Re: [RFC PATCH v3 1/8] Use refcount_t for ucounts reference counting

Alexey Gladkov
2021-01-18T20:58:30Z

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 12:34:29PM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 11:46 AM Alexey Gladkov
> <gladkov.alexey@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Sorry about that. I thought that this code is not needed when switching
> > from int to refcount_t. I was wrong.
>
> Well, you _may_ be right. I personally didn't check how the return
> value is used.
>
> I only reacted to "it certainly _may_ be used, and there is absolutely
> no comment anywhere about why it wouldn't matter".

I have not found examples where checked the overflow after calling
refcount_inc/refcount_add.

For example in kernel/fork.c:2298 :

current->signal->nr_threads++;
atomic_inc(&current->signal->live);
refcount_inc(&current->signal->sigcnt);

$ semind search signal_struct.sigcnt
def include/linux/sched/signal.h:83 refcount_t sigcnt;
m-- kernel/fork.c:723 put_signal_struct if (refcount_dec_and_test(&sig->sigcnt))
m-- kernel/fork.c:1571 copy_signal refcount_set(&sig->sigcnt, 1);
m-- kernel/fork.c:2298 copy_process refcount_inc(&current->signal->sigcnt);

It seems to me that the only way is to use __refcount_inc and then compare
the old value with REFCOUNT_MAX

Since I have not seen examples of such checks, I thought that this is
acceptable. Sorry once again. I have not tried to hide these changes.

--
Rgrds, legion