[PATCH 5/6] powerpc/spufs: fix deadlock on gang creation failure

From: Junrui Luo via B4 Relay

Date: Sun Aug 02 2026 - 11:53:52 EST


From: Junrui Luo <moonafterrain@xxxxxxxxxxx>

do_spu_create() enters spufs with the parent directory's i_rwsem held
for write, taken as I_MUTEX_PARENT by start_creating_user_path() and
dropped only by end_creating_path(). When spufs_gang_open() fails inside
that window, spufs_create_gang() cleans up by calling unuse_gang().

The gang was just created, so gang->alive drops to 0 and unuse_gang()
proceeds to simple_recursive_removal(), which takes the parent inode's
i_rwsem as I_MUTEX_CHILD. This leads to the task blocking on an rwsem it
already holds, leaving the spufs directory write-locked. The other two
callers of unuse_gang() do not hold the parent lock: spufs_gang_close()
runs from ->release, and spufs_dir_close() drops the parent lock first.

Tell unuse_gang() which context it is called from, and use
locked_recursive_removal() when the parent is already held. This matches
spufs_rmdir(), which spufs_create_context() already uses for the same
cleanup under the same lock.

Fixes: c134deabf478 ("spufs: fix gang directory lifetimes")
Reported-by: Yuhao Jiang <danisjiang@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Junrui Luo <moonafterrain@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/spufs/inode.c | 17 +++++++++++------
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/spufs/inode.c b/arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/spufs/inode.c
index c2b15c30f7c0..998512409552 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/spufs/inode.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/spufs/inode.c
@@ -175,7 +175,8 @@ static int spufs_fill_dir(struct dentry *dir,
return 0;
}

-static void unuse_gang(struct dentry *dir)
+/* @parent_locked: caller holds dir->d_parent's i_rwsem as I_MUTEX_PARENT */
+static void unuse_gang(struct dentry *dir, bool parent_locked)
{
struct inode *inode = dir->d_inode;
struct spu_gang *gang = SPUFS_I(inode)->i_gang;
@@ -187,8 +188,12 @@ static void unuse_gang(struct dentry *dir)
dead = !--gang->alive;
inode_unlock(inode);

- if (dead)
- simple_recursive_removal(dir, NULL);
+ if (dead) {
+ if (parent_locked)
+ locked_recursive_removal(dir, NULL);
+ else
+ simple_recursive_removal(dir, NULL);
+ }
}
}

@@ -204,7 +209,7 @@ static int spufs_dir_close(struct inode *inode, struct file *file)
spufs_rmdir(parent, dir);
inode_unlock(parent);

- unuse_gang(dir->d_parent);
+ unuse_gang(dir->d_parent, false);
return dcache_dir_close(inode, file);
}

@@ -483,7 +488,7 @@ spufs_mkgang(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry, umode_t mode)

static int spufs_gang_close(struct inode *inode, struct file *file)
{
- unuse_gang(file->f_path.dentry);
+ unuse_gang(file->f_path.dentry, false);
return dcache_dir_close(inode, file);
}

@@ -520,7 +525,7 @@ static int spufs_create_gang(struct inode *inode,
if (!ret) {
ret = spufs_gang_open(&path);
if (ret < 0)
- unuse_gang(dentry);
+ unuse_gang(dentry, true);
}
return ret;
}

--
2.51.2