0001 Runtime locking correctness validator
0002 =====================================
0003
0004 started by Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
0005
0006 additions by Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com>
0007
0008 Lock-class
0009 ----------
0010
0011 The basic object the validator operates upon is a 'class' of locks.
0012
0013 A class of locks is a group of locks that are logically the same with
0014 respect to locking rules, even if the locks may have multiple (possibly
0015 tens of thousands of) instantiations. For example a lock in the inode
0016 struct is one class, while each inode has its own instantiation of that
0017 lock class.
0018
0019 The validator tracks the 'usage state' of lock-classes, and it tracks
0020 the dependencies between different lock-classes. Lock usage indicates
0021 how a lock is used with regard to its IRQ contexts, while lock
0022 dependency can be understood as lock order, where L1 -> L2 suggests that
0023 a task is attempting to acquire L2 while holding L1. From lockdep's
0024 perspective, the two locks (L1 and L2) are not necessarily related; that
0025 dependency just means the order ever happened. The validator maintains a
0026 continuing effort to prove lock usages and dependencies are correct or
0027 the validator will shoot a splat if incorrect.
0028
0029 A lock-class's behavior is constructed by its instances collectively:
0030 when the first instance of a lock-class is used after bootup the class
0031 gets registered, then all (subsequent) instances will be mapped to the
0032 class and hence their usages and dependecies will contribute to those of
0033 the class. A lock-class does not go away when a lock instance does, but
0034 it can be removed if the memory space of the lock class (static or
0035 dynamic) is reclaimed, this happens for example when a module is
0036 unloaded or a workqueue is destroyed.
0037
0038 State
0039 -----
0040
0041 The validator tracks lock-class usage history and divides the usage into
0042 (4 usages * n STATEs + 1) categories:
0043
0044 where the 4 usages can be:
0045
0046 - 'ever held in STATE context'
0047 - 'ever held as readlock in STATE context'
0048 - 'ever held with STATE enabled'
0049 - 'ever held as readlock with STATE enabled'
0050
0051 where the n STATEs are coded in kernel/locking/lockdep_states.h and as of
0052 now they include:
0053
0054 - hardirq
0055 - softirq
0056
0057 where the last 1 category is:
0058
0059 - 'ever used' [ == !unused ]
0060
0061 When locking rules are violated, these usage bits are presented in the
0062 locking error messages, inside curlies, with a total of 2 * n STATEs bits.
0063 A contrived example::
0064
0065 modprobe/2287 is trying to acquire lock:
0066 (&sio_locks[i].lock){-.-.}, at: [<c02867fd>] mutex_lock+0x21/0x24
0067
0068 but task is already holding lock:
0069 (&sio_locks[i].lock){-.-.}, at: [<c02867fd>] mutex_lock+0x21/0x24
0070
0071
0072 For a given lock, the bit positions from left to right indicate the usage
0073 of the lock and readlock (if exists), for each of the n STATEs listed
0074 above respectively, and the character displayed at each bit position
0075 indicates:
0076
0077 === ===================================================
0078 '.' acquired while irqs disabled and not in irq context
0079 '-' acquired in irq context
0080 '+' acquired with irqs enabled
0081 '?' acquired in irq context with irqs enabled.
0082 === ===================================================
0083
0084 The bits are illustrated with an example::
0085
0086 (&sio_locks[i].lock){-.-.}, at: [<c02867fd>] mutex_lock+0x21/0x24
0087 ||||
0088 ||| \-> softirq disabled and not in softirq context
0089 || \--> acquired in softirq context
0090 | \---> hardirq disabled and not in hardirq context
0091 \----> acquired in hardirq context
0092
0093
0094 For a given STATE, whether the lock is ever acquired in that STATE
0095 context and whether that STATE is enabled yields four possible cases as
0096 shown in the table below. The bit character is able to indicate which
0097 exact case is for the lock as of the reporting time.
0098
0099 +--------------+-------------+--------------+
0100 | | irq enabled | irq disabled |
0101 +--------------+-------------+--------------+
0102 | ever in irq | '?' | '-' |
0103 +--------------+-------------+--------------+
0104 | never in irq | '+' | '.' |
0105 +--------------+-------------+--------------+
0106
0107 The character '-' suggests irq is disabled because if otherwise the
0108 charactor '?' would have been shown instead. Similar deduction can be
0109 applied for '+' too.
