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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt | 130 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt b/Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..3eb9b81454d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +Kernel Lock Torture Test Operation + +CONFIG_LOCK_TORTURE_TEST + +The CONFIG LOCK_TORTURE_TEST config option provides a kernel module +that runs torture tests on core kernel locking primitives. The kernel +module, 'locktorture', may be built after the fact on the running +kernel to be tested, if desired. The tests periodically output status +messages via printk(), which can be examined via the dmesg (perhaps +grepping for "torture"). The test is started when the module is loaded, +and stops when the module is unloaded. This program is based on how RCU +is tortured, via rcutorture. + +This torture test consists of creating a number of kernel threads which +acquire the lock and hold it for specific amount of time, thus simulating +different critical region behaviors. The amount of contention on the lock +can be simulated by either enlarging this critical region hold time and/or +creating more kthreads. + + +MODULE PARAMETERS + +This module has the following parameters: + + + ** Locktorture-specific ** + +nwriters_stress Number of kernel threads that will stress exclusive lock + ownership (writers). The default value is twice the number + of online CPUs. + +torture_type Type of lock to torture. By default, only spinlocks will + be tortured. This module can torture the following locks, + with string values as follows: + + o "lock_busted": Simulates a buggy lock implementation. + + o "spin_lock": spin_lock() and spin_unlock() pairs. + + o "spin_lock_irq": spin_lock_irq() and spin_unlock_irq() + pairs. + +torture_runnable Start locktorture at boot time in the case where the + module is built into the kernel, otherwise wait for + torture_runnable to be set via sysfs before starting. + By default it will begin once the module is loaded. + + + ** Torture-framework (RCU + locking) ** + +shutdown_secs The number of seconds to run the test before terminating + the test and powering off the system. The default is + zero, which disables test termination and system shutdown. + This capability is useful for automated testing. + +onoff_interval The number of seconds between each attempt to execute a + randomly selected CPU-hotplug operation. Defaults + to zero, which disables CPU hotplugging. In + CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU=n kernels, locktorture will silently + refuse to do any CPU-hotplug operations regardless of + what value is specified for onoff_interval. + +onoff_holdoff The number of seconds to wait until starting CPU-hotplug + operations. This would normally only be used when + locktorture was built into the kernel and started + automatically at boot time, in which case it is useful + in order to avoid confusing boot-time code with CPUs + coming and going. This parameter is only useful if + CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU is enabled. + +stat_interval Number of seconds between statistics-related printk()s. + By default, locktorture will report stats every 60 seconds. + Setting the interval to zero causes the statistics to + be printed -only- when the module is unloaded, and this + is the default. + +stutter The length of time to run the test before pausing for this + same period of time. Defaults to "stutter=5", so as + to run and pause for (roughly) five-second intervals. + Specifying "stutter=0" causes the test to run continuously + without pausing, which is the old default behavior. + +shuffle_interval The number of seconds to keep the test threads affinitied + to a particular subset of the CPUs, defaults to 3 seconds. + Used in conjunction with test_no_idle_hz. + +verbose Enable verbose debugging printing, via printk(). Enabled + by default. This extra information is mostly related to + high-level errors and reports from the main 'torture' + framework. + + +STATISTICS + +Statistics are printed in the following format: + +spin_lock-torture: Writes: Total: 93746064 Max/Min: 0/0 Fail: 0 + (A) (B) (C) (D) + +(A): Lock type that is being tortured -- torture_type parameter. + +(B): Number of times the lock was acquired. + +(C): Min and max number of times threads failed to acquire the lock. + +(D): true/false values if there were errors acquiring the lock. This should + -only- be positive if there is a bug in the locking primitive's + implementation. Otherwise a lock should never fail (i.e., spin_lock()). + Of course, the same applies for (C), above. A dummy example of this is + the "lock_busted" type. + +USAGE + +The following script may be used to torture locks: + + #!/bin/sh + + modprobe locktorture + sleep 3600 + rmmod locktorture + dmesg | grep torture: + +The output can be manually inspected for the error flag of "!!!". +One could of course create a more elaborate script that automatically +checked for such errors. The "rmmod" command forces a "SUCCESS", +"FAILURE", or "RCU_HOTPLUG" indication to be printk()ed. The first +two are self-explanatory, while the last indicates that while there +were no locking failures, CPU-hotplug problems were detected. + +Also see: Documentation/RCU/torture.txt |