip monitor dev' listens for any sysfs events. Or at least if
I have this running and write values to sriov_numvfs, I don't see any
output.

It looks like the original bug report was against v5.0 (matching by dates
and the patch file attached). In that code, we have:

    kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
    iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;

which is identical to how the code looks today. Is it possible that
userspace could react to this uevent and read the stale num_VFs before
iov->num_VFs gets written here? I mean, theoretically it's possible, but
from the bug report it seems like the scenario Pierre was facing was
100% reproducible.

It would be great if we could get input from Pierre on this. It isn't clear
to me from the bug report what exactly is updating the sriov_numvfs sysfs
entry, and what is triggering that update.

We could also revisit my original suggestion, which was to use a
discrete lock just for this sysfs entry, rather than overloading the
device lock. That probably has lower risk of introducing an unintended
regression.

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXNNQkXzluoyeguu@bgt-140510-bm01.eng.stellus.in/

> 
> So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
> reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.
> 
> > > Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> > > /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> > > issue anymore.
> > 
> > It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
> > serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 
> 
> I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
> clearly wrong, and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
> sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.
> 
> We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
> probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
> instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.
> 
> It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
> resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.
> 
> I think we should also add:
> 
>   Fixes: 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs sriov_numvfs reads vs writes")
> 
> as a trigger for backporting this to kernels that include
> 35ff867b7657.
> 
> Bjorn
> 
> > > > This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> > > > Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
> > > >
> > > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> > > > Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > > Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > > Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> > > > ---
> > > >  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
> > > >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
> > > >
> > > > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> > > > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
> > > >  				 char *buf)
> > > >  {
> > > >  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> > > > -	u16 num_vfs;
> > > > -
> > > > -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> > > > -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> > > > -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> > > > -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
> > > >  
> > > > -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> > > > +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
> > > >  }
> > > >  
> > > >  /*
> > > >
> > > -- 
> > > Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> > > Linux Kernel Developer
> > >
Leon Romanovsky Feb. 13, 2024, 7:34 a.m. UTC | #7
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> > > > vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> > > > userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> > > > since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> > > > same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> > > > a deadlock.
> > > >
> > > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> > > > sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> > > > kernel.
> 
> The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
> 
>   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
>     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
> 
> which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  

It is not, "ip monitor ..." listens to netlink events emitted by netdev
core and not sysfs events. Sysfs events are not involved in this case.

> The problem was that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs
> read got a stale value (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).

Yes, and it is outcome of such cross-subsytem involvement, which
is racy by definition. Someone can come with even simpler example of why
locking sysfs read and write is not a good idea. 

For example, let's consider the following scenario with two CPUs and
locks on sysfs read and write:

 CPU1					CPU2
 echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
		 context_switch ->
 					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
					lock
					return 0
					unlock
		context_switch <-
 lock
 set 1
 unlock

 CPU1					CPU2
 echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
 lock
 set 1
 unlock
		 context_switch ->
 					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
					lock
					return 1
					unlock

So same scenario will return different values if user doesn't protect
such case with external to the kernel lock.

But if we return back to Pierre report and if you want to provide
completely bullet proof solution to solve cross-subsystem interaction,
you will need to prohibit device probe till sriov_numvfs update is completed.
However, it is overkill for something that is not a real issue.

> 
> So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
> reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.
> 
> > > Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> > > /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> > > issue anymore.
> > 
> > It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
> > serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 
> 
> I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
> clearly wrong, 

I disagree with this sentence. 

> and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
> sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.
> 
> We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
> probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
> instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.
> 
> It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
> resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.

They won't resolve his problem, because he is not listening to sysfs events,
but rely on something from netdev side.

