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x86/split_lock: Add sysctl to control the misery mode
Commit b041b52 ("x86/split_lock: Make life miserable for split lockers")
changed the way the split lock detector works when in "warn" mode;
basically, it not only shows the warn message, but also intentionally
introduces a slowdown through sleeping plus serialization mechanism
on such task. Based on discussions in [0], seems the warning alone
wasn't enough motivation for userspace developers to fix their
applications.
This slowdown is enough to totally break some proprietary (aka.
unfixable) userspace[1].
Happens that originally the proposal in [0] was to add a new mode
which would warns + slowdown the "split locking" task, keeping the
old warn mode untouched. In the end, that idea was discarded and
the regular/default "warn" mode now slows down the applications. This
is quite aggressive with regards proprietary/legacy programs that
basically are unable to properly run in kernel with this change.
While it is understandable that a malicious application could DoS
by split locking, it seems unacceptable to regress old/proprietary
userspace programs through a default configuration that previously
worked. An example of such breakage was reported in [1].
Add a sysctl to allow controlling the "misery mode" behavior, as per
Thomas suggestion on [2]. This way, users running legacy and/or
proprietary software are allowed to still execute them with a decent
performance while still observing the warning messages on kernel log.
[0] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/[email protected]/
[1] doitsujin/dxvk#2938
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/87pmf4bter.ffs@tglx/
[ dhansen: minor changelog tweaks, including clarifying the actual
problem ]
Fixes: b041b52 ("x86/split_lock: Make life miserable for split lockers")
Suggested-by: Thomas Gleixner <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Guilherme G. Piccoli <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Tony Luck <[email protected]>
Tested-by: Andre Almeida <[email protected]>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20221024200254.635256-1-gpiccoli%40igalia.com
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