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Michal Hocko b0f53dbc4b kernel/sysctl.c: do not override max_threads provided by userspace
Partially revert 16db3d3f11 ("kernel/sysctl.c: threads-max observe
limits") because the patch is causing a regression to any workload which
needs to override the auto-tuning of the limit provided by kernel.

set_max_threads is implementing a boot time guesstimate to provide a
sensible limit of the concurrently running threads so that runaways will
not deplete all the memory.  This is a good thing in general but there
are workloads which might need to increase this limit for an application
to run (reportedly WebSpher MQ is affected) and that is simply not
possible after the mentioned change.  It is also very dubious to
override an admin decision by an estimation that doesn't have any direct
relation to correctness of the kernel operation.

Fix this by dropping set_max_threads from sysctl_max_threads so any
value is accepted as long as it fits into MAX_THREADS which is important
to check because allowing more threads could break internal robust futex
restriction.  While at it, do not use MIN_THREADS as the lower boundary
because it is also only a heuristic for automatic estimation and admin
might have a good reason to stop new threads to be created even when
below this limit.

This became more severe when we switched x86 from 4k to 8k kernel
stacks.  Starting since 6538b8ea88 ("x86_64: expand kernel stack to
16K") (3.16) we use THREAD_SIZE_ORDER = 2 and that halved the auto-tuned
value.

In the particular case

  3.12
  kernel.threads-max = 515561

  4.4
  kernel.threads-max = 200000

Neither of the two values is really insane on 32GB machine.

I am not sure we want/need to tune the max_thread value further.  If
anything the tuning should be removed altogether if proven not useful in
general.  But we definitely need a way to override this auto-tuning.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20190922065801.GB18814@dhcp22.suse.cz
Fixes: 16db3d3f11 ("kernel/sysctl.c: threads-max observe limits")
Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>
Reviewed-by: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Cc: Heinrich Schuchardt <xypron.glpk@gmx.de>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2019-10-07 15:47:19 -07:00
arch Some MIPS fixes for the 5.4 cycle: 2019-10-04 13:31:56 -07:00
block block: sed-opal: fix sparse warning: convert __be64 data 2019-10-03 14:21:32 -06:00
certs PKCS#7: Refactor verify_pkcs7_signature() 2019-08-05 18:40:18 -04:00
crypto Merge branch 'next-lockdown' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security 2019-09-28 08:14:15 -07:00
Documentation dt-bindings: phy: lantiq: Fix Property Name 2019-10-02 14:14:58 -05:00
drivers xen: fixes and cleanups for 5.4-rc2 2019-10-04 11:13:09 -07:00
fs writeback: fix use-after-free in finish_writeback_work() 2019-10-07 15:47:19 -07:00
include memcg: only record foreign writebacks with dirty pages when memcg is not disabled 2019-10-07 15:47:19 -07:00
init Merge branch 'next-lockdown' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security 2019-09-28 08:14:15 -07:00
ipc ipc/sem.c: convert to use built-in RCU list checking 2019-09-25 17:51:41 -07:00
kernel kernel/sysctl.c: do not override max_threads provided by userspace 2019-10-07 15:47:19 -07:00
lib usercopy: Add parentheses around assignment in test_copy_struct_from_user 2019-10-03 21:13:27 +02:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Rename other to deprecated 2019-05-03 06:34:32 -06:00
mm mm: fix -Wmissing-prototypes warnings 2019-10-07 15:47:19 -07:00
net Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net 2019-09-28 17:47:33 -07:00
samples rpmsg updates for v5.4 2019-09-22 10:58:15 -07:00
scripts Merge branch 'next-integrity' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/zohar/linux-integrity 2019-09-27 19:37:27 -07:00
security Merge branch 'next-lockdown' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security 2019-09-28 08:14:15 -07:00
sound sound fixes for 5.4-rc1 2019-09-24 16:46:16 -07:00
tools ARM and x86 bugfixes of all kinds. The most visible one is that migrating 2019-10-04 11:17:51 -07:00
usr Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net 2019-09-28 17:47:33 -07:00
virt KVM/arm fixes for 5.4, take #1 2019-10-03 12:08:50 +02:00
.clang-format clang-format: Update with the latest for_each macro list 2019-08-31 10:00:51 +02:00
.cocciconfig
.get_maintainer.ignore Opt out of scripts/get_maintainer.pl 2019-05-16 10:53:40 -07:00
.gitattributes
.gitignore Modules updates for v5.4 2019-09-22 10:34:46 -07:00
.mailmap Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next 2019-09-18 12:34:53 -07:00
COPYING COPYING: use the new text with points to the license files 2018-03-23 12:41:45 -06:00
CREDITS CREDITS: Update email address 2019-09-13 17:21:38 +03:00
Kbuild kbuild: do not descend to ./Kbuild when cleaning 2019-08-21 21:03:58 +09:00
Kconfig docs: kbuild: convert docs to ReST and rename to *.rst 2019-06-14 14:21:21 -06:00
MAINTAINERS kgdb patches for 5.4-rc2 2019-10-03 11:17:57 -07:00
Makefile Linux 5.4-rc1 2019-09-30 10:35:40 -07:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.