Dear Ben, > ... I think the initial overflow occurs when calculating x > ... > setpoint and dirty are numbers of pages and are declared as long, so on > a system with enough memory they can presumably differ by 2^21 or more > (2^21 pages = 8 GB). Shifting left by RATELIMIT_CALC_SHIFT = 10 can > then change the sign bit. > > Does the attached patch fix this? > > ... > > Most variables in bdi_position_ratio() are declared long, which is > enough for a page count. However, when converting (setpoint - dirty) > to a fixed-point number we left-shift by 10, and on a 32-bit system > with PAE it is possible to have enough dirty pages that the shift > overflows into the sign bit. We need to cast to s64 before the > left-shift. > > Reported-by: Paul Szabo <paul.sz...@sydney.edu.au> > Reference: http://bugs.debian.org/695182 > Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <b...@decadent.org.uk> > --- > mm/page-writeback.c | 2 +- > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) > > diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c > index 50f0824..8b5600e 100644 > --- a/mm/page-writeback.c > +++ b/mm/page-writeback.c > @@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ static unsigned long bdi_position_ratio(struct > backing_dev_i > nfo *bdi, > * => fast response on large errors; small oscillation near setpoint > */ > setpoint = (freerun + limit) / 2; > - x = div_s64((setpoint - dirty) << RATELIMIT_CALC_SHIFT, > + x = div_s64((s64)(setpoint - dirty) << RATELIMIT_CALC_SHIFT, > limit - setpoint + 1); > pos_ratio = x; > pos_ratio = pos_ratio * x >> RATELIMIT_CALC_SHIFT;
Thanks for the quick patch. I am about to test it (in a day or so). Initial (blind, off-the-cuff, uneducated) comments: - I had "BUG_ON(x<0)" in my code, so unlikely x changed sign. - Why not use float instead of infinite-precision integer arithmetic? - Do we need a "smooth" function, or would an easy-to-calculate step function suffice? - Is there a check that the returned s64 pos_ratio fits into u32? Cheers, Paul Paul Szabo p...@maths.usyd.edu.au http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/ School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Sydney Australia -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-kernel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/201212160014.qbg0e961019...@como.maths.usyd.edu.au