0110
0111 Unused locks (e.g., mutexes) cannot be part of the cause of an error.
0112
0113
0114 Single-lock state rules:
0115 ------------------------
0116
0117 A lock is irq-safe means it was ever used in an irq context, while a lock
0118 is irq-unsafe means it was ever acquired with irq enabled.
0119
0120 A softirq-unsafe lock-class is automatically hardirq-unsafe as well. The
0121 following states must be exclusive: only one of them is allowed to be set
0122 for any lock-class based on its usage::
0123
0124 <hardirq-safe> or <hardirq-unsafe>
0125 <softirq-safe> or <softirq-unsafe>
0126
0127 This is because if a lock can be used in irq context (irq-safe) then it
0128 cannot be ever acquired with irq enabled (irq-unsafe). Otherwise, a
0129 deadlock may happen. For example, in the scenario that after this lock
0130 was acquired but before released, if the context is interrupted this
0131 lock will be attempted to acquire twice, which creates a deadlock,
0132 referred to as lock recursion deadlock.
0133
0134 The validator detects and reports lock usage that violates these
0135 single-lock state rules.
0136
0137 Multi-lock dependency rules:
0138 ----------------------------
0139
0140 The same lock-class must not be acquired twice, because this could lead
0141 to lock recursion deadlocks.
0142
0143 Furthermore, two locks can not be taken in inverse order::
0144
0145 <L1> -> <L2>
0146 <L2> -> <L1>
0147
0148 because this could lead to a deadlock - referred to as lock inversion
0149 deadlock - as attempts to acquire the two locks form a circle which
0150 could lead to the two contexts waiting for each other permanently. The
0151 validator will find such dependency circle in arbitrary complexity,
0152 i.e., there can be any other locking sequence between the acquire-lock
0153 operations; the validator will still find whether these locks can be
0154 acquired in a circular fashion.
0155
0156 Furthermore, the following usage based lock dependencies are not allowed
0157 between any two lock-classes::
0158
0159 <hardirq-safe> -> <hardirq-unsafe>
0160 <softirq-safe> -> <softirq-unsafe>
0161
0162 The first rule comes from the fact that a hardirq-safe lock could be
0163 taken by a hardirq context, interrupting a hardirq-unsafe lock - and
0164 thus could result in a lock inversion deadlock. Likewise, a softirq-safe
0165 lock could be taken by an softirq context, interrupting a softirq-unsafe
0166 lock.
0167
0168 The above rules are enforced for any locking sequence that occurs in the
0169 kernel: when acquiring a new lock, the validator checks whether there is
0170 any rule violation between the new lock and any of the held locks.
0171
0172 When a lock-class changes its state, the following aspects of the above
0173 dependency rules are enforced:
0174
0175 - if a new hardirq-safe lock is discovered, we check whether it
0176 took any hardirq-unsafe lock in the past.
0177
0178 - if a new softirq-safe lock is discovered, we check whether it took
0179 any softirq-unsafe lock in the past.
0180
0181 - if a new hardirq-unsafe lock is discovered, we check whether any
0182 hardirq-safe lock took it in the past.
0183
0184 - if a new softirq-unsafe lock is discovered, we check whether any
0185 softirq-safe lock took it in the past.
0186
0187 (Again, we do these checks too on the basis that an interrupt context
0188 could interrupt _any_ of the irq-unsafe or hardirq-unsafe locks, which
0189 could lead to a lock inversion deadlock - even if that lock scenario did
0190 not trigger in practice yet.)
0191
0192 Exception: Nested data dependencies leading to nested locking
0193 -------------------------------------------------------------
0194
0195 There are a few cases where the Linux kernel acquires more than one
0196 instance of the same lock-class. Such cases typically happen when there
0197 is some sort of hierarchy within objects of the same type. In these
0198 cases there is an inherent "natural" ordering between the two objects
0199 (defined by the properties of the hierarchy), and the kernel grabs the
0200 locks in this fixed order on each of the objects.
