Re: [RFC][PATCH] debugfs: Fix corrupted loop in debugfs_remove_recursive

[Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>]

On Mon, Jun 09, 2014 at 02:06:07PM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:

> When these are called, the d_entry and inode locks need to be released
> to call the instance creation and deletion code. That code has its own
> accounting and locking to serialize everything to prevent multiple
> users from causing harm. As the parent "instance" directory can not
> be modified this simplifies things.

Yecchhh...   Looking at debugfs:

static inline int debugfs_positive(struct dentry *dentry)
{
        return dentry->d_inode && !d_unhashed(dentry);
}

...
        if (debugfs_positive(dentry)) {
                if (dentry->d_inode) {
What the hell?

        parent = dentry->d_parent;
        if (!parent || !parent->d_inode)
                return;
Huh?  First of all, ->d_parent is *never* NULL.  Moreover, it can't be a
negative dentry.

What's more, if debugfs_rename() is ever used for cross-directory renames,
this tree-walker is buggered - it'll happily walk up "back" into a directory
it has never visited...