RFR(XS) 8036823: Stack trace sometimes shows 'locked' instead of 'waiting to lock'

David Holmes david.holmes at oracle.com
Tue May 20 09:24:22 UTC 2014



On 20/05/2014 3:28 PM, David Holmes wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> On 20/05/2014 3:04 PM, Daniel D. Daugherty wrote:
>> David,
>>
>> I'll have to politely disagree...
>
> That's why this code is so much fun ;-)
>
> You are of course correct. I misread this part of the inflate() code:
>
>            m->set_owner(mark->locker());
>
> to be setting the thread id as the owner, but in fact it is the
> BasicLock address as you note.
>
> As I flagged with Zhengyu in email, and as per the July 2012 discussion
> Kris Mok referred back to, I was wondering why this code did not do the
> "obvious" thing - and indeed why no one suggested checking the owner
> directly when I made the check_pending_monitor change back in 2006. Now
> I know. :)
>
> However I don't think we need to be concerned about BiasedLocking
> because that goes away as soon as we inflate - and we have inflated. So
> _owner is either a Thread ID or a BasicLock address.
>
> But even so isn't the check:
>
> mark->monitor()->owner() != thread()
>
> perfectly valid because a BasicLock address will never match a thread
> pointer?

Ah but the thread being examined may in fact be the owner that has this 
monitor stack-locked - which Dan also pointed out in his email. So we do 
need to do additional checking for the BasicLock case.

