[PATCH] chardev: fix consistent error handling in cdev_device_add
From: Zhangfei Gao
Date: Wed Nov 19 2025 - 05:15:47 EST
Currently cdev_device_add has inconsistent error handling:
- If device_add fails, it calls cdev_del(cdev)
- If cdev_add fails, it only returns error without cleanup
This creates a problem because cdev_set_parent(cdev, &dev->kobj)
establishes a parent-child relationship.
When callers use cdev_del(cdev) to clean up after cdev_add failure,
it also decrements the dev's refcount due to the parent relationship,
causing refcount mismatch.
To unify error handling:
- Set cdev->kobj.parent = NULL first to break the parent relationship
- Then call cdev_del(cdev) for cleanup
This ensures that in both error paths,
the dev's refcount remains consistent and callers don't need
special handling for different failure scenarios.
Signed-off-by: Zhangfei Gao <zhangfei.gao@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/char_dev.c | 5 ++++-
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/fs/char_dev.c b/fs/char_dev.c
index c2ddb998f3c9..fef6ee1aba66 100644
--- a/fs/char_dev.c
+++ b/fs/char_dev.c
@@ -549,8 +549,11 @@ int cdev_device_add(struct cdev *cdev, struct device *dev)
cdev_set_parent(cdev, &dev->kobj);
rc = cdev_add(cdev, dev->devt, 1);
- if (rc)
+ if (rc) {
+ cdev->kobj.parent = NULL;
+ cdev_del(cdev);
return rc;
+ }
}
rc = device_add(dev);
--
2.25.1