0201
0202 An example of such an object hierarchy that results in "nested locking"
0203 is that of a "whole disk" block-dev object and a "partition" block-dev
0204 object; the partition is "part of" the whole device and as long as one
0205 always takes the whole disk lock as a higher lock than the partition
0206 lock, the lock ordering is fully correct. The validator does not
0207 automatically detect this natural ordering, as the locking rule behind
0208 the ordering is not static.
0209
0210 In order to teach the validator about this correct usage model, new
0211 versions of the various locking primitives were added that allow you to
0212 specify a "nesting level". An example call, for the block device mutex,
0213 looks like this::
0214
0215 enum bdev_bd_mutex_lock_class
0216 {
0217 BD_MUTEX_NORMAL,
0218 BD_MUTEX_WHOLE,
0219 BD_MUTEX_PARTITION
0220 };
0221
0222 mutex_lock_nested(&bdev->bd_contains->bd_mutex, BD_MUTEX_PARTITION);
0223
0224 In this case the locking is done on a bdev object that is known to be a
0225 partition.
0226
0227 The validator treats a lock that is taken in such a nested fashion as a
0228 separate (sub)class for the purposes of validation.
0229
0230 Note: When changing code to use the _nested() primitives, be careful and
0231 check really thoroughly that the hierarchy is correctly mapped; otherwise
0232 you can get false positives or false negatives.
0233
0234 Annotations
0235 -----------
0236
0237 Two constructs can be used to annotate and check where and if certain locks
0238 must be held: lockdep_assert_held*(&lock) and lockdep_*pin_lock(&lock).
0239
0240 As the name suggests, lockdep_assert_held* family of macros assert that a
0241 particular lock is held at a certain time (and generate a WARN() otherwise).
0242 This annotation is largely used all over the kernel, e.g. kernel/sched/
0243 core.c::
0244
0245 void update_rq_clock(struct rq *rq)
0246 {
0247 s64 delta;
0248
0249 lockdep_assert_held(&rq->lock);
0250 [...]
0251 }
0252
0253 where holding rq->lock is required to safely update a rq's clock.
0254
0255 The other family of macros is lockdep_*pin_lock(), which is admittedly only
0256 used for rq->lock ATM. Despite their limited adoption these annotations
0257 generate a WARN() if the lock of interest is "accidentally" unlocked. This turns
0258 out to be especially helpful to debug code with callbacks, where an upper
0259 layer assumes a lock remains taken, but a lower layer thinks it can maybe drop
0260 and reacquire the lock ("unwittingly" introducing races). lockdep_pin_lock()
0261 returns a 'struct pin_cookie' that is then used by lockdep_unpin_lock() to check
0262 that nobody tampered with the lock, e.g. kernel/sched/sched.h::
0263
0264 static inline void rq_pin_lock(struct rq *rq, struct rq_flags *rf)
0265 {
0266 rf->cookie = lockdep_pin_lock(&rq->lock);
0267 [...]
0268 }
0269
0270 static inline void rq_unpin_lock(struct rq *rq, struct rq_flags *rf)
0271 {
0272 [...]
0273 lockdep_unpin_lock(&rq->lock, rf->cookie);
0274 }
0275
0276 While comments about locking requirements might provide useful information,
0277 the runtime checks performed by annotations are invaluable when debugging
0278 locking problems and they carry the same level of details when inspecting
0279 code. Always prefer annotations when in doubt!
0280
0281 Proof of 100% correctness:
0282 --------------------------
0283
0284 The validator achieves perfect, mathematical 'closure' (proof of locking
0285 correctness) in the sense that for every simple, standalone single-task
0286 locking sequence that occurred at least once during the lifetime of the
0287 kernel, the validator proves it with a 100% certainty that no
0288 combination and timing of these locking sequences can cause any class of
0289 lock related deadlock. [1]_
0290
0291 I.e. complex multi-CPU and multi-task locking scenarios do not have to
0292 occur in practice to prove a deadlock: only the simple 'component'
0293 locking chains have to occur at least once (anytime, in any
0294 task/context) for the validator to be able to prove correctness. (For
0295 example, complex deadlocks that would normally need more than 3 CPUs and
0296 a very unlikely constellation of tasks, irq-contexts and timings to
0297 occur, can be detected on a plain, lightly loaded single-CPU system as
0298 well!)
