[PATCH v2 2/3] cgroup: add lockless fast-path checks to cgroup_file_notify()

From: Shakeel Butt

Date: Tue Mar 10 2026 - 21:02:19 EST


Add lockless checks before acquiring cgroup_file_kn_lock:

1. READ_ONCE(cfile->kn) NULL check to skip torn-down files.
2. READ_ONCE(cfile->notified_at) rate-limit check to skip when
within the notification interval. If within the interval, arm
the deferred timer via timer_reduce() and confirm it is pending
before returning -- if the timer fired in between, fall through
to the lock path so the notification is not lost.

Both checks have safe error directions -- a stale read can only
cause unnecessary lock acquisition, never a missed notification.

The critical section is simplified to just taking a kernfs_get()
reference and updating notified_at.

Annotate cfile->kn and cfile->notified_at write sites with
WRITE_ONCE() to pair with the lockless readers.

Reported-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes since v1:
- Moves the timer arming and rate limiting out of lock.

kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c | 30 +++++++++++++++++-------------
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c b/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c
index b3fbeadb2b5a..b00f4c3242e0 100644
--- a/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c
+++ b/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c
@@ -1749,7 +1749,7 @@ static void cgroup_rm_file(struct cgroup *cgrp, const struct cftype *cft)
struct cgroup_file *cfile = (void *)css + cft->file_offset;

spin_lock_irq(&cgroup_file_kn_lock);
- cfile->kn = NULL;
+ WRITE_ONCE(cfile->kn, NULL);
spin_unlock_irq(&cgroup_file_kn_lock);

timer_delete_sync(&cfile->notify_timer);
@@ -4429,7 +4429,7 @@ static int cgroup_add_file(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css, struct cgroup *cgrp,
timer_setup(&cfile->notify_timer, cgroup_file_notify_timer, 0);

spin_lock_irq(&cgroup_file_kn_lock);
- cfile->kn = kn;
+ WRITE_ONCE(cfile->kn, kn);
spin_unlock_irq(&cgroup_file_kn_lock);
}

@@ -4685,21 +4685,25 @@ int cgroup_add_legacy_cftypes(struct cgroup_subsys *ss, struct cftype *cfts)
*/
void cgroup_file_notify(struct cgroup_file *cfile)
{
- unsigned long flags;
+ unsigned long flags, last, next;
struct kernfs_node *kn = NULL;

+ if (!READ_ONCE(cfile->kn))
+ return;
+
+ last = READ_ONCE(cfile->notified_at);
+ next = last + CGROUP_FILE_NOTIFY_MIN_INTV;
+ if (time_in_range(jiffies, last, next)) {
+ timer_reduce(&cfile->notify_timer, next);
+ if (timer_pending(&cfile->notify_timer))
+ return;
+ }
+
spin_lock_irqsave(&cgroup_file_kn_lock, flags);
if (cfile->kn) {
- unsigned long last = cfile->notified_at;
- unsigned long next = last + CGROUP_FILE_NOTIFY_MIN_INTV;
-
- if (time_in_range(jiffies, last, next)) {
- timer_reduce(&cfile->notify_timer, next);
- } else {
- kn = cfile->kn;
- kernfs_get(kn);
- cfile->notified_at = jiffies;
- }
+ kn = cfile->kn;
+ kernfs_get(kn);
+ WRITE_ONCE(cfile->notified_at, jiffies);
}
spin_unlock_irqrestore(&cgroup_file_kn_lock, flags);

--
2.52.0