Re: PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped

From: Benjamin Herrenschmidt (benh_at_kernel.crashing.org)
Date: 04/19/05

  • Next message: Benjamin Herrenschmidt: "Re: PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped" 
    To: Linas Vepstas <linas@austin.ibm.com>
Date:	Tue, 19 Apr 2005 11:01:25 +1000

    On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 14:38 -0500, Linas Vepstas wrote:
    >
    > Hi,
    >
    > The patch below appears to fix a problem where a number of dead processes
    > linger on the system. On a highly loaded system, dozens of processes
    > were found stuck in do_exit(), calling thier very last schedule(), and
    > then being lost forever.
    >
    > Processes that are PF_DEAD are cleaned up *after* the context switch,
    > in a routine called finish_task_switch(task_t *prev). The "prev" gets
    > the value returned by _switch() in entry.S, but this value comes from
    >
    > __switch_to (struct task_struct *prev,
    > struct task_struct *new)
    > {
    > old_thread = &current->thread; ///XXX shouldn't this be prev, not current?
    > last = _switch(old_thread, new_thread);
    > return last;
    > }
    >
    > The way I see it, "prev" and "current" are almost always going to be
    > pointing at the same thing; however, if a "need resched" happens,
    > or there's a pre-emept or some-such, then prev and current won't be
    > the same; in which case, finish_task_switch() will end up cleaning
    > up the old current, instead of prev. This will result in dead processes
    > hanging around, which will never be scheduled again, and will never
    > get a chance to have put_task_struct() called on them.

    I wonder why we bother doing all that at all... we could just return
    "prev" from __switch_to() no ? Like x86 does...

    Ben.

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  • Next message: Benjamin Herrenschmidt: "Re: PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped"

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    • Re: PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped
      ... >> The patch below appears to fix a problem where a number of dead processes ... >> linger on the system. ... On a highly loaded system, ... send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in ...
      (Linux-Kernel)
    • PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped
      ... The patch below appears to fix a problem where a number of dead processes ... On a highly loaded system, ... "prev" and "current" are almost always going to be ... This patch fixes this. ...
      (Linux-Kernel)
    • Re: PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped
      ... > The patch below appears to fix a problem where a number of dead processes ... the scheduler itself can be preempted or so ... ... under which circumstances can prev and current be different? ... send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in ...
      (Linux-Kernel)
    • Re: PATCH [PPC64]: dead processes never reaped
      ... >> The patch below appears to fix a problem where a number of dead processes ... Naively, we could rturn "prev", this would save a few ... conservative with the patch, ... send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in ...
      (Linux-Kernel)