livelock during MD device open

[Nicolas Schichan]

Hi,

I have recently been trying to find the cause a livelock occurring during MD 
device open.

The livelock happens when a process tries to open an MD device for the
first time and another opens the same MD device and sends an invalid
ioctl:

Process 1				Process 2
---------				---------

md_alloc()
  mddev_find()
  -> returns a new mddev with
     hold_active == UNTIL_IOCTL
  add_disk()
  -> sends KOBJ_ADD uevent

					(sees KOBJ_ADD uevent for device)
					md_open()
					md_ioctl(INVALID_IOCTL)
					-> returns ENODEV and clears
					   mddev->hold_active
					md_release()
					  md_put()
					  -> deletes the mddev as
					     hold_active is 0

md_open()
  mddev_find()
  -> returns a newly
    allocated mddev with
    mddev->gendisk == NULL
-> returns with ERESTARTSYS
   (kernel restarts the open syscall)


As to how to fix this, I see two possibilities:

- don't set hold_active to 0 if err is -ENODEV in the abort_unlock
  path in md_ioctl().

- check cmd parameter early in md_ioctl() and return -ENOTTY if the
  cmd parameter is not a valid MD ioctl.

Please advise on the preferred way to fix this, I'll be glad to send a
patch for whatever is the preferred solution.

I have also a simple C program that I can send should you want to reproduce 
the issue.

Regards,

--
Nicolas Schichan
Freebox SAS
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