> 
> I think we should also add:
> 
>   Fixes: 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs sriov_numvfs reads vs writes")
> 
> as a trigger for backporting this to kernels that include
> 35ff867b7657.
> 
> Bjorn
> 
> > > > This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> > > > Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
> > > >
> > > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> > > > Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > > Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > > Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> > > > ---
> > > >  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
> > > >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
> > > >
> > > > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> > > > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
> > > >  				 char *buf)
> > > >  {
> > > >  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> > > > -	u16 num_vfs;
> > > > -
> > > > -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> > > > -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> > > > -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> > > > -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
> > > >  
> > > > -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> > > > +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
> > > >  }
> > > >  
> > > >  /*
> > > >
> > > -- 
> > > Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> > > Linux Kernel Developer
> > > 
>
Leon Romanovsky Feb. 13, 2024, 7:37 a.m. UTC | #8
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 10:59:03PM +0000, Jim Harris wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > > > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> > > > > vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> > > > > userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> > > > > since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> > > > > same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> > > > > a deadlock.
> > > > >
> > > > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> > > > > sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> > > > > kernel.
> > 
> > The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
> > 
> >   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
> >     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
> > 
> > which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  The problem was
> > that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs read got a stale value
> > (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).
> 
> I don't think 'ip monitor dev' listens for any sysfs events. Or at least if
> I have this running and write values to sriov_numvfs, I don't see any
> output.
> 
> It looks like the original bug report was against v5.0 (matching by dates
> and the patch file attached). In that code, we have:
> 
>     kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
>     iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
> 
> which is identical to how the code looks today. Is it possible that
> userspace could react to this uevent and read the stale num_VFs before
> iov->num_VFs gets written here? I mean, theoretically it's possible, but
> from the bug report it seems like the scenario Pierre was facing was
> 100% reproducible.
> 
> It would be great if we could get input from Pierre on this. It isn't clear
> to me from the bug report what exactly is updating the sriov_numvfs sysfs
> entry, and what is triggering that update.
> 
> We could also revisit my original suggestion, which was to use a
> discrete lock just for this sysfs entry, rather than overloading the
> device lock. That probably has lower risk of introducing an unintended
> regression.

The idea that lock issues are need to be solved by adding more locks
doesn't sound good to me.

Thanks

> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXNNQkXzluoyeguu@bgt-140510-bm01.eng.stellus.in/
> 
> > 
> > So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
> > reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.
> > 
> > > > Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> > > > /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> > > > issue anymore.
> > > 
> > > It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
> > > serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 
> > 
> > I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
> > clearly wrong, and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
> > sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.
> > 
> > We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
> > probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
> > instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.
> > 
> > It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
> > resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.
> > 
> > I think we should also add:
> > 
> >   Fixes: 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs sriov_numvfs reads vs writes")
> > 
> > as a trigger for backporting this to kernels that include
> > 35ff867b7657.
> > 
> > Bjorn
> > 
> > > > > This reverts commit 35ff867b76576e32f34c698ccd11343f7d616204.
> > > > > Revert had a small conflict, the sprintf() is now changed to sysfs_emit().
> > > > >
> > > > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/ZXJI5+f8bUelVXqu@ubuntu/
> > > > > Suggested-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > > > Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>
> > > > > Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@samsung.com>
> > > > > ---
> > > > >  drivers/pci/iov.c |    8 +-------
> > > > >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)
> > > > >
> > > > > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
> > > > > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > > > @@ -395,14 +395,8 @@ static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
> > > > >  				 char *buf)
> > > > >  {
> > > > >  	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
> > > > > -	u16 num_vfs;
> > > > > -
> > > > > -	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
> > > > > -	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
> > > > > -	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
> > > > > -	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
> > > > >  
> > > > > -	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
> > > > > +	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
> > > > >  }
> > > > >  
> > > > >  /*
> > > > >
> > > > -- 
> > > > Sathyanarayanan Kuppuswamy
> > > > Linux Kernel Developer
> > > >
CREGUT Pierre IMT/OLN Feb. 13, 2024, 9:40 a.m. UTC | #9
First sorry for not answering earlier but it is a long time ago. I do
not work on the topic any more (a monitoring tool Skydive, an open
source project no more actively developed as far as I know) and only
have vague memories of it.

