Re: [PATCH 09/18] io-wq: fork worker threads from original task

[Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>]

On 3/4/21 9:13 AM, Stefan Metzmacher wrote:
> 
> Am 04.03.21 um 14:19 schrieb Stefan Metzmacher:
>> Hi Jens,
>>
>>>> Can you please explain why CLONE_SIGHAND is used here?
>>>
>>> We can't have CLONE_THREAD without CLONE_SIGHAND... The io-wq workers
>>> don't really care about signals, we don't use them internally.
>>
>> I'm 100% sure, but I heard rumors that in some situations signals get
>> randomly delivered to any thread of a userspace process.
> 
> Ok, from task_struct:
> 
>         /* Signal handlers: */
>         struct signal_struct            *signal;
>         struct sighand_struct __rcu             *sighand;
>         sigset_t                        blocked;
>         sigset_t                        real_blocked;
>         /* Restored if set_restore_sigmask() was used: */
>         sigset_t                        saved_sigmask;
>         struct sigpending               pending;
> 
> The signal handlers are shared, but 'blocked' is per thread/task.
> 
>> My fear was that the related logic may select a kernel thread if they
>> share the same signal handlers.
> 
> I found the related logic in the interaction between
> complete_signal() and wants_signal().
> 
> static inline bool wants_signal(int sig, struct task_struct *p)
> {
>         if (sigismember(&p->blocked, sig))
>                 return false;
> 
> ...
> 
> Would it make sense to set up task->blocked to block all signals?
> 
> Something like this:
> 
> --- a/fs/io-wq.c
> +++ b/fs/io-wq.c
> @@ -611,15 +611,15 @@ pid_t io_wq_fork_thread(int (*fn)(void *), void *arg)
>  {
>         unsigned long flags = CLONE_FS|CLONE_FILES|CLONE_SIGHAND|CLONE_THREAD|
>                                 CLONE_IO|SIGCHLD;
> -       struct kernel_clone_args args = {
> -               .flags          = ((lower_32_bits(flags) | CLONE_VM |
> -                                   CLONE_UNTRACED) & ~CSIGNAL),
> -               .exit_signal    = (lower_32_bits(flags) & CSIGNAL),
> -               .stack          = (unsigned long)fn,
> -               .stack_size     = (unsigned long)arg,
> -       };
> +       sigset_t mask, oldmask;
> +       pid_t pid;
> 
> -       return kernel_clone(&args);
> +       sigfillset(&mask);
> +       sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, &mask, &oldmask);
> +       pid = kernel_thread(fn, arg, flags);
> +       sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &oldmask, NULL);
> +
> +       return ret;
>  }
> 
> I think using kernel_thread() would be a good simplification anyway.

I like this approach, we're really not interested in signals for those
threads, and this makes it explicit. Ditto on just using the kernel_thread()
helper, looks fine too. I'll run this through the testing. Do you want to
send this as a "real" patch, or should I just attribute you in the commit
message?

-- 
Jens Axboe