0299
0300 This radically decreases the complexity of locking related QA of the
0301 kernel: what has to be done during QA is to trigger as many "simple"
0302 single-task locking dependencies in the kernel as possible, at least
0303 once, to prove locking correctness - instead of having to trigger every
0304 possible combination of locking interaction between CPUs, combined with
0305 every possible hardirq and softirq nesting scenario (which is impossible
0306 to do in practice).
0307
0308 .. [1]
0309
0310 assuming that the validator itself is 100% correct, and no other
0311 part of the system corrupts the state of the validator in any way.
0312 We also assume that all NMI/SMM paths [which could interrupt
0313 even hardirq-disabled codepaths] are correct and do not interfere
0314 with the validator. We also assume that the 64-bit 'chain hash'
0315 value is unique for every lock-chain in the system. Also, lock
0316 recursion must not be higher than 20.
0317
0318 Performance:
0319 ------------
0320
0321 The above rules require **massive** amounts of runtime checking. If we did
0322 that for every lock taken and for every irqs-enable event, it would
0323 render the system practically unusably slow. The complexity of checking
0324 is O(N^2), so even with just a few hundred lock-classes we'd have to do
0325 tens of thousands of checks for every event.
0326
0327 This problem is solved by checking any given 'locking scenario' (unique
0328 sequence of locks taken after each other) only once. A simple stack of
0329 held locks is maintained, and a lightweight 64-bit hash value is
0330 calculated, which hash is unique for every lock chain. The hash value,
0331 when the chain is validated for the first time, is then put into a hash
0332 table, which hash-table can be checked in a lockfree manner. If the
0333 locking chain occurs again later on, the hash table tells us that we
0334 don't have to validate the chain again.
0335
0336 Troubleshooting:
0337 ----------------
0338
0339 The validator tracks a maximum of MAX_LOCKDEP_KEYS number of lock classes.
0340 Exceeding this number will trigger the following lockdep warning::
0341
0342 (DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(id >= MAX_LOCKDEP_KEYS))
0343
0344 By default, MAX_LOCKDEP_KEYS is currently set to 8191, and typical
0345 desktop systems have less than 1,000 lock classes, so this warning
0346 normally results from lock-class leakage or failure to properly
0347 initialize locks. These two problems are illustrated below:
0348
0349 1. Repeated module loading and unloading while running the validator
0350 will result in lock-class leakage. The issue here is that each
0351 load of the module will create a new set of lock classes for
0352 that module's locks, but module unloading does not remove old
0353 classes (see below discussion of reuse of lock classes for why).
0354 Therefore, if that module is loaded and unloaded repeatedly,
0355 the number of lock classes will eventually reach the maximum.
0356
0357 2. Using structures such as arrays that have large numbers of
0358 locks that are not explicitly initialized. For example,
0359 a hash table with 8192 buckets where each bucket has its own
0360 spinlock_t will consume 8192 lock classes -unless- each spinlock
0361 is explicitly initialized at runtime, for example, using the
0362 run-time spin_lock_init() as opposed to compile-time initializers
0363 such as __SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED(). Failure to properly initialize
0364 the per-bucket spinlocks would guarantee lock-class overflow.
0365 In contrast, a loop that called spin_lock_init() on each lock
0366 would place all 8192 locks into a single lock class.
0367
0368 The moral of this story is that you should always explicitly
0369 initialize your locks.
0370
0371 One might argue that the validator should be modified to allow
0372 lock classes to be reused. However, if you are tempted to make this
0373 argument, first review the code and think through the changes that would
0374 be required, keeping in mind that the lock classes to be removed are
0375 likely to be linked into the lock-dependency graph. This turns out to
0376 be harder to do than to say.
