Re: [PATCH 1/2] audit: Quit audit_free_names() early if name list empty

From: Waiman Long

Date: Wed Jan 21 2026 - 10:51:55 EST

On 1/21/26 12:26 AM, Al Viro wrote:
On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 11:08:45PM -0500, Waiman Long wrote:
On 1/20/26 10:11 PM, Al Viro wrote:
On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 09:35:08PM -0500, Waiman Long wrote:
Optimize audit_free_names() by quitting early if the name list is empty.
This eliminates the need to acquire and release the fs_struct spinlock
in path_put().
Why would path_put() go anywhere need fs_struct spinlock???

path_put() is defined in include/linux/fs_struct.h. It calls
read_seq{un}lock_excl(&fs->seq) which, in turn, acquires the releases the
spinlock underneath the seqlock_t.
Really? Which kernel would that be? On mainline we have

; git grep -n -w path_put include/linux/fs_struct.h
; $ git grep -C 6 'void path_put\>' fs/namei.c
fs/namei.c-/**
fs/namei.c- * path_put - put a reference to a path
fs/namei.c- * @path: path to put the reference to
fs/namei.c- *
fs/namei.c- * Given a path decrement the reference count to the dentry and the vfsmount.
fs/namei.c- */
fs/namei.c:void path_put(const struct path *path)
fs/namei.c-{
fs/namei.c- dput(path->dentry);
fs/namei.c- mntput(path->mnt);
fs/namei.c-}
fs/namei.c-EXPORT_SYMBOL(path_put);
fs/namei.c-
;

Sorry, my mistake. I mixed it up with get_fs_pwd(). Will fix the patch.

Cheers,
Longman