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Date:      Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:12:10 +0200
From:      Kostik Belousov <kostikbel@gmail.com>
To:        Doug Barton <dougb@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Daniil Cherednik <dcherednik@masterhost.ru>, freebsd-apache@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 8.2 + apache == a LOT of sigprocmask
Message-ID:  <20111117081210.GN50300@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua>
In-Reply-To: <4EC4BECA.5040705@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <4EC17AAF.9050807@FreeBSD.org> <4EC17F57.5030008@FreeBSD.org> <20111115090745.GO50300@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua> <20111115100904.GA92795@icarus.home.lan> <4EC4ADC3.2060604@FreeBSD.org> <20111117074909.GL50300@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua> <4EC4BECA.5040705@FreeBSD.org>

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On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:59:06PM -0800, Doug Barton wrote:
> On 11/16/2011 23:49, Kostik Belousov wrote:
> > On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 10:46:27PM -0800, Doug Barton wrote:
> >> On 11/15/2011 02:09, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> >>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 11:07:45AM +0200, Kostik Belousov wrote:
> >>>> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 12:51:35PM -0800, Doug Barton wrote:
> >>>>> On 11/14/2011 12:31, Doug Barton wrote:
> >>>>>> Trying to track down a load problem we're seeing on 8.2-RELEASE-p4=
 i386
> >>>>>> in a busy web hosting environment I came across the following post:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2011-October/=
234520.html
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> That basically describes what we're seeing as well, including the
> >>>>>> "doesn't happen on Linux" part.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Does anyone have any ideas about this?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> With incredibly similar stuff running on 7.x we didn't see this pr=
oblem,
> >>>>>> so it seems to be something new in 8.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Just took a closer look at our ktrace, and actually our pattern is
> >>>>> slightly different than the one in that post. In ours the second op=
tion
> >>>>> is null, but the third is set:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 74195 httpd    0.000017 RET   sigprocmask 0
> >>>>> 74195 httpd    0.000013 CALL  sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK,0,0xbfbf89d4)
> >>>>> 74195 httpd    0.000009 RET   sigprocmask 0
> >>>>> 74195 httpd    0.000013 CALL  sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK,0,0xbfbf89d4)
> >>>>> 74195 httpd    0.000009 RET   sigprocmask 0
> >>>>> 74195 httpd    0.000012 CALL  sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK,0,0xbfbf89d4)
> >>>>>
> >>>>> But repeated hundreds of times in a row.
> >>>>
> >>>> The calls cannot come from rtld, they are generated by some setjmp()
> >>>> invocation. If signal-safety is not needed, sigsetjmp() should be us=
ed
> >>>> instead.
> >>>>
> >>>> Quick grep of the apache httpd source shows a single setjmp() in the=
ir
> >>>> copy of pcre. No idea is it to safe to change setjmp() into sigsetjm=
p(?, 0).
> >>>
> >>> I hate cross-posting, but: adding freebsd-apache@ to the list.  Some =
of
> >>> the Apache folks (not just port committers) may have some insight to
> >>> Kostik's findings.
> >>
> >> Thanks to everyone for the responses. We tried Kostik's suggestion and
> >> unfortunately it didn't reduce the number of sigprocmask() calls to a
> >> statistically significant degree.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have any other ideas on ways to debug this? We're sort of
> >> running out of things to test. :-/
> >>
> >> Given how important (and prevalent) the Apache + FreeBSD combination i=
s,
> >> I'm kind of disturbed that we're seeing this performance problem, and =
if
> >> it's something in 8.x that's also in 9.x, it would be better to fix it
> >> prior to 9.0-RELEASE.
> >=20
> > Since my guess appeared to be not useful,
>=20
> Well I wouldn't say that they weren't useful, we eliminated the obvious
> candidate. So, "not good news" certainly, but not unhelpful. :)
>=20
> > the way forward is to identify
> > the location of the call(s) that cause the issue. I suggest compliling
> > at least apache itself, libc, rtld and libthr (if used) with debugging
> > information. Then, attach to the running apache worker with the gdb and
Note this part.

> > set breakpoint on sigprocmask. Several backtraces from the hit breakpoi=
nt
> > should give enough data.
>=20
> We tried that, and got this:
>=20
> Loaded symbols for /libexec/ld-elf.so.1
> 0x28183a5d in accept () from /lib/libc.so.7
> (gdb) b sigprocmask
> Breakpoint 1 at 0x282d8f84
> (gdb) c
> Continuing.
> no thread to satisfy query
> 0x28183a5d in accept () from /lib/libc.so.7
> (gdb)
It seems your libc has no debugging information.
accept() is the pure syscall wrapper, it cannot call sigprocmask.
If gdb catched the PLT trampoline instead of real accept(),  we would
see the rtld frames. So install libc, libthr and rtld with debug.

Also, having debug symbols for apache itself can be useful.

>=20
> Of course I'm not the world's greatest gdb'er, so maybe there is a
> better way to do it?
>=20
> > High-tech solution is to link with libunwind and add code into sigprocm=
ask()
> > to gather the stacks. But I expect that gdb attach is enough.
>=20
> Ok, we'll look into that, thanks.
>=20
>=20
> Doug
>=20
> --=20
>=20
> 		"We could put the whole Internet into a book."
> 		"Too practical."
>=20
> 	Breadth of IT experience, and depth of knowledge in the DNS.
> 	Yours for the right price.  :)  http://SupersetSolutions.com/

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