0377
0378 Of course, if you do run out of lock classes, the next thing to do is
0379 to find the offending lock classes. First, the following command gives
0380 you the number of lock classes currently in use along with the maximum::
0381
0382 grep "lock-classes" /proc/lockdep_stats
0383
0384 This command produces the following output on a modest system::
0385
0386 lock-classes: 748 [max: 8191]
0387
0388 If the number allocated (748 above) increases continually over time,
0389 then there is likely a leak. The following command can be used to
0390 identify the leaking lock classes::
0391
0392 grep "BD" /proc/lockdep
0393
0394 Run the command and save the output, then compare against the output from
0395 a later run of this command to identify the leakers. This same output
0396 can also help you find situations where runtime lock initialization has
0397 been omitted.
0398
0399 Recursive read locks:
0400 ---------------------
0401 The whole of the rest document tries to prove a certain type of cycle is equivalent
0402 to deadlock possibility.
0403
0404 There are three types of lockers: writers (i.e. exclusive lockers, like
0405 spin_lock() or write_lock()), non-recursive readers (i.e. shared lockers, like
0406 down_read()) and recursive readers (recursive shared lockers, like rcu_read_lock()).
0407 And we use the following notations of those lockers in the rest of the document:
0408
0409 W or E: stands for writers (exclusive lockers).
0410 r: stands for non-recursive readers.
0411 R: stands for recursive readers.
0412 S: stands for all readers (non-recursive + recursive), as both are shared lockers.
0413 N: stands for writers and non-recursive readers, as both are not recursive.
0414
0415 Obviously, N is "r or W" and S is "r or R".
0416
0417 Recursive readers, as their name indicates, are the lockers allowed to acquire
0418 even inside the critical section of another reader of the same lock instance,
0419 in other words, allowing nested read-side critical sections of one lock instance.
0420
0421 While non-recursive readers will cause a self deadlock if trying to acquire inside
0422 the critical section of another reader of the same lock instance.
0423
0424 The difference between recursive readers and non-recursive readers is because:
0425 recursive readers get blocked only by a write lock *holder*, while non-recursive
0426 readers could get blocked by a write lock *waiter*. Considering the follow
0427 example::
0428
0429 TASK A: TASK B:
0430
0431 read_lock(X);
0432 write_lock(X);
0433 read_lock_2(X);
0434
0435 Task A gets the reader (no matter whether recursive or non-recursive) on X via
0436 read_lock() first. And when task B tries to acquire writer on X, it will block
0437 and become a waiter for writer on X. Now if read_lock_2() is recursive readers,
0438 task A will make progress, because writer waiters don't block recursive readers,
0439 and there is no deadlock. However, if read_lock_2() is non-recursive readers,
0440 it will get blocked by writer waiter B, and cause a self deadlock.
0441
0442 Block conditions on readers/writers of the same lock instance:
0443 --------------------------------------------------------------
0444 There are simply four block conditions:
0445
0446 1. Writers block other writers.
0447 2. Readers block writers.
0448 3. Writers block both recursive readers and non-recursive readers.
0449 4. And readers (recursive or not) don't block other recursive readers but
0450 may block non-recursive readers (because of the potential co-existing
0451 writer waiters)
0452
0453 Block condition matrix, Y means the row blocks the column, and N means otherwise.
0454
0455 +---+---+---+---+
0456 | | W | r | R |
0457 +---+---+---+---+
0458 | W | Y | Y | Y |
0459 +---+---+---+---+
0460 | r | Y | Y | N |
0461 +---+---+---+---+
0462 | R | Y | Y | N |
0463 +---+---+---+---+
0464
0465 (W: writers, r: non-recursive readers, R: recursive readers)
0466
0467
0468 acquired recursively. Unlike non-recursive read locks, recursive read locks
0469 only get blocked by current write lock *holders* other than write lock
0470 *waiters*, for example::
0471
0472 TASK A: TASK B:
0473
0474 read_lock(X);
0475
0476 write_lock(X);
0477
0478 read_lock(X);
0479
0480 is not a deadlock for recursive read locks, as while the task B is waiting for
0481 the lock X, the second read_lock() doesn't need to wait because it's a recursive
0482 read lock. However if the read_lock() is non-recursive read lock, then the above
0483 case is a deadlock, because even if the write_lock() in TASK B cannot get the
0484 lock, but it can block the second read_lock() in TASK A.
