tree 207920700ba3c7c7091d547184c883e7bd05a2a8
parent 47239561e39bceefecc3cd67f71fcf86a198a8ff
author Guillaume Knispel <gknispel@proformatique.com> 1237303122 +0100
committer Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> 1237303528 +0100

printk: correct the behavior of printk_timed_ratelimit()

Impact: fix jiffies-comparison sign-wrap behavior

The behavior provided by printk_timed_ratelimit() is, in some
situations, probably not what a caller would reasonably expect:

bool printk_timed_ratelimit(unsigned long *caller_jiffies,
			unsigned int interval_msecs)
{
	if (*caller_jiffies == 0 || time_after(jiffies, *caller_jiffies)) {
		*caller_jiffies = jiffies + msecs_to_jiffies(interval_msecs);
		return true;
	}
	return false;
}

On a 32 bit computer, if printk_timed_ratelimit() is initially called at
time jiffies == Ja, *caller_jiffies is set to
Ja + msecs_to_jiffies(interval_msecs): let's say Ja + 42 for this
example.

If this caller then doesn't call printk_timed_ratelimit() until
jiffies == Ja + (1 << 31) + 42 (which can happen as soon as ~ 25 days
later on a 1000 HZ system), printk_timed_ratelimit() will then always
return false to this caller until jiffies loops completely (1 << 31 more
ticks).

Ths change makes it only return false if jiffies is in the small
time window starting at the previous call when true was returned and
ending interval_msecs later.  Note that if jiffies loops completely
between two calls to printk_timed_ratelimit(), it will obviously still
wrongly return false, but this is something with a low probability.

If something completely reliable is needed I guess jiffies_64 must be
used (which this change does not do).

Signed-off-by: Guillaume Knispel <gknispel@proformatique.com>
Cc: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>
Cc: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
LKML-Reference: <20090317161842.0059096b@xilun.lan.proformatique.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>