[PATCH v21 06/19] mm/rmap: stop store reordering issue on page->mapping

From: Alex Shi
Date: Wed Nov 04 2020 - 22:38:24 EST


Hugh Dickins and Minchan Kim observed a long time issue which
discussed here, but actully the mentioned fix missed.
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20150504031722.GA2768@blaptop/
The store reordering may cause problem in the scenario:

CPU 0 CPU1
do_anonymous_page
page_add_new_anon_rmap()
page->mapping = anon_vma + PAGE_MAPPING_ANON
lru_cache_add_inactive_or_unevictable()
spin_lock(lruvec->lock)
SetPageLRU()
spin_unlock(lruvec->lock)
/* idletacking judged it as LRU
* page so pass the page in
* page_idle_clear_pte_refs
*/
page_idle_clear_pte_refs
rmap_walk
if PageAnon(page)

Johannes give detailed examples how the store reordering could cause
a trouble:
"The concern is the SetPageLRU may get reorder before 'page->mapping'
setting, That would make CPU 1 will observe at page->mapping after
observing PageLRU set on the page.

1. anon_vma + PAGE_MAPPING_ANON

That's the in-order scenario and is fine.

2. NULL

That's possible if the page->mapping store gets reordered to occur
after SetPageLRU. That's fine too because we check for it.

3. anon_vma without the PAGE_MAPPING_ANON bit

That would be a problem and could lead to all kinds of undesirable
behavior including crashes and data corruption.

Is it possible? AFAICT the compiler is allowed to tear the store to
page->mapping and I don't see anything that would prevent it.

That said, I also don't see how the reader testing PageLRU under the
lru_lock would prevent that in the first place. AFAICT we need that
WRITE_ONCE() around the page->mapping assignment."

Signed-off-by: Alex Shi <alex.shi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Minchan Kim <minchan@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov.dev@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx
---
mm/rmap.c | 8 +++++++-
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/rmap.c b/mm/rmap.c
index 1b84945d655c..380c6b9956c2 100644
--- a/mm/rmap.c
+++ b/mm/rmap.c
@@ -1054,8 +1054,14 @@ static void __page_set_anon_rmap(struct page *page,
if (!exclusive)
anon_vma = anon_vma->root;

+ /*
+ * page_idle does a lockless/optimistic rmap scan on page->mapping.
+ * Make sure the compiler doesn't split the stores of anon_vma and
+ * the PAGE_MAPPING_ANON type identifier, otherwise the rmap code
+ * could mistake the mapping for a struct address_space and crash.
+ */
anon_vma = (void *) anon_vma + PAGE_MAPPING_ANON;
- page->mapping = (struct address_space *) anon_vma;
+ WRITE_ONCE(page->mapping, (struct address_space *) anon_vma);
page->index = linear_page_index(vma, address);
}

--
1.8.3.1