Re: Problems with get_driver() and driver_attach() (and new_id too)

[Alan Stern]

On Thu, 5 Jan 2012, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:

> So I looked at the users of device_attach():
> 
> - we call it from generic bus code when adding a new driver so naturally
>   driver is valid there;
> - serio and gameport call it by hand but they ensure that the driver is
>   valid because they protected by subsystem-private mutex;
> - PCI, PCMCI, HID and USB new_id handling is tied to the driver itself
>   and attributes are removed when driver is unregistered so there is no
>   chance driver will be attached through newid after it has been
>   unregistered;
> - agp_amd64_init calls it once immediately after registering the driver;
> - pci-stub driver is safe as well.

Okay, that's all good.

> That leaves only usb-serial which is problematic exactly as you
> described below. So I think we should remove get_driver() and
> put_driver(); document that caller if driver_attach() should ensure
> that driver is live and let usb-serial code solve this issue as this
> is the only code that plays games with drivers it does not own.

If Greg confirms that there's nothing with registering the usb driver 
before the usb_serial driver, I can fix the usb-serial code easily.

Greg, do you know offhand whether this will break anything?  It really 
seems like the right thing to do, because the usb_serial driver uses 
the usb driver but not vice versa.


> > > Don't we create corresponding sysfs attributes only after driver
> > > successfully registered?
> > 
> > No, some attribute files are created during registration;
> > driver_register() calls driver_add_groups().
> 
> But new_id only created by individual bus code after registering the
> driver. No individual drivers involved here.

In usb/serial/bus.c, the usb_serial_bus_type structure contains a
.drv_attrs field with an entry for the new_id attribute.  Thus
driver_register calls bus_add_driver, which calls driver_add_attrs,
which creates the attribute file -- all during registration.

> > Another example, taken from drivers/pci/pci-driver.c:
> > 
> > 	__pci_register_driver() calls
> > 	driver_register()
> > 
> > 	pci_create_newid_file() creates the new_id
> > 	sysfs attribute
> > 
> > 					A udev process writes to the 
> > 					new_id attribute, causing a
> > 					dynamic_id structure to be
> > 					allocated
> > 
> > 	pci_create_removeid_file() fails
> > 
> > 	__pci_register_driver() calls
> > 	pci_remove_newid_file() and
> > 	driver_unregister(), but it doesn't
> > 	call pci_free_dynids()
> 
> So this is a simple bug in pci bus error unwinding code...

That was my point -- the places that use new_id attributes don't unwind 
their registration errors correctly.  Fortunately there aren't very 
many such places...

Alan Stern

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