Re: [PATCH] libfs: fix negative value support in simple_attr_write()

[Andrew Morton]

On Sun, 18 Sep 2022 13:50:36 +0000 Eliav Farber <farbere@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> After commit 488dac0c9237 ("libfs: fix error cast of negative value in
> simple_attr_write()"), a user trying set a negative value will get a
> '-EINVAL' error, because simple_attr_write() was modified to use
> kstrtoull() which can handle only unsigned values, instead of
> simple_strtoll().
> 
> This breaks all the places using DEFINE_DEBUGFS_ATTRIBUTE() with format
> of a signed integer.
> 
> The u64 value which attr->set() receives is not an issue for negative
> numbers.
> The %lld and %llu in any case are for 64-bit value. Representing it as
> unsigned simplifies the generic code, but it doesn't mean we can't keep
> their signed value if we know that.
> 
> This change basically reverts the mentioned commit, but uses kstrtoll()
> instead of simple_strtoll() which is obsolete.
> 

https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20220919172418.45257-1-akinobu.mita@xxxxxxxxx
addresses the same thing.

Should the final version of this fix be backported into -stable trees?