| RCU Torture Test Operation |
| |
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| CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST |
| |
| The CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST config option is available for all RCU |
| implementations. It creates an rcutorture kernel module that can |
| be loaded to run a torture test. The test periodically outputs |
| status messages via printk(), which can be examined via the dmesg |
| command (perhaps grepping for "torture"). The test is started |
| when the module is loaded, and stops when the module is unloaded. |
| |
| CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE |
| |
| It is also possible to specify CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST=y, which will |
| result in the tests being loaded into the base kernel. In this case, |
| the CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE config option is used to specify |
| whether the RCU torture tests are to be started immediately during |
| boot or whether the /proc/sys/kernel/rcutorture_runnable file is used |
| to enable them. This /proc file can be used to repeatedly pause and |
| restart the tests, regardless of the initial state specified by the |
| CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE config option. |
| |
| You will normally -not- want to start the RCU torture tests during boot |
| (and thus the default is CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST_RUNNABLE=n), but doing |
| this can sometimes be useful in finding boot-time bugs. |
| |
| |
| MODULE PARAMETERS |
| |
| This module has the following parameters: |
| |
| fqs_duration Duration (in microseconds) of artificially induced bursts |
| of force_quiescent_state() invocations. In RCU |
| implementations having force_quiescent_state(), these |
| bursts help force races between forcing a given grace |
| period and that grace period ending on its own. |
| |
| fqs_holdoff Holdoff time (in microseconds) between consecutive calls |
| to force_quiescent_state() within a burst. |
| |
| fqs_stutter Wait time (in seconds) between consecutive bursts |
| of calls to force_quiescent_state(). |
| |
| gp_normal Make the fake writers use normal synchronous grace-period |
| primitives. |
| |
| gp_exp Make the fake writers use expedited synchronous grace-period |
| primitives. If both gp_normal and gp_exp are set, or |
| if neither gp_normal nor gp_exp are set, then randomly |
| choose the primitive so that about 50% are normal and |
| 50% expedited. By default, neither are set, which |
| gives best overall test coverage. |
| |
| irqreader Says to invoke RCU readers from irq level. This is currently |
| done via timers. Defaults to "1" for variants of RCU that |
| permit this. (Or, more accurately, variants of RCU that do |
| -not- permit this know to ignore this variable.) |
| |
| n_barrier_cbs If this is nonzero, RCU barrier testing will be conducted, |
| in which case n_barrier_cbs specifies the number of |
| RCU callbacks (and corresponding kthreads) to use for |
| this testing. The value cannot be negative. If you |
| specify this to be non-zero when torture_type indicates a |
| synchronous RCU implementation (one for which a member of |
| the synchronize_rcu() rather than the call_rcu() family is |
| used -- see the documentation for torture_type below), an |
| error will be reported and no testing will be carried out. |
| |
| nfakewriters This is the number of RCU fake writer threads to run. Fake |
| writer threads repeatedly use the synchronous "wait for |
| current readers" function of the interface selected by |
| torture_type, with a delay between calls to allow for various |
| different numbers of writers running in parallel. |
| nfakewriters defaults to 4, which provides enough parallelism |
| to trigger special cases caused by multiple writers, such as |
| the synchronize_srcu() early return optimization. |
| |
| nreaders This is the number of RCU reading threads supported. |
| The default is twice the number of CPUs. Why twice? |
| To properly exercise RCU implementations with preemptible |
| read-side critical sections. |
| |
| onoff_interval |
| The number of seconds between each attempt to execute a |
| randomly selected CPU-hotplug operation. Defaults to |
| zero, which disables CPU hotplugging. In HOTPLUG_CPU=n |
| kernels, rcutorture will silently refuse to do any |
| CPU-hotplug operations regardless of what value is |
| specified for onoff_interval. |
| |
| onoff_holdoff The number of seconds to wait until starting CPU-hotplug |
| operations. This would normally only be used when |
| rcutorture was built into the kernel and started |
| automatically at boot time, in which case it is useful |
| in order to avoid confusing boot-time code with CPUs |
| coming and going. |
| |
| shuffle_interval |
| The number of seconds to keep the test threads affinitied |
| to a particular subset of the CPUs, defaults to 3 seconds. |
| Used in conjunction with test_no_idle_hz. |
| |
| shutdown_secs The number of seconds to run the test before terminating |
