[PATCH v2] common/rc: destroy loop dev before fallback recreation

[PATCH v2] common/rc: destroy loop dev before fallback recreation

[Brian Foster]

When running fstests on an s390x box I observed failure to unmount
filesystem errors due to stale loop devices being left around. This
root caused down to generic/361 leaving around an attached loop0
device. On further inspection, the test actually created two loop
devices (loop0 and loop1), and executed on and cleaned up the
latter.

The origin of the former appears to be that the initial losetup
command in _create_loop_device() fails due to $dio_args in this
environment, but still creates the loop device. For example:

 # losetup --direct-io=on -f --show /mnt/scratch/fs.img
 /dev/loop0
 losetup: /dev/loop0: set direct io failed: Invalid argument
 # losetup -a
 /dev/loop0: [64771]:131 (/mnt/scratch/fs.img)

The helper then goes on to create loop1, but it or the test never
deals with loop0. To avoid this problem, detach any old loop device
if one was set up before the fallback losetup command.

Signed-off-by: Brian Foster <bfoster@redhat.com>
---

v2:
- Add comment to document wonky losetup behavior.
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/fstests/20250924181235.152502-1-bfoster@redhat.com/

 common/rc | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/common/rc b/common/rc
index 81587dad..1ec84263 100644
--- a/common/rc
+++ b/common/rc
@@ -4596,6 +4596,9 @@ _create_loop_device()
 	# size to the directio alignment of the underlying fs, so if we want to
 	# use our own sector size, we need to specify that at creation time.
 	if ! dev="$(losetup $dio_args $args -f --show $file 2>/dev/null)"; then
+		# losetup can return error for certain configuration settings
+		# but still create a loop device.
+		test -n "$dev" && losetup -d "$dev" > /dev/null 2>&1
 		dev="$(losetup $args -f --show $file)" || \
 			_fail "Cannot assign $file to a loop device ($args)"
 	fi
-- 
2.51.0

Re: [PATCH v2] common/rc: destroy loop dev before fallback recreation

[Zorro Lang]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 08:12:49AM -0400, Brian Foster wrote:
> When running fstests on an s390x box I observed failure to unmount
> filesystem errors due to stale loop devices being left around. This
> root caused down to generic/361 leaving around an attached loop0
> device. On further inspection, the test actually created two loop
> devices (loop0 and loop1), and executed on and cleaned up the
> latter.
> 
> The origin of the former appears to be that the initial losetup
> command in _create_loop_device() fails due to $dio_args in this
> environment, but still creates the loop device. For example:
> 
>  # losetup --direct-io=on -f --show /mnt/scratch/fs.img
>  /dev/loop0
>  losetup: /dev/loop0: set direct io failed: Invalid argument
>  # losetup -a
>  /dev/loop0: [64771]:131 (/mnt/scratch/fs.img)
> 
> The helper then goes on to create loop1, but it or the test never
> deals with loop0. To avoid this problem, detach any old loop device
> if one was set up before the fallback losetup command.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Brian Foster <bfoster@redhat.com>
> ---



> 
> v2:
> - Add comment to document wonky losetup behavior.
> v1: https://lore.kernel.org/fstests/20250924181235.152502-1-bfoster@redhat.com/
> 
>  common/rc | 3 +++
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/common/rc b/common/rc
> index 81587dad..1ec84263 100644
> --- a/common/rc
> +++ b/common/rc
> @@ -4596,6 +4596,9 @@ _create_loop_device()
>  	# size to the directio alignment of the underlying fs, so if we want to
>  	# use our own sector size, we need to specify that at creation time.
>  	if ! dev="$(losetup $dio_args $args -f --show $file 2>/dev/null)"; then
> +		# losetup can return error for certain configuration settings
> +		# but still create a loop device.
> +		test -n "$dev" && losetup -d "$dev" > /dev/null 2>&1

I'm not sure if "-b" is better than "-n", anyway "-n" makes sense too.

Reviewed-by: Zorro Lang <zlang@redhat.com>

>  		dev="$(losetup $args -f --show $file)" || \
>  			_fail "Cannot assign $file to a loop device ($args)"
>  	fi
> -- 
> 2.51.0
> 
> 

Re: [PATCH v2] common/rc: destroy loop dev before fallback recreation

[Darrick J. Wong]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 11:08:44PM +0800, Zorro Lang wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 08:12:49AM -0400, Brian Foster wrote:
> > When running fstests on an s390x box I observed failure to unmount
> > filesystem errors due to stale loop devices being left around. This
> > root caused down to generic/361 leaving around an attached loop0
> > device. On further inspection, the test actually created two loop
> > devices (loop0 and loop1), and executed on and cleaned up the
> > latter.
> > 
> > The origin of the former appears to be that the initial losetup
> > command in _create_loop_device() fails due to $dio_args in this
> > environment, but still creates the loop device. For example:
> > 
> >  # losetup --direct-io=on -f --show /mnt/scratch/fs.img
> >  /dev/loop0
> >  losetup: /dev/loop0: set direct io failed: Invalid argument
> >  # losetup -a
> >  /dev/loop0: [64771]:131 (/mnt/scratch/fs.img)
> > 
> > The helper then goes on to create loop1, but it or the test never
> > deals with loop0. To avoid this problem, detach any old loop device
> > if one was set up before the fallback losetup command.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Brian Foster <bfoster@redhat.com>
> > ---
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > v2:
> > - Add comment to document wonky losetup behavior.
> > v1: https://lore.kernel.org/fstests/20250924181235.152502-1-bfoster@redhat.com/
> > 
> >  common/rc | 3 +++
> >  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/common/rc b/common/rc
> > index 81587dad..1ec84263 100644
> > --- a/common/rc
> > +++ b/common/rc
> > @@ -4596,6 +4596,9 @@ _create_loop_device()
> >  	# size to the directio alignment of the underlying fs, so if we want to
> >  	# use our own sector size, we need to specify that at creation time.
> >  	if ! dev="$(losetup $dio_args $args -f --show $file 2>/dev/null)"; then
> > +		# losetup can return error for certain configuration settings
> > +		# but still create a loop device.
> > +		test -n "$dev" && losetup -d "$dev" > /dev/null 2>&1
> 
> I'm not sure if "-b" is better than "-n", anyway "-n" makes sense too.

I doubt it makes much difference, as long as nobody races us to delete
and recreate the same loopdev.

Thanks for adding the comments,
Reviewed-by: "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@kernel.org>

--D


> Reviewed-by: Zorro Lang <zlang@redhat.com>
> 
> >  		dev="$(losetup $args -f --show $file)" || \
> >  			_fail "Cannot assign $file to a loop device ($args)"
> >  	fi
> > -- 
> > 2.51.0
> > 
> > 
>