Re: [PATCH] ext4: Add statx support

[Andreas Dilger]

On Mar 16, 2017, at 11:47 PM, Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 11:35:33AM +0000, David Howells wrote:
>> +
>> +	ext4_get_inode_flags(ei);
>> +	flags = ei->i_flags & EXT4_FL_USER_VISIBLE;
>> +	if (flags & EXT4_APPEND_FL)
>> +		stat->attributes |= STATX_ATTR_APPEND;
>> +	if (flags & EXT4_COMPR_FL)
>> +		stat->attributes |= STATX_ATTR_COMPRESSED;
>> +	if (flags & EXT4_ENCRYPT_FL)
>> +		stat->attributes |= STATX_ATTR_ENCRYPTED;
>> +	if (flags & EXT4_IMMUTABLE_FL)
>> +		stat->attributes |= STATX_ATTR_IMMUTABLE;
>> +	if (flags & EXT4_NODUMP_FL)
>> +		stat->attributes |= STATX_ATTR_NODUMP;
>> 
>> -	inode = d_inode(path->dentry);
>> 	generic_fillattr(inode, stat);
>> +	return 0;
>> +}
> 
> I think it's the wrong approach to be calling ext4_get_inode_flags() here to
> sync the generic inode flags (inode->i_flags) to the ext4-specific inode flags
> (ei->i_flags).  I know the GETFLAGS and FSGETXATTR ioctls do it too, but I
> think it's a mistake --- at least, when done so without holding the inode lock.
> The issue is that flag syncs can occur in both directions concurrently and
> cause an update to be lost.  For example, with thread 1 doing a stat() and
> thread 2 doing the SETFLAGS ioctl to set the APPEND flag:
> 
> Thread 1, ext4_get_inode_flags()	Thread 2, ext4_ioctl_setflags()
> -----------------------------------	---------------------------
> Read inode->i_flags; S_APPEND clear
> 					Set EXT4_APPEND_FL in ei->i_flags
> Clear EXT4_APPEND_FL in ei->i_flags
> 					Read ei->i_flags; EXT4_APPEND_FL clear
> 					Clear S_APPEND in inode->i_flags
> 
> So the flag set by SETFLAGS gets lost.  This bug probably hasn't really been
> noticable with GETFLAGS and FSGETXATTR since they're rarely used, but stat() on
> the other hand is very common, and I'm worried that with this change people
> would start seeing this race more often.
> 
> Ultimately this needs to be addressed in ext4 more fully, but how about for
> ->getattr() just skipping the call to ext4_get_inode_flags() and instead
> populating the generic attributes like STATX_ATTR_APPEND and
> STATX_ATTR_IMMUTABLE from the generic inode flags, rather than from the
> ext4-specific flags?  Actually, it could even be done in generic_fillattr(), so
> that all filesystems benefit.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just extract the ext4 flags directly from
ei->i_flags?  I think ext4_get_inode_flags() is only really useful when
the VFS inode flags are changed and they need to be propagated to the ext4
inode.

I guess the other more significant question is when/where are the VFS inode
flags changed that they need to be propagated into the ext4 disk inode?
The main avenue for changing these attribute flags that I know about is via
EXT4_IOC_SETFLAGS (FS_IOC_SETFLAGS), and there is one place that I could
find in fs/nsfs.c that sets S_IMMUTABLE but I don't think that propagates
down to an ext4 disk inode.

It seems like the use of ext4_get_inode_flags() is largely superfluous.
The original commit ff9ddf7e847 indicates this was for quota inodes only.
I think it can be removed from EXT4_IOC_FSGETXATTR, and EXT4_IOC_GETFLAGS
and made conditional in ext4_do_update_inode():

#ifdef CONFIG_QUOTA
        for (i = 0; i < EXT4_MAXQUOTAS; i++) {
                if (unlikely(sb_dqopt(sb)->files[i] == inode))
                        ext4_get_inode_flags(EXT4_I(inode));
        }
#endif

Jan, what do you think?

Cheers, Andreas

> 
>> diff --git a/fs/ext4/symlink.c b/fs/ext4/symlink.c
>> index 73b184d161fc..4c6b23a0603e 100644
>> --- a/fs/ext4/symlink.c
>> +++ b/fs/ext4/symlink.c
>> @@ -91,11 +91,13 @@ const struct inode_operations ext4_encrypted_symlink_inode_operations = {
>> const struct inode_operations ext4_symlink_inode_operations = {
>> 	.get_link	= page_get_link,
>> 	.setattr	= ext4_setattr,
>> +	.getattr	= ext4_getattr,
>> 	.listxattr	= ext4_listxattr,
>> };
>> 
>> const struct inode_operations ext4_fast_symlink_inode_operations = {
>> 	.get_link	= simple_get_link,
>> 	.setattr	= ext4_setattr,
>> +	.getattr	= ext4_getattr,
>> 	.listxattr	= ext4_listxattr,
>> };
>> 
> 
> getattr needs to be added to ext4_encrypted_symlink_inode_operations too.
> 
> - Eric


Cheers, Andreas

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