Ubuntu
apache2 package

Update mutex from file to pthread

Bug #1527044 reported by Daniel Axtens on 2015-12-17

This bug affects 1 person

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	apache2 (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Medium	Unassigned

Bug Description

The default Mutex implementation used by Ubuntu's Apache package is file locking. (See /etc/apache2/apache2.conf) This is slower than pthreads, especially when using mpm_prefork.

The Apache project currently warns about pthreads being potentially dangerous.[1] However, Linux has supported robust pthreads for many years now,[2] so it's safe for Ubuntu to move to pthreads and reap the performance benefits.

My tests on POWER8, VM and bare-metal, PHP and static files, show something like a 1.5% to 3.5% performance gain for a one-line config change.

[1] https://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/mod/core.html#mutex
[2] See this apache bug: https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=58744

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CVE References

Revision history for this message

Robie Basak (racb) wrote on 2015-12-17:

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

We could fix this in Xenial, thanks. I appreciate your performance testing report, but is there anything from upstream that documents that pthread mutexes with mpm_prefork are expected to be faster?

This should be reported to Debian too, so I'll leave a tag for that. Again, we'd prefer to stay as close to Debian as possible.

tags:	added: needs-upstream-report
Changed in apache2 (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Triaged
importance:	Undecided → Medium

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2016-11-16:

Download full text (5.4 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package apache2 - 2.4.23-7ubuntu1

---------------
apache2 (2.4.23-7ubuntu1) zesty; urgency=medium

  * Merge from Debian unstable. Remaining changes:
    - debian/{control, apache2.install, apache2-utils.ufw.profile,
      apache2.dirs}: Add ufw profiles.
    - debian/apache2.py, debian/apache2-bin.install: Add apport hook.
    - debian/rules: Fix cross-building by passing
      DEB_{HOST,BUILD}_GNU_TYPE to configure.
    - debian/patches/086_svn_cross_compiles: Backport several cross
      fixes from upstream
    - d/index.html, d/icons/ubuntu-logo.png, d/apache2.postrm: replace
      Debian with Ubuntu on default page.
    - Don't build experimental http2 module for LTS:
      + debian/control: removed libnghttp2-dev Build-Depends (in universe).
      + debian/config-dir/mods-available/http2.load: removed.
      + debian/rules: removed proxy_http2 from configure.
    - Correct systemd-sysv-generator behavior by customizing some
      parameters:
      + d/apache2-systemd.conf: add a drop-in file to specify some
        parameters for the systemd unit (type=Forking and
        RemainsAfterExit=no), this allow a correct state synchronisation
        between systemctl status and actual state of apache2 daemon.
      + d/apache2.install: place the apache2-systemd.conf file in the
        correct location.

apache2 (2.4.23-7) unstable; urgency=medium

  * Make apache2-dev depend on openssl 1.0, too. Closes: #844160
  * Move DefaultRuntimeDir and pid file for multi-instances to
    /var/run/apache2-xxx. Thanks to Horst Platz for the debugging.
    Closes: #838932 LP: #1627339
  * Fix systemd unit naming for multi-instances.
  * Tweak embedded .tar.gz some more to build reproducibly.

apache2 (2.4.23-6) unstable; urgency=medium

  * One more tweak for reproducible build. Thanks to Daniel Shahaf for the
    patch. Closes: #839977
  * Avoid building with openssl 1.1 for now. See #828236

apache2 (2.4.23-5) unstable; urgency=low

* Team upload.

  [ Stefan Fritsch ]
  * Tweak creation of .tar.gz embedded in preinst to get reproducible
    build.

  [ Raphaël Hertzog ]
  * Add systemd unit files. Closes: #798430
  * Improve a2enmod to enable apache-htcacheclean with systemctl and let
    it enable '<email address hidden>' for multi-instance
    support.
  * Improve setup-instance to rely on the systemd <email address hidden> for
    multi-instance support.
  * Drop /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d/forking.conf now that we have
    proper native systemd support.
  * Modify handling of /etc/init.d/apache-htcacheclean to have a usual
    Default-Start value but instead we disable it manually in the postinst.
    That way "systemctl enable apache-htcacheclean" works.
  * Add some lintian overrides for non-problems (two update-rc.d calls in
    postinst, and a .js file with a very long line).

apache2 (2.4.23-4) unstable; urgency=medium

* Fix pre-inst script for new installations. Closes: #834169

apache2 (2.4.23-3) unstable; urgency=low

  * Fix conffiles that may have got the wrong content during upgrade from
    wheezy to early jessie versions. Closes: #794933
  * Also restore re-introduced *.load fil...

