Re: [PATCH v4 14/30] liveupdate: luo_session: Add ioctls for file preservation and state management

[David Matlack <dmatlack@google.com>]

On Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 1:13 PM Pasha Tatashin
<pasha.tatashin@soleen.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM Pratyush Yadav <pratyush@kernel.org> wrote:
> > Also, I think the model we should have is to only allow new sessions in
> > normal state. Currently luo_session_create() allows creating a new
> > session in updated state. This would end up mixing sessions from a
> > previous boot and sessions from current boot. I don't really see a
> > reason for that and I think the userspace should first call finish
> > before starting new serialization. Keeps things simpler.
>
> It does. However, yesterday Jason Gunthorpe suggested that we simplify
> the uapi, at least for the initial landing, by removing the state
> machine during boot and allowing new sessions to be created at any
> time. This would also mean separating the incoming and outgoing
> sessions and removing the ioctl() call used to bring the machine into
> a normal state; instead, only individual sessions could be brought
> into a 'normal' state.
>
> Simplified uAPI Proposal
> The simplest uAPI would look like this:
> IOCTLs on /dev/liveupdate (to create and retrieve session FDs):
> LIVEUPDATE_IOCTL_CREATE_SESSION
> LIVEUPDATE_IOCTL_RETRIEVE_SESSION
>
> IOCTLs on session FDs:
> LIVEUPDATE_CMD_SESSION_PRESERVE_FD
> LIVEUPDATE_CMD_SESSION_RETRIEVE_FD
> LIVEUPDATE_CMD_SESSION_FINISH

Should we drop LIVEUPDATE_CMD_SESSION_FINISH and do this work in
close(session_fd)? close() can return an error.

I think this cleans up a few parts of the uAPI:

 - One less ioctl.
 - The only way to get an outgoing session would be through
LIVEUPDATE_IOCTL_CREATE_SESSION. The kernel does not have to deal with
an empty incoming session "becoming" an outgoing session (as described
below).
 - The kernel can properly leak the session and its resources by
refusing to close the session file.