Re: suspicious rcu_dereference_check() usage splat

From: Paul E. McKenney
Date: Mon Nov 08 2010 - 15:24:43 EST


On Mon, Nov 08, 2010 at 11:39:57PM +0800, Arun Bhanu wrote:
> * Paul E. McKenney (paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> > On Sun, Nov 07, 2010 at 03:14:14PM +0800, Arun Bhanu wrote:
> > > I got the following splat while booting 2.6.37-rc1+
> > > (ff8b16d7e15a8ba2a6086645614a483e048e3fbf).
> > >
> > > [ 9.381536] ===================================================
> > > [ 9.382380] [ INFO: suspicious rcu_dereference_check() usage. ]
> > > [ 9.382867] ---------------------------------------------------
> > > [ 9.383412] kernel/pid.c:419 invoked rcu_dereference_check() without protection!
> > > [ 9.383959]
> > > [ 9.383959] other info that might help us debug this:
> > > [ 9.383960]
> > > [ 9.385599]
> > > [ 9.385599] rcu_scheduler_active = 1, debug_locks = 0
> > > [ 9.386686] 1 lock held by readahead/365:
> > > [ 9.387227] #0: (tasklist_lock){.+.+..}, at: [<c05188f3>] sys_ioprio_set+0x84/0x261
> > > [ 9.387765]
> > > [ 9.387765] stack backtrace:
> > > [ 9.388840] Pid: 365, comm: readahead Not tainted 2.6.37-rc1-ab1.fc14.i686.PAE+ #1
> > > [ 9.389374] Call Trace:
> > > [ 9.389909] [<c07e57ba>] ? printk+0x25/0x2b
> > > [ 9.390453] [<c046b21a>] lockdep_rcu_dereference+0x7d/0x86
> > > [ 9.390986] [<c0459304>] find_task_by_pid_ns+0x3f/0x53
> > > [ 9.391521] [<c0459335>] find_task_by_vpid+0x1d/0x1f
> > > [ 9.392050] [<c051891b>] sys_ioprio_set+0xac/0x261
> > > [ 9.392574] [<c046d80f>] ? trace_hardirqs_on_caller+0xfe/0x11f
> > > [ 9.393110] [<c040951f>] sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x38
> > >
> > > Complete dmesg and config attached. Let me know if you want me to test
> > > any patches.
> >
> > Could you please try the patch at http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/10/29/168?
>
> Thanks for the pointer. With the above patch applied I am no longer
> seeing the splat.
>
> Tested-by: Arun Bhanu <arun@xxxxxxxxx>

Very good!!!

Looking over the patch again, the scope of the RCU read-side critical
section needs to expand to cover the use of the pointer as well as the
call to find_task_by_vpid(). So, for example:

case IOPRIO_WHO_PROCESS:
rcu_read_lock();
if (!who)
p = current;
else
p = find_task_by_vpid(who);
if (p)
ret = set_task_ioprio(p, ioprio);
rcu_read_unlock();
break;
case IOPRIO_WHO_PGRP:


Otherwise, the task could go away before the last use.

Sergey, could you please make this change and re-post your patch?

Thanx, Paul

> > > -Arun
>
> [snip]
>
> -Arun
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