Re: [PATCH RESEND] init/initramfs.c: make initramfs support pivot_root

[Luis Chamberlain]

On Sat, May 22, 2021 at 12:09:30PM +0800, Menglong Dong wrote:
> On Fri, May 21, 2021 at 11:50 PM Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > That's a solution, but I don't think it is feasible. Users may create many
> > > containers, and you can't make docker create all the containers first
> > > and create network namespace later, as you don't know if there are any
> > > containers to create later.
> >
> > It doesn't seem impossible, but worth noting why inside the commit log
> > this was not a preferred option.
> >
> 
> In fact, the network namespace is just a case for the problem that the
> 'mount leak' caused. And this kind modification is not friendly to
> current docker users, it makes great changes to the usage of docker.

You mean an upgrade of docker? If so... that does not seem like a
definitive reason to do something new in the kernel *always*.

However, if you introduce it as a kconfig option so that users
who want to use this new feature can enable it, and then use it,
the its sold as a new feature.

Should this always be enabled, or done this way? Should we never have
the option to revert back to the old behaviour? If not, why not?

> > We still have:
> >
> > start_kernel() --> vfs_caches_init() --> mnt_init() -->
> >
> > mnt_init()
> > {
> >         ...
> >         shmem_init();
> >         init_rootfs();
> >         init_mount_tree();
> > }
> >
> > You've now modified init_rootfs() to essentially just set the new user_root,
> > and that's it. But we stil call init_mount_tree() even if we did set the
> > rootfs to use tmpfs.
> 
> The variate of 'is_tmpfs' is only used in 'rootfs_init_fs_context'. I used
> ramfs_init_fs_context directly for rootfs,

I don't see you using any context directly, where are you specifying the
context directly?

> so it is not needed any more
> and I just removed it in init_rootfs().
>
> The initialization of 'user_root' in init_rootfs() is used in:
> do_populate_rootfs -> mount_user_root, which set the file system(
> ramfs or tmpfs) of the second mount.
> 
> Seems it's not suitable to place it in init_rootfs()......

OK I think I just need to understand how you added the context of the
first mount explicitly now and where, as I don't see it.

> > > In do_populate_ro
> > > tmpfs, and that's the real rootfs for initramfs. And I call this root
> > > as 'user_root',
> > > because it is created for user space.
> > >
> > > int __init mount_user_root(void)
> > > {
> > >        return do_mount_root(user_root->dev_name,
> > >                             user_root->fs_name,
> > >                             root_mountflags,
> > >                             root_mount_data);
> > >  }
> > >
> > > In other words, I moved the realization of 'rootfs_fs_type' here to
> > > do_populate_rootfs(), and fixed this 'rootfs_fs_type' with
> > > ramfs_init_fs_context, as it is a fake root now.
> >
> > do_populate_rootfs() is called from populate_rootfs() and that in turn
> > is a:
> >
> > rootfs_initcall(populate_rootfs);
> >
> > In fact the latest changes have made this to schedule asynchronously as
> > well. And so indeed, init_mount_tree() always kicks off first. So its
> > still unclear to me why the first mount now always has a fs context of
> > ramfs_init_fs_context, even if we did not care for a ramdisk.
> >
> > Are you suggesting it can be arbitrary now?
> 
> With the existence of the new user_root, the first mount is not directly used
> any more, so the filesystem type of it doesn't  matter.

What do you mean? init_mount_tree() is always called, and it has
statically:

static void __init init_mount_tree(void)                                        
{                                                                               
	struct vfsmount *mnt;
	...
	mnt = vfs_kern_mount(&rootfs_fs_type, 0, "rootfs", NULL);
	...
}

And as I noted, this is *always* called earlier than
do_populate_rootfs(). Your changes did not remove the init_mount_tree()
or modify it, and so why would the context of the above call always
be OK to be used now with a ramfs context now?

> So it makes no sense to make the file system of the first mount selectable.

Why? I don't see why, nor is it explained, we're always caling
vfs_kern_mount(&rootfs_fs_type, ...) and you have not changed that
either.

> To simplify the code here, I make it ramfs_init_fs_context directly. In fact,
> it's fine to make it shmen_init_fs_context here too.

So indeed you're suggesting its arbitrary now.... I don't see why.

  Luis