[Bug 205569] New: potential data race (likely benign) on inode->i_state (reading and writing to different bits)

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https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=205569

            Bug ID: 205569
           Summary: potential data race (likely benign) on inode->i_state
                    (reading and writing to different bits)
           Product: File System
           Version: 2.5
    Kernel Version: 5.4-rc5
          Hardware: All
                OS: Linux
              Tree: Mainline
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P1
         Component: ext4
          Assignee: fs_ext4@kernel-bugs.osdl.org
          Reporter: mengxu.gatech@gmail.com
        Regression: No

I am reporting a potential data race (maybe benign) in the ext4 layer on
inode->i_state, with reading and writing to the same byte but different bits:
I_DIRTY_PAGES (bit 2) and I_NEW | I_FREEING (bit 3 and 5), observable during
the write-back phase.

The function call trace is shown below:

[Thread 1: SYS_rmdir]
__do_sys_rmdir
  do_rmdir
    vfs_rmdir
      ext4_rmdir
        ext4_orphan_add
          [READ] WARN_ON_ONCE(!(inode->i_state & (I_NEW | I_FREEING)) &&
                     !inode_is_locked(inode));

[Thread 2: write-back thread]
wb_workfn
  wb_do_writeback
    wb_writeback
      writeback_sb_inodes
        __writeback_single_inode
            [WRITE] dirty = inode->i_state & I_DIRTY;


I could confirm that the WRITE may happen before and after the READ operation
by controlling the timing of the two threads, i.e., by setting breakpoints
before the WRITE statement.

However, I am not very sure about the implication of such a data race (e.g.,
causing violations of assumptions). I would appreciate if you could help check
on this potential bug and advise whether this is a harmful data race or it
is intended. Thank you!

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