[PATCH] xfs: annotate data race on li_lsn in CIL formatting vs AIL insertion

From: Cen Zhang

Date: Thu Mar 19 2026 - 23:12:56 EST


xfs_inode_item_format_core() reads lip->li_lsn without holding any lock
to embed the last on-disk LSN into the log dinode during CIL commit:

xfs_inode_to_log_dinode(ip, dic, ip->i_itemp->ili_item.li_lsn);

Concurrently, xfs_trans_ail_update_bulk() writes lip->li_lsn under
ail_lock when inserting items into the AIL after log IO completion:

lip->li_lsn = lsn;

The CIL context lock (xc_ctx_lock) and the AIL lock (ail_lock) are
independent and provide no mutual exclusion between these paths.

Under simple interleaving on 64-bit architectures this is benign since
li_lsn monotonically increases and both old/new values are valid
checkpoint LSNs. However, on 32-bit architectures the 64-bit xfs_lsn_t
can be torn into two 32-bit loads, producing a bogus LSN that could
cause log recovery to make incorrect replay decisions. XFS already
acknowledges this concern via the xfs_trans_ail_copy_lsn() helper which
takes ail_lock on 32-bit.

Annotate with READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() to prevent compiler-level
tearing on all architectures.

Fixes: 93f958f9c41f ("xfs: cull unnecessary icdinode fields")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Cen Zhang <zzzccc427@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/xfs/xfs_inode_item.c | 2 +-
fs/xfs/xfs_trans_ail.c | 2 +-
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode_item.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode_item.c
index 8913036b8024..ef0a0889c580 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode_item.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode_item.c
@@ -624,7 +624,7 @@ xfs_inode_item_format_core(
struct xfs_log_dinode *dic;

dic = xlog_format_start(lfb, XLOG_REG_TYPE_ICORE);
- xfs_inode_to_log_dinode(ip, dic, ip->i_itemp->ili_item.li_lsn);
+ xfs_inode_to_log_dinode(ip, dic, READ_ONCE(ip->i_itemp->ili_item.li_lsn));
xlog_format_commit(lfb, xfs_log_dinode_size(ip->i_mount));
}

diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_trans_ail.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_trans_ail.c
index 923729af4206..3a0e0c65ebc5 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_trans_ail.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_trans_ail.c
@@ -831,7 +831,7 @@ xfs_trans_ail_update_bulk(
} else {
trace_xfs_ail_insert(lip, 0, lsn);
}
- lip->li_lsn = lsn;
+ WRITE_ONCE(lip->li_lsn, lsn);
list_add_tail(&lip->li_ail, &tmp);
}

--
2.34.1