Re: [RFC PATCH v2 1/3] mm/gup: fix gup_fast with dynamic page table folding

From: Christophe Leroy
Date: Tue Sep 08 2020 - 10:30:44 EST




Le 08/09/2020 à 14:09, Christian Borntraeger a écrit :


On 08.09.20 07:06, Christophe Leroy wrote:


Le 07/09/2020 à 20:00, Gerald Schaefer a écrit :
From: Alexander Gordeev <agordeev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Commit 1a42010cdc26 ("s390/mm: convert to the generic get_user_pages_fast
code") introduced a subtle but severe bug on s390 with gup_fast, due to
dynamic page table folding.

The question "What would it require for the generic code to work for s390"
has already been discussed here
https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20190418100218.0a4afd51@mschwideX1
and ended with a promising approach here
https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20190419153307.4f2911b5@mschwideX1
which in the end unfortunately didn't quite work completely.

We tried to mimic static level folding by changing pgd_offset to always
calculate top level page table offset, and do nothing in folded pXd_offset.
What has been overlooked is that PxD_SIZE/MASK and thus pXd_addr_end do
not reflect this dynamic behaviour, and still act like static 5-level
page tables.


[...]


Fix this by introducing new pXd_addr_end_folded helpers, which take an
additional pXd entry value parameter, that can be used on s390
to determine the correct page table level and return corresponding
end / boundary. With that, the pointer iteration will always
happen in gup_pgd_range for s390. No change for other architectures
introduced.

Not sure pXd_addr_end_folded() is the best understandable name, allthough I don't have any alternative suggestion at the moment.
Maybe could be something like pXd_addr_end_fixup() as it will disappear in the next patch, or pXd_addr_end_gup() ?

Also, if it happens to be acceptable to get patch 2 in stable, I think you should switch patch 1 and patch 2 to avoid the step through pXd_addr_end_folded()

given that this fixes a data corruption issue, wouldnt it be the best to go forward
with this patch ASAP and then handle the other patches on top with all the time that
we need?

I have no strong opinion on this, but I feel rather tricky to have to change generic part of GUP to use a new fonction then revert that change in the following patch, just because you want the first patch in stable and not the second one.

Regardless, I was wondering, why do we need a reference to the pXd at all when calling pXd_addr_end() ?

Couldn't S390 retrieve the pXd by using the pXd_offset() dance with the passed addr ?

Christophe