Re: [PATCH] Drop expectation refcount after unlinking expectation

[Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>]

Pablo Neira wrote:
> This fixes the problem although I think that there's something wrong
> with current refcounting. Every time an expectation is created, the
> refcount of the master conntrack is incremented. Then, if the master
> conntrack is destroyed, say the timeout has expired,
> ip_ct_remove_expectation will be called. So firstly, all expectations
> linked to such conntrack are destroyed and then the conntrack itself.
> OK, my question is: why do we need to increase the master conntrack
> refcount for expectations, if they are always killed first? Actually I
> think that the master conntrack refcount should be increased once the
> expectation is confirmed but not in ip_conntrack_expect_alloc.

Only outstanding expectations are removed by remove_expectations().
The fullfilled ones need the reference for stuff like
ip_nat_follow_master.