diff mbox series

[v4,1/9] pthreads NPTL: lost wakeup fix 2

Message ID 20230509175558.10014-2-malteskarupke@fastmail.fm
State New
Headers show
Series Patch to fix glibc condition variable bug (BZ 25847) | expand

Commit Message

develop--- via Libc-alpha May 9, 2023, 5:55 p.m. UTC
From: Frank Barrus <frankbarrus_sw@shaggy.cc>

This fixes the lost wakeup (from a bug in signal stealing) with a change
in the usage of g_signals[] in the condition variable internal state.
It also completely eliminates the concept and handling of signal stealing,
as well as the need for signalers to block to wait for waiters to wake
up every time there is a G1/G2 switch.  This greatly reduces the average
and maximum latency for pthread_cond_signal.

The g_signals[] field now contains a signal count that is relative to
the current g1_start value.  Since it is a 32-bit field, and the LSB is
still reserved (though not currently used anymore), it has a 31-bit value
that corresponds to the low 31 bits of the sequence number in g1_start.
(since g1_start also has an LSB flag, this means bits 31:1 in g_signals
correspond to bits 31:1 in g1_start, plus the current signal count)

By making the signal count relative to g1_start, there is no longer
any ambiguity or A/B/A issue, and thus any checks before blocking,
including the futex call itself, are guaranteed not to block if the G1/G2
switch occurs, even if the signal count remains the same.  This allows
initially safely blocking in G2 until the switch to G1 occurs, and
then transitioning from G1 to a new G1 or G2, and always being able to
distinguish the state change.  This removes the race condition and A/B/A
problems that otherwise ocurred if a late (pre-empted) waiter were to
resume just as the futex call attempted to block on g_signal since
otherwise there was no last opportunity to re-check things like whether
the current G1 group was already closed.

By fixing these issues, the signal stealing code can be eliminated,
since there is no concept of signal stealing anymore.  The code to block
for all waiters to exit g_refs can also be removed, since any waiters
that are still in the g_refs region can be guaranteed to safely wake
up and exit.  If there are still any left at this time, they are all
sent one final futex wakeup to ensure that they are not blocked any
longer, but there is no need for the signaller to block and wait for
them to wake up and exit the g_refs region.

The signal count is then effectively "zeroed" but since it is now
relative to g1_start, this is done by advancing it to a new value that
can be observed by any pending blocking waiters.  Any late waiters can
always tell the difference, and can thus just cleanly exit if they are
in a stale G1 or G2.  They can never steal a signal from the current
G1 if they are not in the current G1, since the signal value that has
to match in the cmpxchg has the low 31 bits of the g1_start value
contained in it, and that's first checked, and then it won't match if
there's a G1/G2 change.

Note: the 31-bit sequence number used in g_signals is designed to
handle wrap-around when checking the signal count, but if the entire
31-bit wraparound (2 billion signals) occurs while there is still a
late waiter that has not yet resumed, and it happens to then match
the current g1_start low bits, and the pre-emption occurs after the
normal "closed group" checks (which are 64-bit) but then hits the
futex syscall and signal consuming code, then an A/B/A issue could
still result and cause an incorrect assumption about whether it
should block.  This particular scenario seems unlikely in practice.
Note that once awake from the futex, the waiter would notice the
closed group before consuming the signal (since that's still a 64-bit
check that would not be aliased in the wrap-around in g_signals),
so the biggest impact would be blocking on the futex until the next
full wakeup from a G1/G2 switch.
---
 nptl/pthread_cond_common.c | 105 +++++++++------------------
 nptl/pthread_cond_wait.c   | 144 ++++++++++++-------------------------
 2 files changed, 81 insertions(+), 168 deletions(-)
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/nptl/pthread_cond_common.c b/nptl/pthread_cond_common.c
index fb035f72c3..a55eee3e6b 100644
--- a/nptl/pthread_cond_common.c
+++ b/nptl/pthread_cond_common.c
@@ -201,7 +201,6 @@  static bool __attribute__ ((unused))
 __condvar_quiesce_and_switch_g1 (pthread_cond_t *cond, uint64_t wseq,
     unsigned int *g1index, int private)
 {
-  const unsigned int maxspin = 0;
   unsigned int g1 = *g1index;
 
