Re: [PATCH] fs/ext4: fix ABBA deadlock in ext4_rmdir()
From: Sergey Senozhatsky
Date: Fri Aug 28 2026 - 00:03:41 EST
On (26/08/27 15:41), Jan Kara wrote:
> On Thu 27-08-26 21:50:20, Sergey Senozhatsky wrote:
> > We observe the following ABBA deadlock (casefolding enabled):
> >
> > INFO: task jbd2/dm-13-8:447 blocked for more than 720 seconds.
> > task:jbd2/dm-13-8 state:D stack:0 pid:447 tgid:447 ppid:2
> > Call Trace:
> > <TASK>
> > __schedule+0xc2c/0xe60
> > schedule+0x40/0xe0
> > jbd2_journal_wait_updates+0x8f/0xf0
> > jbd2_journal_commit_transaction+0x321/0x1850
> > kjournald2+0xa9/0x230
> > kthread+0x226/0x2a0
> > ret_from_fork+0x101/0x1e0
> > ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
> >
> > INFO: task Thread-10:4161 blocked for more than 720 seconds.
> > task:Thread-10 state:D stack:0 pid:4161 tgid:3848 ppid:540
> > Call Trace:
> > <TASK>
> > __schedule+0xc2c/0xe60
> > schedule+0x40/0xe0
> > wait_transaction_locked+0x8c/0xd0
> > start_this_handle+0x252/0x870
> > jbd2__journal_start+0x120/0x280
> > __ext4_journal_start_sb+0x11a/0x250
> > ext4_evict_inode+0x208/0x760
> > iput+0x222/0x5c0
> > dput+0x293/0x690
> > ____fput+0x145/0x2b0
> > task_work_run+0x7a/0xb0
> > exit_to_user_mode_loop+0xc0/0xd0
> > do_syscall_64+0x14b/0xf10
> > entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
> >
> > NMI backtrace for cpu 0
> > CPU: 0 UID: 1010216 PID: 4160 Comm: Thread-7
> > RIP: 0010:d_walk+0x0/0x290
> > [..]
> > Call Trace:
> > <TASK>
> > shrink_dcache_parent+0xb2/0x100
> > d_invalidate+0x50/0x110
> > ext4_rmdir+0x3a2/0x3d0
> > vfs_rmdir+0x9d/0x1d0
> > do_rmdir+0xf0/0x330
> > __x64_sys_unlinkat+0x34/0x50
> > do_syscall_64+0x61/0xf10
> >
> > The problem is that ext4_rmdir() calls d_invalidate() before stopping
> > the jbd2 transaction handle. Because d_invalidate() traverses child
> > dentries it can encounter dying or in-use dentries. If a concurrent
> > thread executing __dentry_kill() on a child dentry invokes ext4_evict_inode(),
> > it requests a new transaction handle via ext4_journal_start(), which
> > waits for all running handles to close. However, the thread executing
> > ext4_rmdir() still holds its active transaction handle while looping
> > in shrink_dcache_parent() waiting for the dying child dentry to complete
> > eviction.
> >
> > Stop transaction handle in ext4_rmdir() before calling d_invalidate().
> >
> > Fixes: b886ee3e778e ("ext4: Support case-insensitive file name lookups")
> > Co-developed-by: Sarthak Kukreti <sarthakkukreti@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Signed-off-by: Sarthak Kukreti <sarthakkukreti@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Signed-off-by: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Good catch! Feel free to add:
>
> Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
Thanks!