PROBLEM: monotonic clock going backwards on ppc64

[Jakub Drnec]

Hi all,

I think I observed a potential problem, is this the correct place to report it? (CC me, not on list)

[1.] One line summary: monotonic clock can be made to decrease on ppc64
[2.] Full description:
Setting the realtime clock can sometimes make the monotonic clock go back by over a hundred years.
Decreasing the realtime clock across the y2k38 threshold is one reliable way to reproduce.
Allegedly this can also happen just by running ntpd, I have not managed to reproduce that other
than booting with rtc at >2038 and then running ntp.
When this happens, anything with timers (e.g. openjdk) breaks rather badly.

[3.] Keywords: gettimeofday, ppc64, vdso
[4.] Kernel information
[4.1.] Kernel version: any (tested on 4.19)
[4.2.] Kernel .config file: any
[5.] Most recent kernel version which did not have the bug: not a regression
[6.] Output of Oops..: not applicable
[7.] Example program which triggers the problem
--- testcase.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>

long get_time() {
  struct timespec tp;
  if (clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &tp) != 0) {
    perror("clock_gettime failed");
    exit(1);
  }
  long result = tp.tv_sec + tp.tv_nsec / 1000000000;
  return result;
}

int main() {
  printf("monitoring monotonic clock...\n");
  long last = get_time();
  while(1) {
    long now = get_time();
    if (now < last) {
      printf("clock went backwards by %ld seconds!\n",
        last - now);
    }
    last = now;
    sleep(1);
  }
  return 0;
}
---
when running
# date -s 2040-1-1
# date -s 2037-1-1
program outputs: clock went backwards by 4294967295 seconds!

[8.] Environment: any ppc64, currently reproducing on qemu-system-ppc64le running debian unstable
[X.] Other notes, patches, fixes, workarounds:
The problem seems to be in vDSO code in arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso64/gettimeofday.S.
(possibly because some values used in the calculation are only 32 bit?)
Slightly silly workaround: 
nuke the "cmpwi cr1,r3,CLOCK_MONOTONIC" in __kernel_clock_gettime
Now it always goes through the syscall fallback which does not have the same problem.

Regards,
Jakub Drnec