   /* If there is no waiter in G2, we don't do anything.  The expression may
@@ -222,84 +221,46 @@  __condvar_quiesce_and_switch_g1 (pthread_cond_t *cond, uint64_t wseq,
      * New waiters arriving concurrently with the group switching will all go
        into G2 until we atomically make the switch.  Waiters existing in G2
        are not affected.
-     * Waiters in G1 will be closed out immediately by setting a flag in
-       __g_signals, which will prevent waiters from blocking using a futex on
-       __g_signals and also notifies them that the group is closed.  As a
-       result, they will eventually remove their group reference, allowing us
-       to close switch group roles.  */
-
-  /* First, set the closed flag on __g_signals.  This tells waiters that are
-     about to wait that they shouldn't do that anymore.  This basically
-     serves as an advance notificaton of the upcoming change to __g1_start;
-     waiters interpret it as if __g1_start was larger than their waiter
-     sequence position.  This allows us to change __g1_start after waiting
-     for all existing waiters with group references to leave, which in turn
-     makes recovery after stealing a signal simpler because it then can be
-     skipped if __g1_start indicates that the group is closed (otherwise,
-     we would have to recover always because waiters don't know how big their
-     groups are).  Relaxed MO is fine.  */
-  atomic_fetch_or_relaxed (cond->__data.__g_signals + g1, 1);
-
-  /* Wait until there are no group references anymore.  The fetch-or operation
-     injects us into the modification order of __g_refs; release MO ensures
-     that waiters incrementing __g_refs after our fetch-or see the previous
-     changes to __g_signals and to __g1_start that had to happen before we can
-     switch this G1 and alias with an older group (we have two groups, so
-     aliasing requires switching group roles twice).  Note that nobody else
-     can have set the wake-request flag, so we do not have to act upon it.
-
-     Also note that it is harmless if older waiters or waiters from this G1
-     get a group reference after we have quiesced the group because it will
-     remain closed for them either because of the closed flag in __g_signals
-     or the later update to __g1_start.  New waiters will never arrive here
-     but instead continue to go into the still current G2.  */
-  unsigned r = atomic_fetch_or_release (cond->__data.__g_refs + g1, 0);
-  while ((r >> 1) > 0)
-    {
-      for (unsigned int spin = maxspin; ((r >> 1) > 0) && (spin > 0); spin--)
-	{
-	  /* TODO Back off.  */
-	  r = atomic_load_relaxed (cond->__data.__g_refs + g1);
-	}
-      if ((r >> 1) > 0)
-	{
-	  /* There is still a waiter after spinning.  Set the wake-request
-	     flag and block.  Relaxed MO is fine because this is just about
-	     this futex word.
-
-	     Update r to include the set wake-request flag so that the upcoming
-	     futex_wait only blocks if the flag is still set (otherwise, we'd
-	     violate the basic client-side futex protocol).  */
-	  r = atomic_fetch_or_relaxed (cond->__data.__g_refs + g1, 1) | 1;
-
-	  if ((r >> 1) > 0)
-	    futex_wait_simple (cond->__data.__g_refs + g1, r, private);
-	  /* Reload here so we eventually see the most recent value even if we
-	     do not spin.   */
-	  r = atomic_load_relaxed (cond->__data.__g_refs + g1);
-	}
-    }
-  /* Acquire MO so that we synchronize with the release operation that waiters
-     use to decrement __g_refs and thus happen after the waiters we waited
-     for.  */
-  atomic_thread_fence_acquire ();
+     * Waiters in G1 will be closed out immediately by the advancing of
+       __g_signals to the next "lowseq" (low 31 bits of the new g1_start),
+       which will prevent waiters from blocking using a futex on
+       __g_signals since it provides enough signals for all possible
+       remaining waiters.  As a result, they can each consume a signal
+       and they will eventually remove their group reference.  */
 
   /* Update __g1_start, which finishes closing this group.  The value we add
      will never be negative because old_orig_size can only be zero when we
      switch groups the first time after a condvar was initialized, in which
-     case G1 will be at index 1 and we will add a value of 1.  See above for
-     why this takes place after waiting for quiescence of the group.
+     case G1 will be at index 1 and we will add a value of 1.
      Relaxed MO is fine because the change comes with no additional
      constraints that others would have to observe.  */
   __condvar_add_g1_start_relaxed (cond,
       (old_orig_size << 1) + (g1 == 1 ? 1 : - 1));
 
