Re: [PATCH] kvmalloc: always use vmalloc if CONFIG_DEBUG_VM

From: Mikulas Patocka
Date: Thu May 03 2018 - 13:32:24 EST




On Tue, 1 May 2018, Andrew Morton wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Apr 2018 12:33:01 -0400 (EDT) Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 24 Apr 2018, Michal Hocko wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue 24-04-18 11:30:40, Mikulas Patocka wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, 24 Apr 2018, Michal Hocko wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > On Mon 23-04-18 20:25:15, Mikulas Patocka wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > Fixing __vmalloc code
> > > > > > is easy and it doesn't require cooperation with maintainers.
> > > > >
> > > > > But it is a hack against the intention of the scope api.
> > > >
> > > > It is not!
> > >
> > > This discussion simply doesn't make much sense it seems. The scope API
> > > is to document the scope of the reclaim recursion critical section. That
> > > certainly is not a utility function like vmalloc.
> >
> > That 15-line __vmalloc bugfix doesn't prevent you (or any other kernel
> > developer) from converting the code to the scope API. You make nonsensical
> > excuses.
> >
>
> Fun thread!
>
> Winding back to the original problem, I'd state it as
>
> - Caller uses kvmalloc() but passes the address into vmalloc-naive
> DMA API and
>
> - Caller uses kvmalloc() but passes the address into kfree()
>
> Yes?
>
> If so, then...
>
> Is there a way in which, in the kvmalloc-called-kmalloc path, we can
> tag the slab-allocated memory with a "this memory was allocated with
> kvmalloc()" flag? I *think* there's extra per-object storage available
> with suitable slab/slub debugging options? Perhaps we could steal one
> bit from the redzone, dunno.
>
> If so then we can
>
> a) set that flag in kvmalloc() if the kmalloc() call succeeded
>
> b) check for that flag in the DMA code, WARN if it is set.
>
> c) in kvfree(), clear that flag before calling kfree()
>
> d) in kfree(), check for that flag and go WARN() if set.
>
> So both potential bugs are detected all the time, dependent upon
> CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG (and perhaps other slub config options).

Yes, it would be good. You also need to check it in virt_to_phys(),
virt_to_pfn(), __pa() and maybe some others.

Mikulas