Re: [PATCH] VFS: call synchronize_rcu after kill_sb.

[Boaz Harrosh <bharrosh@panasas.com>]

On 02/05/2011 11:01 AM, Tao Ma wrote:
> From: Tao Ma <boyu.mt@taobao.com>
> 
> In fa0d7e3, we use rcu free inode instead of freeing the inode
> directly. It causes a problem when we rmmod immediately after
> we umount the volume[1].
> 
> So we need to call synchronize_rcu after we kill_sb so that
> the inode is freed before we do rmmod. The idea is inspired
> by Chris Mason[2]. I tested with ext4 by umount+rmmod and it
> doesn't show any error by now.
> 
> 1. http://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=129680863330185&w=2
> 2. http://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=129684698713709&w=2 
> 
> Cc: Nick Piggin <npiggin@kernel.dk>
> Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
> Cc: Chris Mason <chris.mason@oracle.com>
> Cc: Boaz Harrosh <bharrosh@panasas.com>
> Signed-off-by: Tao Ma <boyu.mt@taobao.com>
> ---
>  fs/super.c |    7 +++++++
>  1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/super.c b/fs/super.c
> index 74e149e..315bce9 100644
> --- a/fs/super.c
> +++ b/fs/super.c
> @@ -177,6 +177,13 @@ void deactivate_locked_super(struct super_block *s)
>  	struct file_system_type *fs = s->s_type;
>  	if (atomic_dec_and_test(&s->s_active)) {
>  		fs->kill_sb(s);
> +		/*
> +		 * We need to synchronize rcu here so that
> +		 * the delayed rcu inode free can be executed
> +		 * before we put_super.
> +		 * https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27652
> +		 */
> +		synchronize_rcu();
>  		put_filesystem(fs);
>  		put_super(s);
>  	} else {


Sorry for not testing sooner.

The above does not work I still get the exact same crash!!

Looking at the code for synchronize_rcu() it looks like it might not be
enough. It looks like all it does is a memory barrier. But we need 
something that will actually pump these pending releases.
(I might be way off here)

BTW after I get the Warning from the kmem_cache_destroy:
slab error in kmem_cache_destroy(): cache `exofs_inode_cache': Can't free all objects
Call Trace: 
754efe08:  [<6007e9a6>] kmem_cache_destroy+0x82/0xca
754efe38:  [<7a9296ba>] exit_exofs+0x1a/0x1c [exofs]
754efe48:  [<60054c10>] sys_delete_module+0x1b9/0x217
754efee8:  [<60014d60>] handle_syscall+0x58/0x70
754eff08:  [<60024163>] userspace+0x2dd/0x38a
754effc8:  [<600126af>] fork_handler+0x62/0x69


I also get a Kernel crash. I suspect it's when finally these
free_rcu come and the module (and kmem_cache) are no longer there.

What to do? Nick?

Boaz