-  /* Now reopen the group, thus enabling waiters to again block using the
-     futex controlled by __g_signals.  Release MO so that observers that see
-     no signals (and thus can block) also see the write __g1_start and thus
-     that this is now a new group (see __pthread_cond_wait_common for the
-     matching acquire MO loads).  */
-  atomic_store_release (cond->__data.__g_signals + g1, 0);
+  unsigned int lowseq = ((old_g1_start + old_orig_size) << 1) & ~1U;
+
+  /* If any waiters still hold group references (and thus could be blocked),
+     then wake them all up now and prevent any running ones from blocking.
+     This is effectively a catch-all for any possible current or future
+     bugs that can allow the group size to reach 0 before all G1 waiters
+     have been awakened or at least given signals to consume, or any
+     other case that can leave blocked (or about to block) older waiters..  */
+  if ((atomic_fetch_or_release (cond->__data.__g_refs + g1, 0) >> 1) > 0)
+   {
+    /* First advance signals to the end of the group (i.e. enough signals
+       for the entire G1 group) to ensure that waiters which have not
+       yet blocked in the futex will not block.
+       Note that in the vast majority of cases, this should never
+       actually be necessary, since __g_signals will have enough
+       signals for the remaining g_refs waiters.  As an optimization,
+       we could check this first before proceeding, although that
+       could still leave the potential for futex lost wakeup bugs
+       if the signal count was non-zero but the futex wakeup
+       was somehow lost.  */
+    atomic_store_release (cond->__data.__g_signals + g1, lowseq);
+
+    futex_wake (cond->__data.__g_signals + g1, INT_MAX, private);
+   }
 
   /* At this point, the old G1 is now a valid new G2 (but not in use yet).
      No old waiter can neither grab a signal nor acquire a reference without
@@ -311,6 +272,10 @@  __condvar_quiesce_and_switch_g1 (pthread_cond_t *cond, uint64_t wseq,
   g1 ^= 1;
   *g1index ^= 1;
 
+  /* Now advance the new G1 g_signals to the new lowseq, giving it
+     an effective signal count of 0 to start.  */
+  atomic_store_release (cond->__data.__g_signals + g1, lowseq);
+
   /* These values are just observed by signalers, and thus protected by the
      lock.  */
   unsigned int orig_size = wseq - (old_g1_start + old_orig_size);
diff --git a/nptl/pthread_cond_wait.c b/nptl/pthread_cond_wait.c
index 20c348a503..1cb3dbf7b0 100644
--- a/nptl/pthread_cond_wait.c
+++ b/nptl/pthread_cond_wait.c
@@ -238,9 +238,7 @@  __condvar_cleanup_waiting (void *arg)
    signaled), and a reference count.
 
    The group reference count is used to maintain the number of waiters that
-   are using the group's futex.  Before a group can change its role, the
-   reference count must show that no waiters are using the futex anymore; this
-   prevents ABA issues on the futex word.
+   are using the group's futex.
 
    To represent which intervals in the waiter sequence the groups cover (and
    thus also which group slot contains G1 or G2), we use a 64b counter to
@@ -300,11 +298,12 @@  __condvar_cleanup_waiting (void *arg)
        last reference.
      * Reference count used by waiters concurrently with signalers that have
        acquired the condvar-internal lock.
-   __g_signals: The number of signals that can still be consumed.
+   __g_signals: The number of signals that can still be consumed, relative to
+     the current g1_start.  (i.e. bits 31 to 1 of __g_signals are bits
+     31 to 1 of g1_start with the signal count added)
      * Used as a futex word by waiters.  Used concurrently by waiters and
        signalers.
-     * LSB is true iff this group has been completely signaled (i.e., it is
-       closed).
+     * LSB is currently reserved and 0.
    __g_size: Waiters remaining in this group (i.e., which have not been
      signaled yet.
      * Accessed by signalers and waiters that cancel waiting (both do so only
@@ -328,18 +327,6 @@  __condvar_cleanup_waiting (void *arg)
    sufficient because if a waiter can see a sufficiently large value, it could
    have also consume a signal in the waiters group.
 
