Re: [PATCH -stable] sysfs: disable reclamation by default

From: Greg KH
Date: Thu May 17 2007 - 08:06:21 EST


On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 08:31:00PM +0200, Tejun Heo wrote:
> sd->s_dentry updates made by dentry/inode reclamation are racy and can
> lead to BUG() or oops. This is already fixed in -mm and the fix is
> scheduled to be merged into upstream for 2.6.23 but the fix
> reimplements sysfs dentry dropping and is too risky for -stable
> kernels.
>
> This is an interim solution for -stable kernels. sysfs reclamation is
> disabled by default and can be enabled by using sysfs.enable_reclaim
> kernel parameter. Note that dentries are still created on demand, so
> attribute and symlinks nodes aren't allocated on creation. They're
> allocated on first lookup and deallocated when the sysfs node is
> removed.

Ick, this is going to kill memory on big boxes (s390 and others) and I
don't really want to apply this it if at all possible.

Maneesh, any other thoughts?

thanks,

greg k-h
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