[RFC PATCH 04/24] pidfd: create taskless spawn builders

From: Li Chen

Date: Thu Jul 16 2026 - 11:57:07 EST


Add a pidfs-backed constructor for taskless spawn-builder files. The inode
owns the builder state, so procfd reopens and bind mounts retain it without
creating per-file lifetime rules.

The constructor allocates no task, struct pid, numeric PID, or
process-count charge. Until a later run operation publishes a pid, ordinary
pidfd operations resolve the file as -ESRCH. Preserve that error through
setns() and pidfd_send_signal() instead of translating a valid future pidfd
into an unrelated descriptor error. Assert that PIDFD_EMPTY does not
overlap a valid open flag, so future collisions fail the build instead of
silently aliasing builder creation.

Keep the public pidfd_open() entry point disabled until the complete spawn
state machine is wired later in the series.

Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5.6-sol
Signed-off-by: Li Chen <me@linux.beauty>
---
MAINTAINERS | 2 +
fs/Makefile | 2 +-
fs/pidfd_spawn.c | 81 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
fs/pidfs.c | 5 ++-
include/linux/pidfd_spawn.h | 9 +++++
kernel/nsproxy.c | 11 +++--
kernel/signal.c | 2 +-
7 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 fs/pidfd_spawn.c
create mode 100644 include/linux/pidfd_spawn.h

diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index b63bc1ee0171f..8d7f94f09f414 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -21287,6 +21287,8 @@ M: Christian Brauner <christian@xxxxxxxxxx>
L: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
S: Maintained
T: git git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/brauner/linux.git
+F: fs/pidfd_spawn.c
+F: include/linux/pidfd_spawn.h
F: include/uapi/linux/pidfd_spawn.h
F: samples/pidfd/
F: tools/include/uapi/linux/pidfd_spawn.h
diff --git a/fs/Makefile b/fs/Makefile
index aa847be93bc6f..f24beb7c9b7dc 100644
--- a/fs/Makefile
+++ b/fs/Makefile
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@


obj-y := open.o read_write.o file_table.o super.o \
- char_dev.o stat.o exec.o pipe.o namei.o fcntl.o \
+ char_dev.o stat.o exec.o pidfd_spawn.o pipe.o namei.o fcntl.o \
ioctl.o readdir.o select.o dcache.o inode.o \
attr.o bad_inode.o file.o filesystems.o namespace.o \
seq_file.o xattr.o libfs.o fs-writeback.o \
diff --git a/fs/pidfd_spawn.c b/fs/pidfd_spawn.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..ff2b0cb6365a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fs/pidfd_spawn.c
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
+/*
+ * pidfd-backed process spawn builders
+ */
+
+#include <linux/file.h>
+#include <linux/fs.h>
+#include <linux/pid.h>
+#include <linux/pidfd_spawn.h>
+#include <linux/pidfs.h>
+#include <linux/refcount.h>
+#include <linux/slab.h>
+#include <uapi/linux/pidfd.h>
+
+struct pidfd_spawn_state {
+ refcount_t count;
+ struct pid *pid;
+};
+
+static void pidfd_spawn_state_put(struct pidfd_spawn_state *state);
+
+static void pidfd_spawn_free_state(struct pidfd_spawn_state *state)
+{
+ put_pid(state->pid);
+ kfree(state);
+}
+
+static void pidfd_spawn_state_put(struct pidfd_spawn_state *state)
+{
+ if (refcount_dec_and_test(&state->count))
+ pidfd_spawn_free_state(state);
+}
+
+static void pidfd_spawn_state_release(void *data)
+{
+ pidfd_spawn_state_put(data);
+}
+
+static struct pid *pidfd_spawn_file_pid(void *data)
+{
+ struct pidfd_spawn_state *state = data;
+ struct pid *pid;
+
+ pid = READ_ONCE(state->pid);
+ return pid ? pid : ERR_PTR(-ESRCH);
+}
+
+static const struct pidfs_future_file_ops pidfd_spawn_future_ops = {
+ .get_pid = pidfd_spawn_file_pid,
+ .release = pidfd_spawn_state_release,
+};
+
+int pidfd_empty_open(unsigned int flags)
+{
+ struct pidfd_spawn_state *state;
+ struct file *pidfile;
+ int pidfd;
+
+ state = kzalloc_obj(*state, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
+ if (!state)
+ return -ENOMEM;
+
+ refcount_set(&state->count, 1);
+
+ pidfile = pidfs_alloc_future_file("[pidfd_spawn]", state,
+ &pidfd_spawn_future_ops,
+ O_RDWR | flags);
+ if (IS_ERR(pidfile)) {
+ pidfd_spawn_state_put(state);
+ return PTR_ERR(pidfile);
+ }
+
+ pidfd = get_unused_fd_flags(O_CLOEXEC);
+ if (pidfd < 0) {
+ fput(pidfile);
+ return pidfd;
+ }
+
+ fd_install(pidfd, pidfile);
+ return pidfd;
+}
diff --git a/fs/pidfs.c b/fs/pidfs.c
index ebd8cc463811b..28464fe274c9e 100644
--- a/fs/pidfs.c
+++ b/fs/pidfs.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
#include <linux/anon_inodes.h>
#include <linux/compat.h>
#include <linux/exportfs.h>
+#include <linux/fcntl.h>
#include <linux/file.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
#include <linux/cgroup.h>
@@ -1261,7 +1262,9 @@ struct file *pidfs_alloc_file(struct pid *pid, unsigned int flags)
* other or with uapi pidfd flags.
*/
BUILD_BUG_ON(hweight32(PIDFD_THREAD | PIDFD_NONBLOCK |
- PIDFD_STALE | PIDFD_AUTOKILL) != 4);
+ PIDFD_EMPTY | PIDFD_STALE |
+ PIDFD_AUTOKILL) != 5);
+ BUILD_BUG_ON(PIDFD_EMPTY & VALID_OPEN_FLAGS);