> 
>      kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
>      iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
> 
> which is identical to how the code looks today. Is it possible that
> userspace could react to this uevent and read the stale num_VFs before
> iov->num_VFs gets written here? I mean, theoretically it's possible, but
> from the bug report it seems like the scenario Pierre was facing was
> 100% reproducible.
 From my memories yes that was exactly the problem. Any stable method
that could detect the change of configuration in user land and ensure
that we get a reliable value of num_vfs after we received it would be
fine.

Best regards,

Pierre Crégut
Jason Gunthorpe Feb. 13, 2024, 2:59 p.m. UTC | #10
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 10:59:03PM +0000, Jim Harris wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > > > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device is removed,
> > > > > vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace of the removal. If
> > > > > userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs entry, that thread will be blocked
> > > > > since sriov_numvfs_show() also tries to acquire the device lock. If that
> > > > > same thread is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results in
> > > > > a deadlock.
> > > > >
> > > > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to listen for a
> > > > > sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the attribute _show() in the
> > > > > kernel.
> > 
> > The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
> > 
> >   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
> >     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
> > 
> > which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  The problem was
> > that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs read got a stale value
> > (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).
> 
> I don't think 'ip monitor dev' listens for any sysfs events. Or at least if
> I have this running and write values to sriov_numvfs, I don't see any
> output.

The issue is that the sysfs change inadvertently throws out a netlink
event (or udev event, or whatever) and something can observe that
event and then turn around and read the sysfs and observe a sysfs
result that hasn't caught up to the event launch.

The lock fixed this because it held it across the event launch and the
update of the internal state.

> It looks like the original bug report was against v5.0 (matching by dates
> and the patch file attached). In that code, we have:
> 
>     kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
>     iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;

This is a udev event, I suspect the ip monitor event was thrown by
driver binding during the VF creation.

Jason
Bjorn Helgaas Feb. 13, 2024, 3:59 p.m. UTC | #11
On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:34:50AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > > > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device
> > > > > is removed, vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace
> > > > > of the removal. If userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs
> > > > > entry, that thread will be blocked since sriov_numvfs_show()
> > > > > also tries to acquire the device lock. If that same thread
> > > > > is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results
> > > > > in a deadlock.
> > > > >
> > > > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to
> > > > > listen for a sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the
> > > > > attribute _show() in the kernel.
> > 
> > The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
> > 
> >   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
> >     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
> > 
> > which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  
> 
> It is not, "ip monitor ..." listens to netlink events emitted by
> netdev core and not sysfs events. Sysfs events are not involved in
> this case.

Thanks for correcting my hasty assumption!

> > The problem was that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs
> > read got a stale value (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).
> 
> Yes, and it is outcome of such cross-subsytem involvement, which
> is racy by definition. Someone can come with even simpler example of why
> locking sysfs read and write is not a good idea. 
> 
> For example, let's consider the following scenario with two CPUs and
> locks on sysfs read and write:
> 
>  CPU1					CPU2
>  echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> 		 context_switch ->
>  					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> 					lock
> 					return 0
> 					unlock
> 		context_switch <-
>  lock
>  set 1
>  unlock
> 
>  CPU1					CPU2
>  echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
>  lock
>  set 1
>  unlock
> 		 context_switch ->
>  					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> 					lock
> 					return 1
> 					unlock
> 
> So same scenario will return different values if user doesn't protect
> such case with external to the kernel lock.
> 
> But if we return back to Pierre report and if you want to provide
> completely bullet proof solution to solve cross-subsystem interaction,
> you will need to prohibit device probe till sriov_numvfs update is completed.
> However, it is overkill for something that is not a real issue.

Pierre wanted to detect the configuration change and learn the new
num_vfs, which seems like a reasonable thing to do.  Is there a way to
do both via netlink or some other mechanism?

