Re: [PATCH 1/2] drivers: core: Don't try to use a dead glue_dir

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Tue, Jul 10, 2018 at 09:44:33AM +1000, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> On Sat, 2018-07-07 at 18:48 +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > No, kobject_get() should never happen on a 0 refcount object.  That
> > being said, the code does allow it, so if things are messed up, it will
> > happen.  I think that change happened when the switch to refcount_t
> > occured, before then we would WARN_ON() if that ever happened.  I should
> > go fix that up, and restore that old behavior, so that syzbot starts
> > complaining loudly when stuff like that hits.
> > 
> > So I hate using kobject_get_unless_zero(), and resisted ever adding it
> > to the tree as it shows a bad locking/tree situation as you point out
> > here.  But for some reason, the block developers seemed to insist they
> > needed it, and so it is in the tree for them.  I don't want it to spread
> > if at all possible, which makes me want to reject this patch as this
> > should be "a case that can never be hit".
> 
> Except it can in that situation... at least unless you get my patch 2/2
> (or the newer one I'm about to send that avoids adding a child counter
> and uses the one in kernfs instead).

To follow up on this.  I've applied the 2/2 patch for this series, so
this 1/2 "should" not be needed.  Ben, if you still see this trigger
with that, I guess I can take this, but it still feels wrong to me :)

thanks,

greg k-h