| the test and powering off the system. The default is |
| zero, which disables test termination and system shutdown. |
| This capability is useful for automated testing. |
| |
| stall_cpu The number of seconds that a CPU should be stalled while |
| within both an rcu_read_lock() and a preempt_disable(). |
| This stall happens only once per rcutorture run. |
| If you need multiple stalls, use modprobe and rmmod to |
| repeatedly run rcutorture. The default for stall_cpu |
| is zero, which prevents rcutorture from stalling a CPU. |
| |
| Note that attempts to rmmod rcutorture while the stall |
| is ongoing will hang, so be careful what value you |
| choose for this module parameter! In addition, too-large |
| values for stall_cpu might well induce failures and |
| warnings in other parts of the kernel. You have been |
| warned! |
| |
| stall_cpu_holdoff |
| The number of seconds to wait after rcutorture starts |
| before stalling a CPU. Defaults to 10 seconds. |
| |
| stat_interval The number of seconds between output of torture |
| statistics (via printk()). Regardless of the interval, |
| statistics are printed when the module is unloaded. |
| Setting the interval to zero causes the statistics to |
| be printed -only- when the module is unloaded, and this |
| is the default. |
| |
| stutter The length of time to run the test before pausing for this |
| same period of time. Defaults to "stutter=5", so as |
| to run and pause for (roughly) five-second intervals. |
| Specifying "stutter=0" causes the test to run continuously |
| without pausing, which is the old default behavior. |
| |
| test_boost Whether or not to test the ability of RCU to do priority |
| boosting. Defaults to "test_boost=1", which performs |
| RCU priority-inversion testing only if the selected |
| RCU implementation supports priority boosting. Specifying |
| "test_boost=0" never performs RCU priority-inversion |
| testing. Specifying "test_boost=2" performs RCU |
| priority-inversion testing even if the selected RCU |
| implementation does not support RCU priority boosting, |
| which can be used to test rcutorture's ability to |
| carry out RCU priority-inversion testing. |
| |
| test_boost_interval |
| The number of seconds in an RCU priority-inversion test |
| cycle. Defaults to "test_boost_interval=7". It is |
| usually wise for this value to be relatively prime to |
| the value selected for "stutter". |
| |
| test_boost_duration |
| The number of seconds to do RCU priority-inversion testing |
| within any given "test_boost_interval". Defaults to |
| "test_boost_duration=4". |
| |
| test_no_idle_hz Whether or not to test the ability of RCU to operate in |
| a kernel that disables the scheduling-clock interrupt to |
| idle CPUs. Boolean parameter, "1" to test, "0" otherwise. |
| Defaults to omitting this test. |
| |
| torture_type The type of RCU to test, with string values as follows: |
| |
| "rcu": rcu_read_lock(), rcu_read_unlock() and call_rcu(), |
| along with expedited, synchronous, and polling |
| variants. |
| |
| "rcu_bh": rcu_read_lock_bh(), rcu_read_unlock_bh(), and |
| call_rcu_bh(), along with expedited and synchronous |
| variants. |
| |
| "rcu_busted": This tests an intentionally incorrect version |
| of RCU in order to help test rcutorture itself. |
| |
| "srcu": srcu_read_lock(), srcu_read_unlock() and |
| call_srcu(), along with expedited and |
| synchronous variants. |
| |
| "sched": preempt_disable(), preempt_enable(), and |
| call_rcu_sched(), along with expedited, |
| synchronous, and polling variants. |
| |
| "tasks": voluntary context switch and call_rcu_tasks(), |
| along with expedited and synchronous variants. |
| |
| Defaults to "rcu". |
| |
| verbose Enable debug printk()s. Default is disabled. |
| |
| |
| OUTPUT |
| |
| The statistics output is as follows: |
| |
| rcu-torture:--- Start of test: nreaders=16 nfakewriters=4 stat_interval=30 verbose=0 test_no_idle_hz=1 shuffle_interval=3 stutter=5 irqreader=1 fqs_duration=0 fqs_holdoff=0 fqs_stutter=3 test_boost=1/0 test_boost_interval=7 test_boost_duration=4 |
| rcu-torture: rtc: (null) ver: 155441 tfle: 0 rta: 155441 rtaf: 8884 rtf: 155440 rtmbe: 0 rtbe: 0 rtbke: 0 rtbre: 0 rtbf: 0 rtb: 0 nt: 3055767 |
| rcu-torture: Reader Pipe: 727860534 34213 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 |
| rcu-torture: Reader Batch: 727877838 17003 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 |
| rcu-torture: Free-Block Circulation: 155440 155440 155440 155440 155440 155440 155440 155440 155440 155440 0 |
| rcu-torture:--- End of test: SUCCESS: nreaders=16 nfakewriters=4 stat_interval=30 verbose=0 test_no_idle_hz=1 shuffle_interval=3 stutter=5 irqreader=1 fqs_duration=0 fqs_holdoff=0 fqs_stutter=3 test_boost=1/0 test_boost_interval=7 test_boost_duration=4 |
| |
| The command "dmesg | grep torture:" will extract this information on |
| most systems. On more esoteric configurations, it may be necessary to |
| use other commands to access the output of the printk()s used by |