> > So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
> > reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.
> > 
> > > > Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> > > > /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> > > > issue anymore.
> > > 
> > > It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
> > > serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 
> > 
> > I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
> > clearly wrong, 
> 
> I disagree with this sentence. 
> 
> > and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
> > sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.
> > 
> > We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
> > probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
> > instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.
> > 
> > It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
> > resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.
> 
> They won't resolve his problem, because he is not listening to sysfs
> events, but rely on something from netdev side.

I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
this will look like a regression.

Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
"correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
very least we should include specific details about what the user code
*should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".

Bjorn
Leon Romanovsky Feb. 13, 2024, 5:46 p.m. UTC | #12
On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:34:50AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
> > > > > On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
> > > > > > If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device
> > > > > > is removed, vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace
> > > > > > of the removal. If userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs
> > > > > > entry, that thread will be blocked since sriov_numvfs_show()
> > > > > > also tries to acquire the device lock. If that same thread
> > > > > > is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results
> > > > > > in a deadlock.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to
> > > > > > listen for a sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the
> > > > > > attribute _show() in the kernel.
> > > 
> > > The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
> > > 
> > >   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
> > >     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
> > > 
> > > which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  
> > 
> > It is not, "ip monitor ..." listens to netlink events emitted by
> > netdev core and not sysfs events. Sysfs events are not involved in
> > this case.
> 
> Thanks for correcting my hasty assumption!
> 
> > > The problem was that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs
> > > read got a stale value (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).
> > 
> > Yes, and it is outcome of such cross-subsytem involvement, which
> > is racy by definition. Someone can come with even simpler example of why
> > locking sysfs read and write is not a good idea. 
> > 
> > For example, let's consider the following scenario with two CPUs and
> > locks on sysfs read and write:
> > 
> >  CPU1					CPU2
> >  echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> > 		 context_switch ->
> >  					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> > 					lock
> > 					return 0
> > 					unlock
> > 		context_switch <-
> >  lock
> >  set 1
> >  unlock
> > 
> >  CPU1					CPU2
> >  echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> >  lock
> >  set 1
> >  unlock
> > 		 context_switch ->
> >  					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
> > 					lock
> > 					return 1
> > 					unlock
> > 
> > So same scenario will return different values if user doesn't protect
> > such case with external to the kernel lock.
> > 
> > But if we return back to Pierre report and if you want to provide
> > completely bullet proof solution to solve cross-subsystem interaction,
> > you will need to prohibit device probe till sriov_numvfs update is completed.
> > However, it is overkill for something that is not a real issue.
> 
> Pierre wanted to detect the configuration change and learn the new
> num_vfs, which seems like a reasonable thing to do.  Is there a way to
> do both via netlink or some other mechanism?

Please pay attention that Pierre listened to specific netdevice and not
to something general. After patch #2 in Jim's series, he will be able to
rely on "udevadm monitor" instead of "ip monitor".

> 
> > > So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
> > > reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.
> > > 
> > > > > Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
> > > > > /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
> > > > > issue anymore.
> > > > 
> > > > It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
> > > > serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 
> > > 
> > > I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
> > > clearly wrong, 
> > 
> > I disagree with this sentence. 
> > 
> > > and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
> > > sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.
> > > 
> > > We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
> > > probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
> > > instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.
> > > 
> > > It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
> > > resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.
> > 
> > They won't resolve his problem, because he is not listening to sysfs
> > events, but rely on something from netdev side.
> 
> I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
> reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
> the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
> this will look like a regression.
> 
> Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
> "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
> existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
> very least we should include specific details about what the user code
> *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
> instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".

udevadm monitor will do the trick.

Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
.probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.