-   Waiters try to grab a signal from __g_signals without holding a reference
-   count, which can lead to stealing a signal from a more recent group after
-   their own group was already closed.  They cannot always detect whether they
-   in fact did because they do not know when they stole, but they can
-   conservatively add a signal back to the group they stole from; if they
-   did so unnecessarily, all that happens is a spurious wake-up.  To make this
-   even less likely, __g1_start contains the index of the current g2 too,
-   which allows waiters to check if there aliasing on the group slots; if
-   there wasn't, they didn't steal from the current G1, which means that the
-   G1 they stole from must have been already closed and they do not need to
-   fix anything.
-
    It is essential that the last field in pthread_cond_t is __g_signals[1]:
    The previous condvar used a pointer-sized field in pthread_cond_t, so a
    PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER from that condvar implementation might only
@@ -435,6 +422,9 @@  __pthread_cond_wait_common (pthread_cond_t *cond, pthread_mutex_t *mutex,
     {
       while (1)
 	{
+          uint64_t g1_start = __condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond);
+          unsigned int lowseq = (g1_start & 1) == g ? signals : g1_start & ~1U;
+
 	  /* Spin-wait first.
 	     Note that spinning first without checking whether a timeout
 	     passed might lead to what looks like a spurious wake-up even
@@ -446,35 +436,45 @@  __pthread_cond_wait_common (pthread_cond_t *cond, pthread_mutex_t *mutex,
 	     having to compare against the current time seems to be the right
 	     choice from a performance perspective for most use cases.  */
 	  unsigned int spin = maxspin;
-	  while (signals == 0 && spin > 0)
+	  while (spin > 0 && ((int)(signals - lowseq) < 2))
 	    {
 	      /* Check that we are not spinning on a group that's already
 		 closed.  */
-	      if (seq < (__condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond) >> 1))
-		goto done;
+	      if (seq < (g1_start >> 1))
+		break;
 
 	      /* TODO Back off.  */
 
 	      /* Reload signals.  See above for MO.  */
 	      signals = atomic_load_acquire (cond->__data.__g_signals + g);
+              g1_start = __condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond);
+              lowseq = (g1_start & 1) == g ? signals : g1_start & ~1U;
 	      spin--;
 	    }
 
-	  /* If our group will be closed as indicated by the flag on signals,
-	     don't bother grabbing a signal.  */
-	  if (signals & 1)
-	    goto done;
-
-	  /* If there is an available signal, don't block.  */
-	  if (signals != 0)
+          if (seq < (g1_start >> 1))
+	    {
+              /* If the group is closed already,
+	         then this waiter originally had enough extra signals to
+	         consume, up until the time its group was closed.  */
+	       goto done;
+            }
+
+	  /* If there is an available signal, don't block.
+             If __g1_start has advanced at all, then we must be in G1
+	     by now, perhaps in the process of switching back to an older
+	     G2, but in either case we're allowed to consume the available
+	     signal and should not block anymore.  */
+	  if ((int)(signals - lowseq) >= 2)
 	    break;
 
 	  /* No signals available after spinning, so prepare to block.
 	     We first acquire a group reference and use acquire MO for that so
 	     that we synchronize with the dummy read-modify-write in
 	     __condvar_quiesce_and_switch_g1 if we read from that.  In turn,
-	     in this case this will make us see the closed flag on __g_signals
-	     that designates a concurrent attempt to reuse the group's slot.
+	     in this case this will make us see the advancement of __g_signals
+	     to the upcoming new g1_start that occurs with a concurrent
+	     attempt to reuse the group's slot.
 	     We use acquire MO for the __g_signals check to make the
 	     __g1_start check work (see spinning above).
 	     Note that the group reference acquisition will not mask the
@@ -482,15 +482,24 @@  __pthread_cond_wait_common (pthread_cond_t *cond, pthread_mutex_t *mutex,
 	     an atomic read-modify-write operation and thus extend the release
 	     sequence.  */
 	  atomic_fetch_add_acquire (cond->__data.__g_refs + g, 2);
-	  if (((atomic_load_acquire (cond->__data.__g_signals + g) & 1) != 0)
-	      || (seq < (__condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond) >> 1)))
+	  signals = atomic_load_acquire (cond->__data.__g_signals + g);
+          g1_start = __condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond);
+          lowseq = (g1_start & 1) == g ? signals : g1_start & ~1U;
+
+          if (seq < (g1_start >> 1))
 	    {
-	      /* Our group is closed.  Wake up any signalers that might be
-		 waiting.  */
+              /* group is closed already, so don't block */
 	      __condvar_dec_grefs (cond, g, private);
 	      goto done;
 	    }
 