| the RCU torture test. The printk()s use KERN_ALERT, so they should |
| be evident. ;-) |
| |
| The first and last lines show the rcutorture module parameters, and the |
| last line shows either "SUCCESS" or "FAILURE", based on rcutorture's |
| automatic determination as to whether RCU operated correctly. |
| |
| The entries are as follows: |
| |
| o "rtc": The hexadecimal address of the structure currently visible |
| to readers. |
| |
| o "ver": The number of times since boot that the RCU writer task |
| has changed the structure visible to readers. |
| |
| o "tfle": If non-zero, indicates that the "torture freelist" |
| containing structures to be placed into the "rtc" area is empty. |
| This condition is important, since it can fool you into thinking |
| that RCU is working when it is not. :-/ |
| |
| o "rta": Number of structures allocated from the torture freelist. |
| |
| o "rtaf": Number of allocations from the torture freelist that have |
| failed due to the list being empty. It is not unusual for this |
| to be non-zero, but it is bad for it to be a large fraction of |
| the value indicated by "rta". |
| |
| o "rtf": Number of frees into the torture freelist. |
| |
| o "rtmbe": A non-zero value indicates that rcutorture believes that |
| rcu_assign_pointer() and rcu_dereference() are not working |
| correctly. This value should be zero. |
| |
| o "rtbe": A non-zero value indicates that one of the rcu_barrier() |
| family of functions is not working correctly. |
| |
| o "rtbke": rcutorture was unable to create the real-time kthreads |
| used to force RCU priority inversion. This value should be zero. |
| |
| o "rtbre": Although rcutorture successfully created the kthreads |
| used to force RCU priority inversion, it was unable to set them |
| to the real-time priority level of 1. This value should be zero. |
| |
| o "rtbf": The number of times that RCU priority boosting failed |
| to resolve RCU priority inversion. |
| |
| o "rtb": The number of times that rcutorture attempted to force |
| an RCU priority inversion condition. If you are testing RCU |
| priority boosting via the "test_boost" module parameter, this |
| value should be non-zero. |
| |
| o "nt": The number of times rcutorture ran RCU read-side code from |
| within a timer handler. This value should be non-zero only |
| if you specified the "irqreader" module parameter. |
| |
| o "Reader Pipe": Histogram of "ages" of structures seen by readers. |
| If any entries past the first two are non-zero, RCU is broken. |
| And rcutorture prints the error flag string "!!!" to make sure |
| you notice. The age of a newly allocated structure is zero, |
| it becomes one when removed from reader visibility, and is |
| incremented once per grace period subsequently -- and is freed |
| after passing through (RCU_TORTURE_PIPE_LEN-2) grace periods. |
| |
| The output displayed above was taken from a correctly working |
| RCU. If you want to see what it looks like when broken, break |
| it yourself. ;-) |
| |
| o "Reader Batch": Another histogram of "ages" of structures seen |
| by readers, but in terms of counter flips (or batches) rather |
| than in terms of grace periods. The legal number of non-zero |
| entries is again two. The reason for this separate view is that |
| it is sometimes easier to get the third entry to show up in the |
| "Reader Batch" list than in the "Reader Pipe" list. |
| |
| o "Free-Block Circulation": Shows the number of torture structures |
| that have reached a given point in the pipeline. The first element |
| should closely correspond to the number of structures allocated, |
| the second to the number that have been removed from reader view, |
| and all but the last remaining to the corresponding number of |
| passes through a grace period. The last entry should be zero, |
| as it is only incremented if a torture structure's counter |
| somehow gets incremented farther than it should. |
| |
| Different implementations of RCU can provide implementation-specific |
| additional information. For example, SRCU provides the following |
| additional line: |
| |
| srcu-torture: per-CPU(idx=1): 0(0,1) 1(0,1) 2(0,0) 3(0,1) |
| |
| This line shows the per-CPU counter state. The numbers in parentheses are |
| the values of the "old" and "current" counters for the corresponding CPU. |
| The "idx" value maps the "old" and "current" values to the underlying |
| array, and is useful for debugging. |
| |
| |
| USAGE |
| |
| The following script may be used to torture RCU: |
| |
| #!/bin/sh |
| |
| modprobe rcutorture |
| sleep 3600 |
| rmmod rcutorture |
| dmesg | grep torture: |
| |
| The output can be manually inspected for the error flag of "!!!". |
| One could of course create a more elaborate script that automatically |
| checked for such errors. The "rmmod" command forces a "SUCCESS", |
| "FAILURE", or "RCU_HOTPLUG" indication to be printk()ed. The first |
| two are self-explanatory, while the last indicates that while there |
| were no RCU failures, CPU-hotplug problems were detected. |