Thanks

> 
> Bjorn
>
Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan Feb. 13, 2024, 6 p.m. UTC | #13
On 2/13/24 9:46 AM, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:34:50AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
>>> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 02:27:14PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
>>>> On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 10:48:44AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 07:20:28PM -0800, Kuppuswamy Sathyanarayanan wrote:
>>>>>> On 2/9/24 3:52 PM, Jim Harris wrote:
>>>>>>> If an SR-IOV enabled device is held by vfio, and the device
>>>>>>> is removed, vfio will hold device lock and notify userspace
>>>>>>> of the removal. If userspace reads the sriov_numvfs sysfs
>>>>>>> entry, that thread will be blocked since sriov_numvfs_show()
>>>>>>> also tries to acquire the device lock. If that same thread
>>>>>>> is responsible for releasing the device to vfio, it results
>>>>>>> in a deadlock.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The proper way to detect a change to the num_VFs value is to
>>>>>>> listen for a sysfs event, not to add a device_lock() on the
>>>>>>> attribute _show() in the kernel.
>>>> The lock was not about detecting a change; Pierre did this:
>>>>
>>>>   ip monitor dev ${DEVICE} | grep --line-buffered "^${id}:" | while read line; do \
>>>>     cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs; \
>>>>
>>>> which I assume works by listening for sysfs events.  
>>> It is not, "ip monitor ..." listens to netlink events emitted by
>>> netdev core and not sysfs events. Sysfs events are not involved in
>>> this case.
>> Thanks for correcting my hasty assumption!
>>
>>>> The problem was that after the event occurred, the sriov_numvfs
>>>> read got a stale value (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991).
>>> Yes, and it is outcome of such cross-subsytem involvement, which
>>> is racy by definition. Someone can come with even simpler example of why
>>> locking sysfs read and write is not a good idea. 
>>>
>>> For example, let's consider the following scenario with two CPUs and
>>> locks on sysfs read and write:
>>>
>>>  CPU1					CPU2
>>>  echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
>>> 		 context_switch ->
>>>  					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
>>> 					lock
>>> 					return 0
>>> 					unlock
>>> 		context_switch <-
>>>  lock
>>>  set 1
>>>  unlock
>>>
>>>  CPU1					CPU2
>>>  echo 1 > ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
>>>  lock
>>>  set 1
>>>  unlock
>>> 		 context_switch ->
>>>  					cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs
>>> 					lock
>>> 					return 1
>>> 					unlock
>>>
>>> So same scenario will return different values if user doesn't protect
>>> such case with external to the kernel lock.
>>>
>>> But if we return back to Pierre report and if you want to provide
>>> completely bullet proof solution to solve cross-subsystem interaction,
>>> you will need to prohibit device probe till sriov_numvfs update is completed.
>>> However, it is overkill for something that is not a real issue.
>> Pierre wanted to detect the configuration change and learn the new
>> num_vfs, which seems like a reasonable thing to do.  Is there a way to
>> do both via netlink or some other mechanism?
> Please pay attention that Pierre listened to specific netdevice and not
> to something general. After patch #2 in Jim's series, he will be able to
> rely on "udevadm monitor" instead of "ip monitor".
>
>>>> So I would drop this sentence because I don't think it accurately
>>>> reflects the reason for 35ff867b7657.
>>>>
>>>>>> Since you are reverting a commit that synchronizes SysFS read
>>>>>> /write, please add some comments about why it is not an
>>>>>> issue anymore.
>>>>> It was never an issue, the idea that sysfs read and write should be
>>>>> serialized by kernel is not correct by definition. 
>>>> I think it *was* an issue.  The behavior Pierre observed at was
>>>> clearly wrong, 
>>> I disagree with this sentence. 
>>>
>>>> and we added 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
>>>> sriov_numvfs reads vs writes") to resolve it.
>>>>
>>>> We should try to avoid reintroducing the problem, so I think we should
>>>> probably squash these two patches and describe it as a deadlock fix
>>>> instead of dismissing 35ff867b7657 as being based on false premises.
>>>>
>>>> It would be awesome if you had time to verify that these patches also
>>>> resolve the problem you saw, Pierre.
>>> They won't resolve his problem, because he is not listening to sysfs
>>> events, but rely on something from netdev side.
>> I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
>> reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
>> the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
>> this will look like a regression.
>>
>> Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
>> "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
>> existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
>> very least we should include specific details about what the user code
>> *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
>> instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".
> udevadm monitor will do the trick.
>
> Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
> .probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.
>
> Thanks


IMO,  we can update the sriov_numvfs documentation to let users
aware of the possible race condition between read/write, and also
suggestion about using uevents for device changes.