0485
0486 Note that a lock can be a write lock (exclusive lock), a non-recursive read
0487 lock (non-recursive shared lock) or a recursive read lock (recursive shared
0488 lock), depending on the lock operations used to acquire it (more specifically,
0489 the value of the 'read' parameter for lock_acquire()). In other words, a single
0490 lock instance has three types of acquisition depending on the acquisition
0491 functions: exclusive, non-recursive read, and recursive read.
0492
0493 To be concise, we call that write locks and non-recursive read locks as
0494 "non-recursive" locks and recursive read locks as "recursive" locks.
0495
0496 Recursive locks don't block each other, while non-recursive locks do (this is
0497 even true for two non-recursive read locks). A non-recursive lock can block the
0498 corresponding recursive lock, and vice versa.
0499
0500 A deadlock case with recursive locks involved is as follow::
0501
0502 TASK A: TASK B:
0503
0504 read_lock(X);
0505 read_lock(Y);
0506 write_lock(Y);
0507 write_lock(X);
0508
0509 Task A is waiting for task B to read_unlock() Y and task B is waiting for task
0510 A to read_unlock() X.
0511
0512 Dependency types and strong dependency paths:
0513 ---------------------------------------------
0514 Lock dependencies record the orders of the acquisitions of a pair of locks, and
0515 because there are 3 types for lockers, there are, in theory, 9 types of lock
0516 dependencies, but we can show that 4 types of lock dependencies are enough for
0517 deadlock detection.
0518
0519 For each lock dependency::
0520
0521 L1 -> L2
0522
0523 , which means lockdep has seen L1 held before L2 held in the same context at runtime.
0524 And in deadlock detection, we care whether we could get blocked on L2 with L1 held,
0525 IOW, whether there is a locker L3 that L1 blocks L3 and L2 gets blocked by L3. So
0526 we only care about 1) what L1 blocks and 2) what blocks L2. As a result, we can combine
0527 recursive readers and non-recursive readers for L1 (as they block the same types) and
0528 we can combine writers and non-recursive readers for L2 (as they get blocked by the
0529 same types).
0530
0531 With the above combination for simplification, there are 4 types of dependency edges
0532 in the lockdep graph:
0533
0534 1) -(ER)->:
0535 exclusive writer to recursive reader dependency, "X -(ER)-> Y" means
0536 X -> Y and X is a writer and Y is a recursive reader.
0537
0538 2) -(EN)->:
0539 exclusive writer to non-recursive locker dependency, "X -(EN)-> Y" means
0540 X -> Y and X is a writer and Y is either a writer or non-recursive reader.
0541
0542 3) -(SR)->:
0543 shared reader to recursive reader dependency, "X -(SR)-> Y" means
0544 X -> Y and X is a reader (recursive or not) and Y is a recursive reader.
0545
0546 4) -(SN)->:
0547 shared reader to non-recursive locker dependency, "X -(SN)-> Y" means
0548 X -> Y and X is a reader (recursive or not) and Y is either a writer or
0549 non-recursive reader.
0550
0551 Note that given two locks, they may have multiple dependencies between them,
0552 for example::
0553
0554 TASK A:
0555
0556 read_lock(X);
0557 write_lock(Y);
0558 ...
0559
0560 TASK B:
0561
0562 write_lock(X);
0563 write_lock(Y);
0564
0565 , we have both X -(SN)-> Y and X -(EN)-> Y in the dependency graph.
0566
0567 We use -(xN)-> to represent edges that are either -(EN)-> or -(SN)->, the
0568 similar for -(Ex)->, -(xR)-> and -(Sx)->
0569
0570 A "path" is a series of conjunct dependency edges in the graph. And we define a
0571 "strong" path, which indicates the strong dependency throughout each dependency
0572 in the path, as the path that doesn't have two conjunct edges (dependencies) as
0573 -(xR)-> and -(Sx)->. In other words, a "strong" path is a path from a lock
0574 walking to another through the lock dependencies, and if X -> Y -> Z is in the
0575 path (where X, Y, Z are locks), and the walk from X to Y is through a -(SR)-> or
0576 -(ER)-> dependency, the walk from Y to Z must not be through a -(SN)-> or
0577 -(SR)-> dependency.
