Re: [PATCH] fs: warn in case userspace lied about modprobe return

[Jessica Yu]

+++ Luis R. Rodriguez [25/05/17 17:44 -0700]:
> kmod <= v19 was broken -- it could return 0 to modprobe calls,
> incorrectly assuming that a kernel module was built-in, whereas in
> reality the module was just forming in the kernel. The reason for this
> is an incorrect userspace heuristics. A userspace kmod fix is available
> for it [0], however should userspace break again we could go on with
> an failed get_fs_type() which is hard to debug as the request_module()
> is detected as returning 0. The first suspect would be that there is
> something worth with the kernel's module loader and obviously in this
> case that is not the issue.
>
> Since these issues are painful to debug complain when we know userspace
> has  outright lied to us.
>
> [0] http://git.kernel.org/cgit/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git/commit/libkmod/libkmod-module.c?id=fd44a98ae2eb5eb32161088954ab21e58e19dfc4
>
> Suggested-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Jessica Yu <jeyu@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> fs/filesystems.c | 4 +++-
> 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/filesystems.c b/fs/filesystems.c
> index cac75547d35c..0f477a5de6ea 100644
> --- a/fs/filesystems.c
> +++ b/fs/filesystems.c
> @@ -275,8 +275,10 @@ struct file_system_type *get_fs_type(const char *name)
> 	int len = dot ? dot - name : strlen(name);
>
> 	fs = __get_fs_type(name, len);
> -	if (!fs && (request_module("fs-%.*s", len, name) == 0))
> +	if (!fs && (request_module("fs-%.*s", len, name) == 0)) {
> +		WARN_ONCE(!fs, "request_module fs-%.*s succeeded, but still no fs?\n", len, name);

The WARN needs to go below the second __get_fs_type() attempt, no?
Because we want to try __get_fs_type() again right after
request_module(), to see if the fs loaded, and _then_ WARN if it
doesn't appear to be loaded.

Jessica

> 		fs = __get_fs_type(name, len);
> +	}
>
> 	if (dot && fs && !(fs->fs_flags & FS_HAS_SUBTYPE)) {
> 		put_filesystem(fs);
> --
> 2.11.0