tree 97160f82b8deaf6e83d988844d5b410baa4e3ab4
parent f528e7ba28492e363a64c80c414ded4cadf48f89
author Tim Hockin <thockin@google.com> 1185030636 +0200
committer Linus Torvalds <torvalds@woody.linux-foundation.org> 1185068230 -0700

x86_64: support poll() on /dev/mcelog

Background:
 /dev/mcelog is typically polled manually.  This is less than optimal for
 situations where accurate accounting of MCEs is important.  Calling
 poll() on /dev/mcelog does not work.

Description:
 This patch adds support for poll() to /dev/mcelog.  This results in
 immediate wakeup of user apps whenever the poller finds MCEs.  Because
 the exception handler can not take any locks, it can not call the wakeup
 itself.  Instead, it uses a thread_info flag (TIF_MCE_NOTIFY) which is
 caught at the next return from interrupt or exit from idle, calling the
 mce_user_notify() routine.  This patch also disables the "fake panic"
 path of the mce_panic(), because it results in printk()s in the exception
 handler and crashy systems.

 This patch also does some small cleanup for essentially unused variables,
 and moves the user notification into the body of the poller, so it is
 only called once per poll, rather than once per CPU.

Result:
 Applications can now poll() on /dev/mcelog.  When an error is logged
 (whether through the poller or through an exception) the applications are
 woken up promptly.  This should not affect any previous behaviors.  If no
 MCEs are being logged, there is no overhead.

Alternatives:
 I considered simply supporting poll() through the poller and not using
 TIF_MCE_NOTIFY at all.  However, the time between an uncorrectable error
 happening and the user application being notified is *the*most* critical
 window for us.  Many uncorrectable errors can be logged to the network if
 given a chance.

 I also considered doing the MCE poll directly from the idle notifier, but
 decided that was overkill.

Testing:
 I used an error-injecting DIMM to create lots of correctable DRAM errors
 and verified that my user app is woken up in sync with the polling interval.
 I also used the northbridge to inject uncorrectable ECC errors, and
 verified (printk() to the rescue) that the notify routine is called and the
 user app does wake up.  I built with PREEMPT on and off, and verified
 that my machine survives MCEs.

[wli@holomorphy.com: build fix]
Signed-off-by: Tim Hockin <thockin@google.com>
Signed-off-by: William Irwin <bill.irwin@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>