[PATCH v2 1/2] sysfs: handle 'parent deleted before child added'

[Dan Williams]

In scsi at least two cases of the parent device being deleted before the
child is added have been observed.

1/ scsi is performing async scans and the device is removed prior to the
   async can thread running (can happen with an in-opportune / unlikely
   unplug during initial scan).

2/ libsas discovery event running after the parent port has been torn
   down (this is a bug in libsas).

Result in crash signatures like:
 BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000098
 IP: [<ffffffff8115e100>] sysfs_create_dir+0x32/0xb6
 ...
 Process scsi_scan_8 (pid: 5417, threadinfo ffff88080bd16000, task ffff880801b8a0b0)
 Stack:
  00000000fffffffe ffff880813470628 ffff88080bd17cd0 ffff88080614b7e8
  ffff88080b45c108 00000000fffffffe ffff88080bd17d20 ffffffff8125e4a8
  ffff88080bd17cf0 ffffffff81075149 ffff88080bd17d30 ffff88080614b7e8
 Call Trace:
  [<ffffffff8125e4a8>] kobject_add_internal+0x120/0x1e3
  [<ffffffff81075149>] ? trace_hardirqs_on+0xd/0xf
  [<ffffffff8125e641>] kobject_add_varg+0x41/0x50
  [<ffffffff8125e70b>] kobject_add+0x64/0x66
  [<ffffffff8131122b>] device_add+0x12d/0x63a

In this scenario the parent is still valid (because we have a
reference), but it has been device_del()'d which means its kobj->sd
pointer is NULL'd via:

 device_del()->kobject_del()->sysfs_remove_dir()

...and then sysfs_create_dir() (without this fix) goes ahead and
de-references parent_sd via sysfs_ns_type():

 return (sd->s_flags & SYSFS_NS_TYPE_MASK) >> SYSFS_NS_TYPE_SHIFT;

This scenario is being fixed in scsi/libsas, but if other subsystems
present the same ordering the system need not immediately crash.

Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: James Bottomley <JBottomley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
---

Changes since v1: http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=133239707303441&w=2

1/ split out the kobject_add_internal() warning message changes into
   its own patch

2/ clarified the changelog a bit due to the discussion from v1.

I think this patch can wait until 3.5, since it is just closing a hole I
found along the way to fixing the real bug.  Now, the system won't crash
at device_add() time, but the system may still be de-stabilized if the
caller does not handle device_add() errors properly.

 fs/sysfs/dir.c |    3 +++
 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/sysfs/dir.c b/fs/sysfs/dir.c
index 7fdf6a7..86521ee 100644
--- a/fs/sysfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/sysfs/dir.c
@@ -714,6 +714,9 @@ int sysfs_create_dir(struct kobject * kobj)
 	else
 		parent_sd = &sysfs_root;
 
+	if (!parent_sd)
+		return -ENOENT;
+
 	if (sysfs_ns_type(parent_sd))
 		ns = kobj->ktype->namespace(kobj);
 	type = sysfs_read_ns_type(kobj);

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