ret = path_from_stashed(&pid->stashed, pidfs_mnt, get_pid(pid), &path);
if (ret < 0)
diff --git a/include/linux/pidfd_spawn.h b/include/linux/pidfd_spawn.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..8df168cf0c2f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/pidfd_spawn.h
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+#ifndef _LINUX_PIDFD_SPAWN_H
+#define _LINUX_PIDFD_SPAWN_H
+
+#include <uapi/linux/pidfd_spawn.h>
+
+int pidfd_empty_open(unsigned int flags);
+
+#endif /* _LINUX_PIDFD_SPAWN_H */
diff --git a/kernel/nsproxy.c b/kernel/nsproxy.c
index d9d3d5973bf52..20befb6185e2d 100644
--- a/kernel/nsproxy.c
+++ b/kernel/nsproxy.c
@@ -581,10 +581,15 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(setns, int, fd, int, flags)
if (flags && (ns->ns_type != flags))
err = -EINVAL;
flags = ns->ns_type;
- } else if (!IS_ERR(pidfd_pid(fd_file(f)))) {
- err = check_setns_flags(flags);
} else {
- err = -EINVAL;
+ struct pid *pid = pidfd_pid(fd_file(f));
+
+ if (!IS_ERR(pid))
+ err = check_setns_flags(flags);
+ else if (PTR_ERR(pid) == -ESRCH)
+ err = -ESRCH;
+ else
+ err = -EINVAL;
}
if (err)
goto out;
diff --git a/kernel/signal.c b/kernel/signal.c
index fdee0b012a117..4c7d95981263e 100644
--- a/kernel/signal.c
+++ b/kernel/signal.c
@@ -3996,7 +3996,7 @@ static struct pid *pidfd_to_pid(const struct file *file)
struct pid *pid;

pid = pidfd_pid(file);
- if (!IS_ERR(pid))
+ if (!IS_ERR(pid) || PTR_ERR(pid) != -EBADF)
return pid;

return tgid_pidfd_to_pid(file);
--
2.52.0