libupnp/threadutil
Chandra Penke c4e9757bcf Fix for Race condition can hang miniserver thread.
Add 'requiredThreads' field to the ThreadPool structure, to avoid
a race condition when waiting for a new thread to be created. The
race condition occurs when a thread is destroyed while the master
thread is waiting for a new thread to be created.

Thanks to Chuck Thomason for pointing the problem.

Summary: Race condition can hang miniserver thread - ID: 3158591

Details:
Hello,

I have found a race condition in the thread pool handling of
libupnp-1.6.6 that periodically results in the miniserver thread
getting blocked infinitely.

In my setup, I have the miniserver thread pool configured with 1
job per thread, 2 threads minimum, and 50 threads maximum.

Just before the lockup occurs, the miniserver thread pool contains
2 threads: one worker thread hanging around from a previous HTTP
request job (let's call that thread "old_worker") and the
miniserver thread itself.

A new HTTP request comes in. Accordingly, the miniserver enters
schedule_request_job() and then ThreadPoolAdd(). In
ThreadPoolAdd(), the job gets added to the medium-priority queue,
and AddWorker() is called. In AddWorker(), jobs = 1 and threads =
1, so CreateWorker gets called.

When we enter CreateWorker(), tp->totalThreads is 2, so
currentThreads is 3. The function creates a new thread and then
blocks on tp->start_and_shutdown. The miniserver thread expects
the newly created thread to increment tp->totalThreads and then
signal the condition variable to wake up the miniserver thread and
let it proceed.

The newly created thread starts in the WorkerThread() function. It
increments tp->totalThreads to 3, does a broadcast on the
start_and_shutdown condition, and starts running its job. However,
before the miniserver thread wakes up, "old_worker" times out. It
sees that there are no jobs in any queue and that the total number
of threads (3) is more than the minimum (2). As a result, it
reduces tp->totalThreads to 2 and dies.

Now the miniserver thread finally wakes up. It checks
tp->totalThreads and sees that its value is 2, so it blocks on
tp->start_and_shutdown again. It has now "missed" seeing
tp->totalThreads get incremented to 3 and will never be unblocked
again.

When this issue does occur for a server device, the miniserver
port remains open, but becomes unresponsive since the miniserver
thread is stuck. SSDP alive messages keep getting sent out, as
they are handled by a separate thread. Reproducing the issue is
difficult due to the timing coincidence involved, but in my
environment I am presently seeing it at least once a day. I
figured out the sequence described above through addition of my
own debug logs.

The relevant code involved in this bug has not changed
substantially in libupnp-1.6.10, though I am planning to test
against 1.6.10 as well in the near future.

Do you have any input for an elegant fix for this issue?

Thanks,

Chuck Thomason
2011-01-20 04:45:27 -02:00
..
inc Fix for Race condition can hang miniserver thread. 2011-01-20 04:45:27 -02:00
src Fix for Race condition can hang miniserver thread. 2011-01-20 04:45:27 -02:00
Makefile.am Merge of trunk into branch 1.6.x. 2008-02-03 01:36:23 +00:00