[dpdk-dev] Memory allocated using rte_zmalloc() has non-zeros

Burakov, Anatoly anatoly.burakov at intel.com
Thu Jul 19 11:48:29 CEST 2018


On 19-Jul-18 10:01 AM, Burakov, Anatoly wrote:
> On 18-Jul-18 9:58 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
>> On Wed, 18 Jul 2018 22:52:12 +0300
>> Andrew Rybchenko <arybchenko at solarflare.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 18.07.2018 20:18, Burakov, Anatoly wrote:
>>>> On 18-Jul-18 4:20 PM, Andrew Rybchenko wrote:
>>>>> Hi Anatoly,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm investigating issue which finally comes to the fact that memory
>>>>> allocated using
>>>>> rte_zmalloc() has non zeros.
>>>>>
>>>>> If I add memset just after allocation, everything is perfect and
>>>>> works fine.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've found out that memset was removed from rte_zmalloc_socket() some
>>>>> time ago:
>>>>>   >>>
>>>>> commit b78c9175118f7d61022ddc5c62ce54a1bd73cea5
>>>>> Author: Sergio Gonzalez Monroy <sergio.gonzalez.monroy at intel.com>
>>>>> Date:   Tue Jul 5 12:01:16 2016 +0100
>>>>>
>>>>>       mem: do not zero out memory on zmalloc
>>>>>
>>>>>       Zeroing out memory on rte_zmalloc_socket is not required anymore
>>>>> since all
>>>>>       allocated memory is already zeroed.
>>>>>
>>>>>       Signed-off-by: Sergio Gonzalez Monroy
>>>>> <sergio.gonzalez.monroy at intel.com>
>>>>> <<<
>>>>>
>>>>> but may be something has changed now that made above statement false.
>>>>>
>>>>> I observe the problem when memory is reallocated. I.e. I configure 7
>>>>> queues,
>>>>> start, stop, reconfigure to 3 queues, start. Memory is allocated on
>>>>> start and
>>>>> freed on stop, since we have less queues on the second start it is
>>>>> allocated
>>>>> in a different way and reuses previously allocated/freed memory.
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you have any ideas what could be wrong?
>>>>>
>>>>> Andrew.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi Andrew,
>>>>
>>>> I will look into it first thing tomorrow. In general, we memset(0) on
>>>> free, and kernel gives us zeroed out pages initially, so the most
>>>> likely point of failure is that i'm not overwring some malloc headers
>>>> correctly on free.
>>>
>>> OK, at least now I know how it is supposed to work in theory.
>>>
>>> The following region was allocated  (the second number below is pointer
>>> plus size)
>>> ALLOC 0x7fffa3264080-0x7fffa32640b8
>>>
>>> Not zerod address is 16 bytes before:
>>> (gdb) p/x ((uint64_t *)0x7fffa3264070)[0]
>>> $4 = 0x4000000002
>>> (gdb) p/x ((uint64_t  *)0x7fffa3264070)[1]
>>> $5 = 0x80
>>>
>>> then freed
>>> FREE 0x7fffa3264080-0x7fffa32640b8
>>>
>>> but above values (gdb) are still the same
>>> then it is allocated as the part of bigger memory chunk
>>> ALLOC 0x7fffa3245b80-0x7fffa3265fd8
>>> which should contain zeros, but above values are still the same.
>>>
>>> It is interesting that it looks like it was the first block freed on the
>>> port stop. I'm not 100% sure since I've put printouts to my allocation
>>> wrapper, not EAL.
>>>
>>> Many thanks,
>>> Andrew.
>>
>> memset here is what is supposed to clear the data.
>>
>> struct malloc_elem *
>> malloc_elem_free(struct malloc_elem *elem)
>> {
>>     void *ptr;
>>     size_t data_len;
>>
>>     ptr = RTE_PTR_ADD(elem, MALLOC_ELEM_HEADER_LEN + elem->pad);
>>     data_len = elem->size - elem->pad - MALLOC_ELEM_OVERHEAD;
>>
>>     elem = malloc_elem_join_adjacent_free(elem);
>>
>>     malloc_elem_free_list_insert(elem);
>>
>>     elem->pad = 0;
>>
>>     /* decrease heap's count of allocated elements */
>>     elem->heap->alloc_count--;
>>
>>     memset(ptr, 0, data_len);
>>
>> Maybe data_len is not correct either because of bug, or your 
>> application clobbered
>> the malloc reserved regions  in the element.
>>
>> More likely, gcc is incorrectly optimizing this away.
>>
>> https://wiki.sei.cmu.edu/confluence/display/c/MSC06-C.+Beware+of+compiler+optimizations 
>>
>> https://www.cryptologie.net/article/419/zeroing-memory-compiler-optimizations-and-memset_s/ 
>>
>>
> 
> I tend to be very wary of blaming the compiler without exhausting any 
> other possibilities :) It used to work before without issues, so 
> presumably whatever is happening, our memset works correctly.
> 
> Andrew, you write:
> 
> <snip>
> ALLOC 0x7fffa3264080-0x7fffa32640b8
> Not zerod address is 16 bytes before:
> <snip>
> 
> Of course the memory *before* your pointer would not be zero - it is 
> preceded by a 64-byte malloc header, so what you're seeing is the malloc 
> header data (which doesn't go away if you free it - it will go away only 
> if it is merged with an adjacent free malloc element). So, i'm failing 
> to see which problem you're describing, given that all memory regions 
> that are supposedly not free lie outside of your malloc-allocated memory.
> 
> However, after careful analysis, i can see that there is one possibility 
> where memory is not zeroed on free - if the original malloc element was 
> padded, and there aren't any more adjacent free elements, then newly 
> allocated memory may contain old pad header. I'll submit a patch for you 
> to try shortly.
> 

Patch:

http://patches.dpdk.org/patch/43196/

-- 
Thanks,
Anatoly


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