Re: Atomic operations (SPARC)

From: Paul H. Hargrove (PHHargrove_at_lbl_dot_gov)
Date: Tue Aug 25 2009 - 12:01:43 PDT

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    Alan Woodland wrote:
    > 2009/8/25 Paul H. Hargrove <PHHargrove_at_lbl_dot_gov>:
    >   
    >> Alan Woodland wrote:
    >>     
    >>> 2009/8/24 Paul H. Hargrove <PHHargrove_at_lbl_dot_gov>:
    >>>
    >>> Which aspect of 'signalsafe' is problematic here? The async safe part?
    >>> (I.e. if we get interrupted by a signal halfway through an atomic op
    >>> we'd be holding a global lock and deadlock if we called another atomic
    >>> op from the signal handler?)
    >>>
    >>>       
    >> This is exactly what we need to work, because the checkpoint request arrives
    >> via a signal handler and the "interaction" between critical sections and the
    >> checkpoint requests is via a "red-black lock" implemented via signal-safe
    >> atomics.  Note that the issue is not a "global" lock, but that the common
    >> case is that the signal handler and the code it interrupts are accessing the
    >> same atomic variable.  That is why a "checkout" based approach using
    >> test-and-set or load-and-clear to lock even on the granularity of a single
    >> word is not acceptable.
    >>
    >>     
    >>> Which parts of the library actually need to be async safe? Is it just
    >>> things which get called from the 'my_handler' functions in cr_cs.c and
    >>> cr_async.c? (Also what's the problem in blocking signals whilst inside
    >>> a replacement CAS function? Is it the unblockable signals?)
    >>>
    >>>       
    >> I think you've listed the right parts.  The reason for not blocking signals
    >> is two-fold
    >> 1) You can't block the checkpoint signal because BLCR will just unblocking
    >> from the kernel side
    >> 2) You wouldn't want to block it if you could, because you may be spinning
    >> on a change of value that will only occur in a signal handler.
    >>     
    >
    > I've thought about it some more and I think there might be a
    > workaround for modern (~ 2.6.20 IIRC) kernels and glibc(2.9?) using
    > signalfd(2). You can get signals delivered via a file descriptor which
    > sidesteps some of the problems making things async-safe I think
    > because the rest of your threads remain runnable.
    >
    > So what this would need is two things then, firstly a thread dedicated
    > to handling signals via signalfd, and secondly a way of ensuring that
    > whilst you hold a lock inside an atomic_compare_and_swap replacement
    > function signals never get delivered to that thread.
    >
    > Does that sound remotely sensible? It would avoid the deadlock in the
    > signal handler routines because progress could always be made, and it
    > would avoid the problem sof blocking signals because they wouldn't be
    > totally blocked as far as I can see? I've not seen anything that would
    > cause problems by running the signal handlers outside of a
    > 'traditional' signal context, or in a dedicated thread?
    >
    > The only problem I can see would be with signals directed at a
    > specific thread rather than the process as a whole, with the signal
    > thread wouldn't get to see ever. That could be worked around with a
    > handler that forwarded the signal to the signal handling thread I
    > think. (In which case blocking the signals whilst inside the CAS
    > replacement wouldn't be the right description anymore)
    >
    > Alan
    >   
    
    Alan,
    
      I thank you for continuing to think about this.  However, I don't 
    think you are headed in the right direction with this.
      What you describe sounds like it might work, but as I said I am not 
    currently familiar enough with the atomics use in BLCR to be certain.  
    One thing I am concerned about is that BLCR *must* eventually interrupt 
    each specific thread with a signal because it is the signal handler that 
    actually takes the checkpoint (unless blocked by a critical section, 
    which is part of what the atomics are all about).  Your idea of 
    forwarding the signal doesn't sound quite right (maybe I am missing 
    something) and would probably require we steal a second signal number 
    (which I would rather avoid).
      However, what you describe sounds more complex than just moving any 
    problematic locking operation(s) into the BLCR kernel module (taking the 
    idea of futexes a bit further).  If you want to pursue improved 
    portability of BLCR, that might be the best way to go.
      I'd also be interested in seeing how NPTL operates on SparcLite before 
    coming to any conclusions.
    
    -Paul
    
    -- 
    Paul H. Hargrove                          PHHargrove_at_lbl_dot_gov
    Future Technologies Group                 Tel: +1-510-495-2352
    HPC Research Department                   Fax: +1-510-486-6900
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory     
    

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