>> Bjorn
>>
Bjorn Helgaas Feb. 13, 2024, 7:45 p.m. UTC | #14
On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 07:46:02PM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> ...

> > I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
> > reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
> > the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
> > this will look like a regression.
> > 
> > Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
> > "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
> > existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
> > very least we should include specific details about what the user code
> > *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
> > instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".
> 
> udevadm monitor will do the trick.
> 
> Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
> .probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.

I like the idea of refactoring it so as to preserve the existing
ordering while also fixing the deadlock.

If, in addition, we want to update the sriov_numvfs documentation to
recommend "udevadm monitor" + /sys/.../sriov_numvfs, that's fine, too,
but I don't really like the idea of merging a patch and forcing users
to update their code.

So I'll table the v2 series for now and watch for a v3 with the
refactoring.

Bjorn
Leon Romanovsky Feb. 14, 2024, 7:16 a.m. UTC | #15
On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 01:45:56PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 07:46:02PM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > ...
> 
> > > I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
> > > reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
> > > the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
> > > this will look like a regression.
> > > 
> > > Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
> > > "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
> > > existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
> > > very least we should include specific details about what the user code
> > > *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
> > > instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".
> > 
> > udevadm monitor will do the trick.
> > 
> > Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
> > .probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.
> 
> I like the idea of refactoring it so as to preserve the existing
> ordering while also fixing the deadlock.

I think something like this will be enough (not tested). It will et the number of VFs
before we make VFs visible to probe:

diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
index aaa33e8dc4c9..0cdfaae80594 100644
--- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
+++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
@@ -679,12 +679,14 @@ static int sriov_enable(struct pci_dev *dev, int nr_virtfn)
 	msleep(100);
 	pci_cfg_access_unlock(dev);
 
+	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
 	rc = sriov_add_vfs(dev, initial);
-	if (rc)
+	if (rc) {
+		iov->num_VFs = 0;
 		goto err_pcibios;
+	}
 
 	kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
-	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
 
 	return 0;
Jim Harris Feb. 14, 2024, 5:04 p.m. UTC | #16
On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 09:16:18AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 01:45:56PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 07:46:02PM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > ...
> > 
> > > > I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
> > > > reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
> > > > the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
> > > > this will look like a regression.
> > > > 
> > > > Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
> > > > "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
> > > > existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
> > > > very least we should include specific details about what the user code
> > > > *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
> > > > instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".
> > > 
> > > udevadm monitor will do the trick.
> > > 
> > > Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
> > > .probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.
> > 
> > I like the idea of refactoring it so as to preserve the existing
> > ordering while also fixing the deadlock.
> 
> I think something like this will be enough (not tested). It will et the number of VFs
> before we make VFs visible to probe:

I'll push a v3, replacing the second patch with this one instead. Although
based on this discussion it seems we're moving towards squashing the revert
with Leon's suggested patch. Bjorn, I'll assume you're still OK with just
squashing these on your end.

I would like some input on how to actually test this though. Presumably we see
some event on device PF and we want to make sure if we read PF/device/sriov_numvfs
that we see the updated value. But the only type of event I think we can
expect is the PF's sriov_numvfs CHANGE event.

Is there any way for VFs to be created outside of writing to the
sriov_numvfs sysfs file? My understanding is some older devices/drivers will
auto-create VFs when the PF is initialized, but it wasn't clear from the bug
report whether that was part of the configuration here. Pierre, do you have
any recollection on this?

Or maybe testing for this case just means compile and verify with udevadm
monitor that we see the CHANGE event before any of the VFs are actually
created...