+	  if ((int)(signals - lowseq) >= 2)
+	    {
+	      /* a signal showed up or G1/G2 switched after we grabbed the refcount */
+	      __condvar_dec_grefs (cond, g, private);
+	      break;
+            }
+
 	  // Now block.
 	  struct _pthread_cleanup_buffer buffer;
 	  struct _condvar_cleanup_buffer cbuffer;
@@ -501,7 +510,7 @@  __pthread_cond_wait_common (pthread_cond_t *cond, pthread_mutex_t *mutex,
 	  __pthread_cleanup_push (&buffer, __condvar_cleanup_waiting, &cbuffer);
 
 	  err = __futex_abstimed_wait_cancelable64 (
-	    cond->__data.__g_signals + g, 0, clockid, abstime, private);
+	    cond->__data.__g_signals + g, signals, clockid, abstime, private);
 
 	  __pthread_cleanup_pop (&buffer, 0);
 
@@ -524,6 +533,8 @@  __pthread_cond_wait_common (pthread_cond_t *cond, pthread_mutex_t *mutex,
 	  signals = atomic_load_acquire (cond->__data.__g_signals + g);
 	}
 
+       if (seq < (__condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond) >> 1))
+	 goto done;
     }
   /* Try to grab a signal.  Use acquire MO so that we see an up-to-date value
      of __g1_start below (see spinning above for a similar case).  In
@@ -532,69 +543,6 @@  __pthread_cond_wait_common (pthread_cond_t *cond, pthread_mutex_t *mutex,
   while (!atomic_compare_exchange_weak_acquire (cond->__data.__g_signals + g,
 						&signals, signals - 2));
 
-  /* We consumed a signal but we could have consumed from a more recent group
-     that aliased with ours due to being in the same group slot.  If this
-     might be the case our group must be closed as visible through
-     __g1_start.  */
-  uint64_t g1_start = __condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond);
-  if (seq < (g1_start >> 1))
-    {
-      /* We potentially stole a signal from a more recent group but we do not
-	 know which group we really consumed from.
-	 We do not care about groups older than current G1 because they are
-	 closed; we could have stolen from these, but then we just add a
-	 spurious wake-up for the current groups.
-	 We will never steal a signal from current G2 that was really intended
-	 for G2 because G2 never receives signals (until it becomes G1).  We
-	 could have stolen a signal from G2 that was conservatively added by a
-	 previous waiter that also thought it stole a signal -- but given that
-	 that signal was added unnecessarily, it's not a problem if we steal
-	 it.
-	 Thus, the remaining case is that we could have stolen from the current
-	 G1, where "current" means the __g1_start value we observed.  However,
-	 if the current G1 does not have the same slot index as we do, we did
-	 not steal from it and do not need to undo that.  This is the reason
-	 for putting a bit with G2's index into__g1_start as well.  */
-      if (((g1_start & 1) ^ 1) == g)
-	{
-	  /* We have to conservatively undo our potential mistake of stealing
-	     a signal.  We can stop trying to do that when the current G1
-	     changes because other spinning waiters will notice this too and
-	     __condvar_quiesce_and_switch_g1 has checked that there are no
-	     futex waiters anymore before switching G1.
-	     Relaxed MO is fine for the __g1_start load because we need to
-	     merely be able to observe this fact and not have to observe
-	     something else as well.
-	     ??? Would it help to spin for a little while to see whether the
-	     current G1 gets closed?  This might be worthwhile if the group is
-	     small or close to being closed.  */
-	  unsigned int s = atomic_load_relaxed (cond->__data.__g_signals + g);
-	  while (__condvar_load_g1_start_relaxed (cond) == g1_start)
-	    {
-	      /* Try to add a signal.  We don't need to acquire the lock
-		 because at worst we can cause a spurious wake-up.  If the
-		 group is in the process of being closed (LSB is true), this
-		 has an effect similar to us adding a signal.  */
-	      if (((s & 1) != 0)
-		  || atomic_compare_exchange_weak_relaxed
-		       (cond->__data.__g_signals + g, &s, s + 2))
-		{
-		  /* If we added a signal, we also need to add a wake-up on
-		     the futex.  We also need to do that if we skipped adding
-		     a signal because the group is being closed because
-		     while __condvar_quiesce_and_switch_g1 could have closed
-		     the group, it might stil be waiting for futex waiters to
-		     leave (and one of those waiters might be the one we stole
-		     the signal from, which cause it to block using the
-		     futex).  */
-		  futex_wake (cond->__data.__g_signals + g, 1, private);
-		  break;
-		}
-	      /* TODO Back off.  */
-	    }
-	}
-    }
-
  done:
 
   /* Confirm that we have been woken.  We do that before acquiring the mutex