This bug was fixed in the package apache2 - 2.4.23-7ubuntu1

---------------
apache2 (2.4.23-7ubuntu1) zesty; urgency=medium

apache2 (2.4.23-7) unstable; urgency=medium

apache2 (2.4.23-6) unstable; urgency=medium

* One more tweak for reproducible build. Thanks to Daniel Shahaf for the
    patch. Closes: #839977
  * Avoid building with openssl 1.1 for now. See #828236

apache2 (2.4.23-5) unstable; urgency=low

* Team upload.

[ Stefan Fritsch ]
  * Tweak creation of .tar.gz embedded in preinst to get reproducible
    build.

[ Raphaël Hertzog ]
  * Add systemd unit files. Closes: #798430
  * Improve a2enmod to enable apache-htcacheclean with systemctl and let
    it enable 'apache-htcacheclean@instance.service' for multi-instance
    support.
  * Improve setup-instance to rely on the systemd apache2@instance.service for
    multi-instance support.
  * Drop /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d/forking.conf now that we have
    proper native systemd support.
  * Modify handling of /etc/init.d/apache-htcacheclean to have a usual
    Default-Start value but instead we disable it manually in the postinst.
    That way "systemctl enable apache-htcacheclean" works.
  * Add some lintian overrides for non-problems (two update-rc.d calls in
    postinst, and a .js file with a very long line).

apache2 (2.4.23-4) unstable; urgency=medium

* Fix pre-inst script for new installations. Closes: #834169

apache2 (2.4.23-3) unstable; urgency=low

* Fix conffiles that may have got the wrong content during upgrade from
    wheezy to early jessie versions. Closes: #794933
  * Also restore re-introduced *.load files for mod_ident, mod_imagemap, and
    mod_cern_meta. These may have gone missing due to dpkg thinking they still
    belong to apache2.2-common. Reported by Markus Waldeck.
  * apache2-maintscript-helper: Make apache2_switch_mpm do nothing if the
    local admin has disabled the requested mpm manually.
    Closes: #827446, #799630
  * Make mod_proxy_html depend on mod_xml2enc.
  * dh_apache2: Make versioned recommends on apache2 less strict. There is
    no advantage in recommending the current version. Closes: #784290

apache2 (2.4.23-2) unstable; urgency=high

* CVE-2016-5387: Sets environmental variable based on user supplied Proxy
    request header.
    Don't pass through HTTP_PROXY in server/util_script.c

apache2 (2.4.23-1) unstable; urgency=high

* New upstream release
    - Security: CVE-2016-4979: Fix bypass of TLS client certificate
      verification in mod_http2.
    - new modules mod_proxy_http2 (experimental) and mod_proxy_hcheck
  * Re-introduce mod_imagemap and mod_cern_meta. Closes: #786657
  * Set SHELL=/bin/bash during configure to get reproducible builds regardless
    of where /bin/sh points to.
  * Use 'Require method' instead of Limit/LimitExcept in userdir.conf.

apache2 (2.4.20-2) unstable; urgency=medium

* Fix crash in ap_get_useragent_host() triggered by mod_perl test.
    Closes: #820824
  * Fix race condition and logical error in init script. Thanks to Thomas
    Stangner for the patch. Closes: #822144
  * Remove links to manpages.debian.org in default index.html to avoid
    broken robots doing a DoS on the site. Closes: #821313
  * Fix a2enmod to run on perl 5.14 to simplify backports. Closes: #821956
  * Bump Standards-Version (no changes necessary).
  * Fix segfault with logresolve -c. Closes: #823259

apache2 (2.4.20-1) unstable; urgency=medium

* New upstream release
    - mostly bugfixes and HTTP/2 improvements
  * Build against lua 5.2 instead of 5.1. Closes: #820243
  * Correct systemd-sysv-generator behavior by customizing some parameters.
    This fixes 'systemctl status' returning incorrect results. Thanks to
    Pierre-André MOREY for the patch. LP: #1488962
  * On Linux, use pthread mutexes. On kfreebsd/hurd, continue using fctnl
    because they lack robust pthred mutexes. LP: #1565744, #1527044

-- Marc Deslauriers <marc.deslauriers@ubuntu.com>  Wed, 16 Nov 2016 09:17:24 -0500

Changed in apache2 (Ubuntu):
status:	Triaged → Fix Released

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