GitLab

When a cpu requests broadcasting, before starting the tick broadcast
hrtimer, bc_set_next() checks if the timer callback (bc_handler) is active
using hrtimer_try_to_cancel(). But hrtimer_try_to_cancel() does not provide
the required synchronization when the callback is active on other core.

The callback could have already executed tick_handle_oneshot_broadcast()
and could have also returned. But still there is a small time window where
the hrtimer_try_to_cancel() returns -1. In that case bc_set_next() returns
without doing anything, but the next_event of the tick broadcast clock
device is already set to a timeout value.

In the race condition diagram below, CPU #1 is running the timer callback
and CPU #2 is entering idle state and so calls bc_set_next().

In the worst case, the next_event will contain an expiry time, but the
hrtimer will not be started which happens when the racing callback returns
HRTIMER_NORESTART. The hrtimer might never recover if al...