Re: [PATCH 1/2] bcache: ignore pending signals in bcache_device_init()

[Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>]

On Mon 02-03-20 14:49:19, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
> On 03/02, Michal Hocko wrote:
> >
> > I cannot really comment on the bcache part because I am not familiar
> > with the code.
> 
> same here...
> 
> > > This patch calls flush_signals() in bcache_device_init() if there is
> > > pending signal for current process. It avoids bcache registration
> > > failure in system boot up time due to bcache udev rule timeout.
> >
> > this sounds like a wrong way to address the issue. Killing the udev
> > worker is a userspace policy and the kernel shouldn't simply ignore it.
> 
> Agreed. If nothing else, if a userspace process has pending SIKILL then
> flush_signals() is very wrong.
> 
> > Btw. Oleg, I have noticed quite a lot of flush_signals usage in the
> > drivers land and I have really hard time to understand their purpose.
> 
> Heh. I bet most if not all users of flush_signals() are simply wrong.
> 
> > What is the actual valid usage of this function?
> 
> I thinks it should die...

Can we simply deprecate it and add a big fat comment explaning why this
is wrong interface to use?

So what about this?
diff --git a/kernel/signal.c b/kernel/signal.c
index 9ad8dea93dbb..8a895e565e84 100644
--- a/kernel/signal.c
+++ b/kernel/signal.c
@@ -465,7 +465,13 @@ void flush_sigqueue(struct sigpending *queue)
 }
 
 /*
- * Flush all pending signals for this kthread.
+ * Flush all pending signals for this kthread. Please note that this interface
+ * shouldn't be used and in fact it is DEPRECATED.
+ * Existing users should be double checked because most of them are likely
+ * obsolete. Kernel threads are not on the receiving end of signal delivery
+ * unless they explicitly request that by allow_signal() and in that case
+ * flush_signals is almost always a bug because signal should be processed
+ * by kernel_dequeue_signal rather than dropping them on the floor.
  */
 void flush_signals(struct task_struct *t)
 {
-- 
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs