grpc server causes deadlock in libc

[Stefan Thöni]

Hi Christian

> On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 14:57:32 CEST, Stefan Thöni wrote:
>> We encountered a problem with the port in which grpc server deadlocks
>> when using the poll function of libc to poll sockets via the lwip or
>> lxip plugin. We determined that poll calls Libc::suspend in task.cc
>> which in term calls Pthreads::suspend_myself where the deadlock oocurs
>> at myself.lock.lock();.
>>
>> Note that the grpc server uses several threads which apparantly are all
>> waiting/suspended when the problem occurred.
> 
> I suspect an interplay of pthread mutexes and Libc::suspend(). In the
> current runtime implementation the only thread that is able to resume
> suspended pthreads is the main component thread. On the other hand,
> the current pthread-mutex implementation does not use the
> Libc::suspend() functionality but Genode::Lock. If the main thread now
> fails to grab a pthread mutex it blocks at the Genode::Lock and, thus,
> is unable to process incoming signals and deblock suspended threads
> waiting for I/O progress. In this case, some code paths retain a
> pthread mutex across potentially blocking operations like poll().
> 
> Could you please check my suspicion by inspecting the backtrace of
> thread 2 (which is the main thread) in your grpc component?

The main thread 2 is waiting at pthread_cond_timedwait which blocks at a
genode semaphore.

How should we patch this?

Greets
Stefan
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0x05D66A288F9939FF.asc
Type: application/pgp-keys
Size: 25417 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.genode.org/pipermail/users/attachments/20191024/dc8e59ba/attachment-0001.key>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: stefan_thoeni.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 173 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.genode.org/pipermail/users/attachments/20191024/dc8e59ba/attachment-0001.vcf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.genode.org/pipermail/users/attachments/20191024/dc8e59ba/attachment-0001.sig>