Re: [PATCH 2/3] tracing/stack-tracer: fix locking

[Ingo Molnar]

* Török Edwin <edwintorok@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 2008-11-23 13:01, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > * Török Edwin <edwintorok@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >   
> >> On 2008-11-23 12:52, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> >>     
> >>> * Török Edwin <edwintorok@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>   
> >>>       
> >>>> +		down_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
> >>>> +		vma = find_vma(mm, ip);
> >>>>  		if (vma) {
> >>>>  			file = vma->vm_file;
> >>>>  			vmstart = vma->vm_start;
> >>>>  		}
> >>>> +		up_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
> >>>>  	}
> >>>>  	if (file) {
> >>>>  		ret = trace_seq_path(s, &file->f_path);
> >>>>     
> >>>>         
> >>> and now it's "file" that is held without a reference and possibly 
> >>> racy.
> >>>   
> >>>       
> >> I'll move the (file) inside the mmap_sem too, since file is part of 
> >> vma, and you need mmap_sem to access the vma nobody can modify 
> >> (file) if they don't hold mmap_sem. Am I right?
> >>     
> >
> > yeah - you can use the mm lock for that as the vma holds a reference 
> > to the file. This works as long as none of the seq functions called 
> > with this lock held can provoke a user pagefault (they shouldnt, but i 
> > havent checked in detail).
> >   
> 
> It calls d_path, that access only kernel structures AFAICT, so it 
> can't provoke a *user* pagefault. Not sure about kernel pagefaults, 
> but they shouldn't matter.

yeah - kernel pagefaults can happen in rare circumstances here but 
they are all atomic and transparent to most other parts of the kernel 
so they indeed do not matter.

	Ingo
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