0578
0579 We will see why the path is called "strong" in next section.
0580
0581 Recursive Read Deadlock Detection:
0582 ----------------------------------
0583
0584 We now prove two things:
0585
0586 Lemma 1:
0587
0588 If there is a closed strong path (i.e. a strong circle), then there is a
0589 combination of locking sequences that causes deadlock. I.e. a strong circle is
0590 sufficient for deadlock detection.
0591
0592 Lemma 2:
0593
0594 If there is no closed strong path (i.e. strong circle), then there is no
0595 combination of locking sequences that could cause deadlock. I.e. strong
0596 circles are necessary for deadlock detection.
0597
0598 With these two Lemmas, we can easily say a closed strong path is both sufficient
0599 and necessary for deadlocks, therefore a closed strong path is equivalent to
0600 deadlock possibility. As a closed strong path stands for a dependency chain that
0601 could cause deadlocks, so we call it "strong", considering there are dependency
0602 circles that won't cause deadlocks.
0603
0604 Proof for sufficiency (Lemma 1):
0605
0606 Let's say we have a strong circle::
0607
0608 L1 -> L2 ... -> Ln -> L1
0609
0610 , which means we have dependencies::
0611
0612 L1 -> L2
0613 L2 -> L3
0614 ...
0615 Ln-1 -> Ln
0616 Ln -> L1
0617
0618 We now can construct a combination of locking sequences that cause deadlock:
0619
0620 Firstly let's make one CPU/task get the L1 in L1 -> L2, and then another get
0621 the L2 in L2 -> L3, and so on. After this, all of the Lx in Lx -> Lx+1 are
0622 held by different CPU/tasks.
0623
0624 And then because we have L1 -> L2, so the holder of L1 is going to acquire L2
0625 in L1 -> L2, however since L2 is already held by another CPU/task, plus L1 ->
0626 L2 and L2 -> L3 are not -(xR)-> and -(Sx)-> (the definition of strong), which
0627 means either L2 in L1 -> L2 is a non-recursive locker (blocked by anyone) or
0628 the L2 in L2 -> L3, is writer (blocking anyone), therefore the holder of L1
0629 cannot get L2, it has to wait L2's holder to release.
0630
0631 Moreover, we can have a similar conclusion for L2's holder: it has to wait L3's
0632 holder to release, and so on. We now can prove that Lx's holder has to wait for
0633 Lx+1's holder to release, and note that Ln+1 is L1, so we have a circular
0634 waiting scenario and nobody can get progress, therefore a deadlock.
0635
0636 Proof for necessary (Lemma 2):
0637
0638 Lemma 2 is equivalent to: If there is a deadlock scenario, then there must be a
0639 strong circle in the dependency graph.
0640
0641 According to Wikipedia[1], if there is a deadlock, then there must be a circular
0642 waiting scenario, means there are N CPU/tasks, where CPU/task P1 is waiting for
0643 a lock held by P2, and P2 is waiting for a lock held by P3, ... and Pn is waiting
0644 for a lock held by P1. Let's name the lock Px is waiting as Lx, so since P1 is waiting
0645 for L1 and holding Ln, so we will have Ln -> L1 in the dependency graph. Similarly,
0646 we have L1 -> L2, L2 -> L3, ..., Ln-1 -> Ln in the dependency graph, which means we
0647 have a circle::
0648
0649 Ln -> L1 -> L2 -> ... -> Ln
0650
0651 , and now let's prove the circle is strong:
0652
0653 For a lock Lx, Px contributes the dependency Lx-1 -> Lx and Px+1 contributes
0654 the dependency Lx -> Lx+1, and since Px is waiting for Px+1 to release Lx,
0655 so it's impossible that Lx on Px+1 is a reader and Lx on Px is a recursive
0656 reader, because readers (no matter recursive or not) don't block recursive
0657 readers, therefore Lx-1 -> Lx and Lx -> Lx+1 cannot be a -(xR)-> -(Sx)-> pair,
0658 and this is true for any lock in the circle, therefore, the circle is strong.
0659
0660 References:
0661 -----------
0662 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlock
0663 [2]: Shibu, K. (2009). Intro To Embedded Systems (1st ed.). Tata McGraw-Hill