David

> Thanks,
> David
>
>> Here's the code in ObjectMonitor::exit() that handles the case
>> when a thread finds itself exiting a monitor that was stack
>> locked when it entered, but is now inflated:
>>
>> src/share/vm/runtime/objectMonitor.cpp:
>>
>>     912  void ATTR ObjectMonitor::exit(bool not_suspended, TRAPS) {
>>     913     Thread * Self = THREAD ;
>>     914     if (THREAD != _owner) {
>>     915       if (THREAD->is_lock_owned((address) _owner)) {
>>     916         // Transmute _owner from a BasicLock pointer to a Thread
>> address
>> .
>>     917         // We don't need to hold _mutex for this transition.
>>     918         // Non-null to Non-null is safe as long as all readers
>> can
>>     919         // tolerate either flavor.
>>     920         assert (_recursions == 0, "invariant") ;
>>     921         _owner = THREAD ;
>>     922         _recursions = 0 ;
>>     923         OwnerIsThread = 1 ;
>>     924       } else {
>>     925         // NOTE: we need to handle unbalanced monitor enter/exit
>>     926         // in native code by throwing an exception.
>>     927         // TODO: Throw an IllegalMonitorStateException ?
>>     928         TEVENT (Exit - Throw IMSX) ;
>>     929         assert(false, "Non-balanced monitor enter/exit!");
>>     930         if (false) {
>>     931 THROW(vmSymbols::java_lang_IllegalMonitorStateException());
>>     932         }
>>     933         return;
>>     934       }
>>     935     }
>>
>> so that _owner field when we did the stack dump still contained
>> the BaseLock pointer instead of the JavaThread pointer...
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>> On 5/19/14 8:09 PM, David Holmes wrote:
>>> Dan,
>>>
>>> My understanding of the existing code and hence the modified code is
>>> that we have already established that we are dealing with an inflated
>>> monitor and hence the owner really must be the owning thread - not a
>>> stack address for a BasicLock. Isn't that what mark->has_monitor()
>>> establishes?
>>>
>>> Note that we can not have reached a safepoint inflation is in progress.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> David
>>>
>>> On 20/05/2014 9:47 AM, Daniel D. Daugherty wrote:
>>>> On 5/19/14 7:58 AM, Zhengyu Gu wrote:
>>>>> This is a simple fix for incorrect lock state.
>>>>>
>>>>> The timing on setting thread's pending monitor can result stack trace
>>>>> dump reporting incorrect lock state. The solution is to check the
>>>>> monitor's owner, if the owner is other than the current thread, then
>>>>> the monitor, is or is in process of being, set the pending monitor of
>>>>> current thread.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Bug: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8036823
>>>>> Webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~zgu/8036823/webrev.00/
>>>>
>>>> src/share/vm/runtime/vframe.cpp
>>>>      First off, I concur that the existing code has a problem.
>>>>      However, I think the proposed solution has at least one
>>>>      different problem.
>>>>
>>>>      Here's the original code:
>>>>
>>>>   183   // Print out all monitors that we have locked or are trying
>>>> to lock
>>>>   184   GrowableArray<MonitorInfo*>* mons = monitors();
>>>>   185   if (!mons->is_empty()) {
>>>>   186     bool found_first_monitor = false;
>>>>   187     for (int index = (mons->length()-1); index >= 0; index--) {
>>>>   188       MonitorInfo* monitor = mons->at(index);
>>>>   189       if (monitor->eliminated() && is_compiled_frame()) { //
>>>> Eliminated in compiled code
>>>>   190         if (monitor->owner_is_scalar_replaced()) {
>>>>   191           Klass* k =
>>>> java_lang_Class::as_Klass(monitor->owner_klass());
>>>>   192           st->print("\t- eliminated <owner is scalar replaced> (a
>>>> %s)", k->external_name());
>>>>   193         } else {
>>>>   194           oop obj = monitor->owner();
>>>>   195           if (obj != NULL) {
>>>>   196             print_locked_object_class_name(st, obj,
>>>> "eliminated");
>>>>   197           }
>>>>   198         }
>>>>   199         continue;
>>>>   200       }
>>>>   201       if (monitor->owner() != NULL) {
>>>>   202
>>>>   203         // First, assume we have the monitor locked. If we
>>>> haven't
>>>> found an
>>>>   204         // owned monitor before and this is the first frame, then
>>>> we need to
>>>>   205         // see if we have completed the lock or we are blocked
>>>> trying to
>>>>   206         // acquire it - we can only be blocked if the monitor is
>>>> inflated
>>>>   207
>>>>   208         const char *lock_state = "locked"; // assume we have the
>>>> monitor locked
>>>>   209         if (!found_first_monitor && frame_count == 0) {
>>>>   210           markOop mark = monitor->owner()->mark();
>>>>   211           if (mark->has_monitor() &&
>>>>   212               mark->monitor() ==
>>>> thread()->current_pending_monitor()) {
>>>>   213             lock_state = "waiting to lock";
>>>>   214           }
>>>>   215         }
>>>>   216
>>>>   217         found_first_monitor = true;
>>>>   218         print_locked_object_class_name(st, monitor->owner(),
>>>> lock_state);
>>>>   219       }
>>>>   220     }
>>>>   221   }
>>>>
>>>>      The algorithm is pretty basic (no pun intended):
>>>>
>>>>      - for each monitor (BasicLock) in the Java frame
>>>>        - if the monitor has been eliminated and this is
>>>>          a compiled frame
>>>>          - do compiler specific handling
>>>>          - continue
>>>>        - if the monitor has a owner
>>>>          - set lock_state = "locked"
>>>>          - if this is the first monitor and the top most frame
>>>>            - set mark = associated Object's mark
>>>>            - if the mark has an ObjectMonitor and
>>>>                 the Java thread is pending on that monitor
>>>>               - set lock_state = "waiting to lock"
>>>>        - set found_first_monitor flag
>>>>        - print info about current monitor including
>>>>          the lock_state
>>>>
>>>>      A BasicLock is a Java monitor from the Java frame's point of
>>>>      view. It might be implemented as a stack lock, a biased lock
>>>>      or an inflated lock (ObjectMonitor).
>>>>
>>>>      The problem that I see with the algorithm is that it is
>>>>      traversing a collection of BasicLocks and then asking
>>>>      lock implementation specific questions in a an effort to
>>>>      determine if the BasicLock is owned by the Java thread
>>>>      whose frames we are traversing.
>>>>
>>>>      We already know that this code:
>>>>
>>>>          mark->monitor() == thread()->current_pending_monitor()
>>>>
>>>>      is specific to inflated monitors (ObjectMonitor) and it
>>>>      has a flaw because the target thread can be stopped at
>>>>      a safepoint before the _current_pending_monitor field
>>>>      is set.
>>>>
>>>>      The proposed code:
>>>>
>>>>          mark->monitor()->owner() != thread()
>>>>
>>>>      compares the owner of the inflated monitor to the Java
>>>>      thread whose frames we are traversing. The problem is
>>>>      that the ObjectMonitor::_owner field is not always a
>>>>      pointer to the JavaThread. Right after a stack lock
>>>>      is inflated, the ObjectMonitor::_owner field is set
>>>>      to the mark->locker() stack address; see:
>>>>
>>>>      src/share/vm/runtime/synchronizer.cpp:
>>>>      line 1283: m->set_owner(mark->locker());
>>>>
>>>>      So the proposed code will report "waiting to lock" for a
>>>>      Java monitor where the monitor is just transitioning
>>>>      from a stack lock to an inflated lock. Of course, the
>>>>      race is even tighter in this case. The target Java thread
>>>>      (T1) has to have just acquired the uninflated monitor
>>>>      and still be in the same frame in which that monitor was
>>>>      acquired at the same time that another thread (T2) lost
>>>>      the race to acquire the monitor. So T2 has to have just
>>>>      inflated the monitor, T1 has still be in the same frame
>>>>      in which it acquired the monitor and someone has to ask
>>>>      for a thread dump. Pretty cool.
>>>>
>>>>      Another thought has occurred to me. T1 owns the monitor,
>>>>      T2 is contending for the monitor and is starting to inflate
>>>>      it, we request a thread dump. Is it possible to see the
>>>>      BasicLock in T2's Java frame, see that the Object does not
>>>>      yet have an inflated monitor (!mark->has_monitor()) and
>>>>      report that T2 has the monitor "locked"?
>>>>
>>>>      This last scenario would again result in more than one
>>>>      thread being reported as having the same monitor locked.
>>>>
>>>>      To sum up:
>>>>
>>>>      I think both the current code and the proposed code have
>>>>      issues and we need to look at this a different way. We
>>>>      probably something like:
>>>>
>>>>          MonitorInfo::is_locked_by_thread(JavaThread jt)
>>>>
>>>>      that encapsulates and isolates the logic needed to
>>>>      determine if JavaThread 'jt' owns the BasicLock. It
>>>>      will need to know how to check:
>>>>
>>>>      - stack lock ownership (see JavaThread::is_lock_owned())
>>>>      - biased lock ownership (don't know how to do this one)
>>>>      - inflated lock ownership (_owner field == jt)
>>>>
>>>>      The stack lock ownership check needs to be done before
>>>>      the inflated lock ownership check. That's because the
>>>>      _owner field in the inflated lock can be the
>>>>      mark->locker() stack address when it is initially
>>>>      inflated.
>>>>
>>>>      I couldn't figure out the biased locking ownership
>>>>      check quickly so I don't know where it fits in the
>>>>      checking ownership pecking order.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Sorry this turned out to be not so simple... Welcome to
>>>> the joy of locking...
>>>>
>>>> Dan
>>>>
>>>> P.S.
>>>> Of course, now that we've discovered at least one
>>>> misuse of current_pending_monitor(), we should probably
>>>> audit the other uses of it also...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> -Zhengyu
>>>>
>>


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