> 
> diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> index aaa33e8dc4c9..0cdfaae80594 100644
> --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> @@ -679,12 +679,14 @@ static int sriov_enable(struct pci_dev *dev, int nr_virtfn)
>  	msleep(100);
>  	pci_cfg_access_unlock(dev);
>  
> +	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
>  	rc = sriov_add_vfs(dev, initial);
> -	if (rc)
> +	if (rc) {
> +		iov->num_VFs = 0;
>  		goto err_pcibios;
> +	}
>  
>  	kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
> -	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
>  
>  	return 0;
>
Bjorn Helgaas Feb. 14, 2024, 5:50 p.m. UTC | #17
On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 05:04:08PM +0000, Jim Harris wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 09:16:18AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 01:45:56PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 07:46:02PM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > > ...
> > > 
> > > > > I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
> > > > > reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
> > > > > the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
> > > > > this will look like a regression.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
> > > > > "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
> > > > > existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
> > > > > very least we should include specific details about what the user code
> > > > > *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
> > > > > instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".
> > > > 
> > > > udevadm monitor will do the trick.
> > > > 
> > > > Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
> > > > .probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.
> > > 
> > > I like the idea of refactoring it so as to preserve the existing
> > > ordering while also fixing the deadlock.
> > 
> > I think something like this will be enough (not tested). It will et the number of VFs
> > before we make VFs visible to probe:
> 
> I'll push a v3, replacing the second patch with this one instead. Although
> based on this discussion it seems we're moving towards squashing the revert
> with Leon's suggested patch. Bjorn, I'll assume you're still OK with just
> squashing these on your end.

Yep.

> I would like some input on how to actually test this though.
> Presumably we see some event on device PF and we want to make sure
> if we read PF/device/sriov_numvfs that we see the updated value. But
> the only type of event I think we can expect is the PF's
> sriov_numvfs CHANGE event.
> 
> Is there any way for VFs to be created outside of writing to the
> sriov_numvfs sysfs file? My understanding is some older
> devices/drivers will auto-create VFs when the PF is initialized, but
> it wasn't clear from the bug report whether that was part of the
> configuration here. Pierre, do you have any recollection on this?
> 
> Or maybe testing for this case just means compile and verify with
> udevadm monitor that we see the CHANGE event before any of the VFs
> are actually created...

I just want to make sure that Pierre's existing code continues to work
unchanged.

Ideally we could revert 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
sriov_numvfs reads vs writes"), reproduce the problem with the shell
script attached to https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991
(I assume Pierre used a /sys/.../sriov_numvfs write to trigger the
change).

Then we could verify that with 35ff867b7657 still reverted but the
change below added, the problem is no longer reproducible.

> > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0cdfaae80594 100644
> > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > @@ -679,12 +679,14 @@ static int sriov_enable(struct pci_dev *dev, int nr_virtfn)
> >  	msleep(100);
> >  	pci_cfg_access_unlock(dev);
> >  
> > +	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
> >  	rc = sriov_add_vfs(dev, initial);
> > -	if (rc)
> > +	if (rc) {
> > +		iov->num_VFs = 0;
> >  		goto err_pcibios;
> > +	}
> >  
> >  	kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
> > -	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
> >  
> >  	return 0;
> >
Jim Harris Feb. 14, 2024, 10:55 p.m. UTC | #18
On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 11:50:00AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 05:04:08PM +0000, Jim Harris wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 09:16:18AM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 01:45:56PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 07:46:02PM +0200, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> > > > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 09:59:54AM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > > > ...
> > > > 
> > > > > > I guess that means that if we apply this revert, the problem Pierre
> > > > > > reported will return.  Obviously the deadlock is more important than
> > > > > > the inconsistency Pierre observed, but from the user's point of view
> > > > > > this will look like a regression.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Maybe listening to netlink and then looking at sysfs isn't the
> > > > > > "correct" way to do this, but I don't want to just casually break
> > > > > > existing user code.  If we do contemplate doing the revert, at the
> > > > > > very least we should include specific details about what the user code
> > > > > > *should* do instead, at the level of the actual commands to use
> > > > > > instead of "ip monitor dev; cat ${path}/device/sriov_numvfs".
> > > > > 
> > > > > udevadm monitor will do the trick.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Another possible solution is to refactor the code to make sure that
> > > > > .probe on VFs happens only after sriov_numvfs is updated.
> > > > 
> > > > I like the idea of refactoring it so as to preserve the existing
> > > > ordering while also fixing the deadlock.
> > > 
> > > I think something like this will be enough (not tested). It will et the number of VFs
> > > before we make VFs visible to probe:
> > 
> > I'll push a v3, replacing the second patch with this one instead. Although
> > based on this discussion it seems we're moving towards squashing the revert
> > with Leon's suggested patch. Bjorn, I'll assume you're still OK with just
> > squashing these on your end.
> 
> Yep.
> 
> > I would like some input on how to actually test this though.
> > Presumably we see some event on device PF and we want to make sure
> > if we read PF/device/sriov_numvfs that we see the updated value. But
> > the only type of event I think we can expect is the PF's
> > sriov_numvfs CHANGE event.
> > 
> > Is there any way for VFs to be created outside of writing to the
> > sriov_numvfs sysfs file? My understanding is some older
> > devices/drivers will auto-create VFs when the PF is initialized, but
> > it wasn't clear from the bug report whether that was part of the
> > configuration here. Pierre, do you have any recollection on this?
> > 
> > Or maybe testing for this case just means compile and verify with
> > udevadm monitor that we see the CHANGE event before any of the VFs
> > are actually created...
> 
> I just want to make sure that Pierre's existing code continues to work
> unchanged.
> 
> Ideally we could revert 35ff867b7657 ("PCI/IOV: Serialize sysfs
> sriov_numvfs reads vs writes"), reproduce the problem with the shell
> script attached to https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=202991
> (I assume Pierre used a /sys/.../sriov_numvfs write to trigger the
> change).
 
That shell script generates no output when writing to sriov_numvfs, so I'm
unable to reproduce the problem.

Terminal 1:
# ip monitor dev ens7f0np0

Terminal 2:
# echo 1 > /sys/class/net/ens7f0np0/device/sriov_numvfs
#

No output in terminal 1.

I've done what testing I can with the proposed patch below, I'll send out the
v3 series here shortly.

> Then we could verify that with 35ff867b7657 still reverted but the
> change below added, the problem is no longer reproducible.
> 
> > > diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > index aaa33e8dc4c9..0cdfaae80594 100644
> > > --- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > +++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
> > > @@ -679,12 +679,14 @@ static int sriov_enable(struct pci_dev *dev, int nr_virtfn)
> > >  	msleep(100);
> > >  	pci_cfg_access_unlock(dev);
> > >  
> > > +	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
> > >  	rc = sriov_add_vfs(dev, initial);
> > > -	if (rc)
> > > +	if (rc) {
> > > +		iov->num_VFs = 0;
> > >  		goto err_pcibios;
> > > +	}
> > >  
> > >  	kobject_uevent(&dev->dev.kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE);
> > > -	iov->num_VFs = nr_virtfn;
> > >  
> > >  	return 0;
> > >
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/drivers/pci/iov.c b/drivers/pci/iov.c
index aaa33e8dc4c9..0ca20cd518d5 100644
--- a/drivers/pci/iov.c
+++ b/drivers/pci/iov.c
@@ -395,14 +395,8 @@  static ssize_t sriov_numvfs_show(struct device *dev,
 				 char *buf)
 {
 	struct pci_dev *pdev = to_pci_dev(dev);
-	u16 num_vfs;
-
-	/* Serialize vs sriov_numvfs_store() so readers see valid num_VFs */
-	device_lock(&pdev->dev);
-	num_vfs = pdev->sriov->num_VFs;
-	device_unlock(&pdev->dev);
 
-	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", num_vfs);
+	return sysfs_emit(buf, "%u\n", pdev->sriov->num_VFs);
 }
 
 /*