7882c6eca5
A deadlock situation can occur when autostarting a LXC domain 'guest'
due to two threads attempting to take opposing locks while holding
opposing locks (AB BA problem). Thread A takes and holds the 'vm' lock
while attempting to take the 'client' lock, meanwhile, thread B takes
and holds the 'client' lock while attempting to take the 'vm' lock.
The potential for this can be seen as follows:
Thread A:
virLXCProcessAutostartDomain (takes vm lock)
--> virLXCProcessStart
--> virLXCProcessConnectMonitor
--> virLXCMonitorNew
--> virNetClientSetCloseCallback (wants client lock)
Thread B:
virNetClientIncomingEvent (takes client lock)
--> virNetClientIOHandleInput
--> virNetClientCallDispatch
--> virNetClientCallDispatchMessage
--> virNetClientProgramDispatch
--> virLXCMonitorHandleEventInit
--> virLXCProcessMonitorInitNotify (wants vm lock)
Since these threads are scheduled independently and are preemptible it
is possible for the deadlock scenario to occur where each thread locks
their first lock but both will fail to get their second lock and just
spin forever. You get something like:
virLXCProcessAutostartDomain (takes vm lock)
--> virLXCProcessStart
--> virLXCProcessConnectMonitor
--> virLXCMonitorNew
<...>
virNetClientIncomingEvent (takes client lock)
--> virNetClientIOHandleInput
--> virNetClientCallDispatch
--> virNetClientCallDispatchMessage
--> virNetClientProgramDispatch
--> virLXCMonitorHandleEventInit
--> virLXCProcessMonitorInitNotify (wants vm lock but spins)
<...>
--> virNetClientSetCloseCallback (wants client lock but spins)
Neither thread ever gets the lock it needs to be able to continue
while holding the lock that the other thread needs.
The actual window for preemption which can cause this deadlock is
rather small, between the calls to virNetClientProgramNew() and
execution of virNetClientSetCloseCallback(), both in
virLXCMonitorNew(). But it can be seen in real world use that this
small window is enough.
By moving the call to virNetClientSetCloseCallback() ahead of
virNetClientProgramNew() we can close any possible chance of the
deadlock taking place. There should be no other implications to the
move since the close callback (in the unlikely event was called) will
spin on the vm lock. The remaining work that takes place between the
old call location of virNetClientSetCloseCallback() and the new
location is unaffected by the move.
Signed-off-by: Mark Asselstine <mark.asselstine@windriver.com>
Signed-off-by: Michal Privoznik <mprivozn@redhat.com>
Libvirt API for virtualization
Libvirt provides a portable, long term stable C API for managing the virtualization technologies provided by many operating systems. It includes support for QEMU, KVM, Xen, LXC, bhyve, Virtuozzo, VMware vCenter and ESX, VMware Desktop, Hyper-V, VirtualBox and the POWER Hypervisor.
For some of these hypervisors, it provides a stateful management daemon which runs on the virtualization host allowing access to the API both by non-privileged local users and remote users.
Layered packages provide bindings of the libvirt C API into other languages including Python, Perl, PHP, Go, Java, OCaml, as well as mappings into object systems such as GObject, CIM and SNMP.
Further information about the libvirt project can be found on the website:
License
The libvirt C API is distributed under the terms of GNU Lesser General
Public License, version 2.1 (or later). Some parts of the code that are
not part of the C library may have the more restrictive GNU General
Public License, version 2.1 (or later). See the files COPYING.LESSER
and COPYING for full license terms & conditions.
Installation
Libvirt uses the GNU Autotools build system, so in general can be built and installed with the usual commands. For example, to build in a manner that is suitable for installing as root, use:
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
$ make
$ sudo make install
While to build & install as an unprivileged user
$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr
$ make
$ make install
The libvirt code relies on a large number of 3rd party libraries. These will
be detected during execution of the configure script and a summary printed
which lists any missing (optional) dependencies.
Contributing
The libvirt project welcomes contributions in many ways. For most components the best way to contribute is to send patches to the primary development mailing list. Further guidance on this can be found on the website:
https://libvirt.org/contribute.html
Contact
The libvirt project has two primary mailing lists:
- libvirt-users@redhat.com (for user discussions)
- libvir-list@redhat.com (for development only)
Further details on contacting the project are available on the website: