Re: [PATCH] autofs - fix fix symlinks arent checked for expiry

[Ian Kent]

On Thu, 2013-12-26 at 17:19 -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:09:52 +0800 Ian Kent <raven@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 2013-12-26 at 13:42 -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > > On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 17:44:59 +0800 Ian Kent <raven@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > When following a symlink the last_used counter is unconditionally
> > > > updated causing the expire checks from user space to prevent
> > > > expiry. Opps!
> > > 
> > > A bit unclear.  You're saying that userspace's act of checking expiry
> > > status will itself disrupt the expiry process?
> > 
> > If the user space expire code uses stat(2) instead of lstat(2), yes.
> > It's quite possible this will be the case since it made no difference
> > when not using symlinks in the autofs directory tree.
> > 
> > > 
> > > Also, it's rather unclear what the userspace impact is here, and how
> > > severe it is.  Please always carefully describe the user-visible impact
> > > so that others can decide which kernel version(s) need the patch.
> > 
> > The impact of this is that symlinks within an an autofs directory tree
> > don't cause a callback to the daemon so they can be expired (removed in
> > this case).
> > 
> > autofs4_oz_mode() is the mechanism that's used to identify the user
> > space process that's managing the automount tree. It's used in a number
> > of places to prevent the process managing the tree from doing things
> > like triggering mounts itself or updating the last_used counter.
> > 
> > It's a bit of a puzzle why it worked when I originally tested it.  But
> > later when I looked at it to work out why some symlinks weren't expiring
> > it was obvious.
> > 
> > Do you want me to re-submit this with an updated description?
> 
> Yes please.  The questions which a bugfix changelog should answer are
> "should this be backported to -stable and if so, why".  It's also
> helpful if it answers "if not, why not".

Yes, that's not clear.
I'd say it's not necessary to back port.

But I'm really keen for this to be merged in the current kernel because
I'm making upstream changes to autofs (adding a parser for amd style
mount maps) that will be able to make use of it (I can give details if
you want).

It's probably a month or two before I commit them to git, and longer
before they get into a source release.

And I can include the kernel patch in the autofs git tree for those that
need it.

OTOH this affects am-utils (the amd package, http://www.am-utils.org/)
now, so since it's a fairly small change, maybe it should be back
ported.

Unfortunately it's even worse than it sounds because the am-utils
package isn't receiving much attention, both upstream (for about six
years now) and downstream (certainly in Fedora anyway).

am-utils in Fedora hasn't worked properly for quite some time and I was
unable to get any sensible assistance from upstream.

I'll put together a more detailed description based on above and merge
autofs-fix-symlinks-arent-checked-for-expiry.patch and
autofs-fix-fix-symlinks-arent-checked-for-expiry.patch
and re-submit.

> 
> > > 
> > > > --- a/fs/autofs4/symlink.c
> > > > +++ b/fs/autofs4/symlink.c
> > > > @@ -14,8 +14,9 @@
> > > >  
> > > >  static void *autofs4_follow_link(struct dentry *dentry, struct nameidata *nd)
> > > >  {
> > > > +	struct autofs_sb_info *sbi = autofs4_sbi(dentry->d_sb);
> > > >  	struct autofs_info *ino = autofs4_dentry_ino(dentry);
> > > > -	if (ino)
> > > > +	if (ino && !autofs4_oz_mode(sbi))
> > > >  		ino->last_used = jiffies;
> > > >  	nd_set_link(nd, dentry->d_inode->i_private);
> > > >  	return NULL;
> > > 
> > > What kernel is this against?  3.13-rc5 is quite different:
> > 
> > That's a good question.
> > Which tree should I be basing patches on?
> 
> Current Linus git is almost always the one to target.
> 
> > As it turns out it is against 3.13-rc5 which was the version the linus
> > tree was at (when I pulled it) prior to mailing the patch.
> 
> Nope, autofs4_follow_link() looks like
> https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/fs/autofs4/symlink.c
> all the way back to 3.12.
> 


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