[PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[Andreas Hindborg]

When cloning a bio, the `bio.bi_vcnt` field is not cloned. This is a
problem if users want to perform bounds checks on the `bio.bi_io_vec`
field.

Signed-off-by: Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@kernel.org>
---
 block/bio.c | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/block/bio.c b/block/bio.c
index f0c416e5931d9..334eedf312803 100644
--- a/block/bio.c
+++ b/block/bio.c
@@ -870,6 +870,7 @@ struct bio *bio_alloc_clone(struct block_device *bdev, struct bio *bio_src,
 		return NULL;
 	}
 	bio->bi_io_vec = bio_src->bi_io_vec;
+	bio->bi_vcnt = bio_src->bi_vcnt;
 
 	return bio;
 }

---
base-commit: a64dcfb451e254085a7daee5fe51bf22959d52d3
change-id: 20250215-clone-bi_vcnt-f3f770988894

Best regards,
-- 
Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@kernel.org>

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[John Garry]

On 15/02/2025 10:58, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
> When cloning a bio, the `bio.bi_vcnt` field is not cloned. This is a
> problem if users want to perform bounds checks on the `bio.bi_io_vec`
> field.

Is this fixing a potential problem? Or fixing a real issue?

Thanks,
John

> 
> Signed-off-by: Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@kernel.org>
> ---
>   block/bio.c | 1 +
>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/block/bio.c b/block/bio.c
> index f0c416e5931d9..334eedf312803 100644
> --- a/block/bio.c
> +++ b/block/bio.c
> @@ -870,6 +870,7 @@ struct bio *bio_alloc_clone(struct block_device *bdev, struct bio *bio_src,
>   		return NULL;
>   	}
>   	bio->bi_io_vec = bio_src->bi_io_vec;
> +	bio->bi_vcnt = bio_src->bi_vcnt;
>   
>   	return bio;
>   }
> 
> ---
> base-commit: a64dcfb451e254085a7daee5fe51bf22959d52d3
> change-id: 20250215-clone-bi_vcnt-f3f770988894
> 
> Best regards,

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[Andreas Hindborg]

"John Garry" <john.g.garry@oracle.com> writes:

> On 15/02/2025 10:58, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
>> When cloning a bio, the `bio.bi_vcnt` field is not cloned. This is a
>> problem if users want to perform bounds checks on the `bio.bi_io_vec`
>> field.
>
> Is this fixing a potential problem? Or fixing a real issue?

It is fixing a problem I ran into in rnull, the rust null block
implementation. When running with debug assertions enabled, a bound
check on `bi_io_vec` fails for split bio, because `bio_vcnt` becomes
zero in the cloned bio.

I can work around this by not using a slice type to represent
`bi_io_vec` in rust, not a big deal.

But I am genuinely curious if there is a reason for not setting
`bi_vcnt` during a clone. As far as I can tell, it should be safe to
set. `bi_vcnt` being zero does not seem to have any effect other than to
puzzle developers debugging the code.

Maybe I missed something?


Best regards,
Andreas Hindborg

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[John Garry]

On 18/02/2025 11:40, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
> "John Garry" <john.g.garry@oracle.com> writes:
> 
>> On 15/02/2025 10:58, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
>>> When cloning a bio, the `bio.bi_vcnt` field is not cloned. This is a
>>> problem if users want to perform bounds checks on the `bio.bi_io_vec`
>>> field.
>>
>> Is this fixing a potential problem? Or fixing a real issue?
> 
> It is fixing a problem I ran into in rnull, the rust null block
> implementation. When running with debug assertions enabled, a bound
> check on `bi_io_vec` fails for split bio, because `bio_vcnt` becomes
> zero in the cloned bio.
> 
> I can work around this by not using a slice type to represent
> `bi_io_vec` in rust, not a big deal.
> 
> But I am genuinely curious if there is a reason for not setting
> `bi_vcnt` during a clone.

I think that it came from commit 59d276fe0 (with the addition of 
bio_clone_fast()), where we assume that the cloned bio is not having the 
bio_vec touched and so does not need to know bi_vcnt (or bi_max_vecs). 
And it is inefficient to needlessly set bi_vcnt then.

> As far as I can tell, it should be safe to
> set. `bi_vcnt` being zero does not seem to have any effect other than to
> puzzle developers debugging the code.
> 
> Maybe I missed something?
> 
> 
Thanks,
John

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[Andreas Hindborg]

"John Garry" <john.g.garry@oracle.com> writes:

> On 18/02/2025 11:40, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
>> "John Garry" <john.g.garry@oracle.com> writes:
>>
>>> On 15/02/2025 10:58, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
>>>> When cloning a bio, the `bio.bi_vcnt` field is not cloned. This is a
>>>> problem if users want to perform bounds checks on the `bio.bi_io_vec`
>>>> field.
>>>
>>> Is this fixing a potential problem? Or fixing a real issue?
>>
>> It is fixing a problem I ran into in rnull, the rust null block
>> implementation. When running with debug assertions enabled, a bound
>> check on `bi_io_vec` fails for split bio, because `bio_vcnt` becomes
>> zero in the cloned bio.
>>
>> I can work around this by not using a slice type to represent
>> `bi_io_vec` in rust, not a big deal.
>>
>> But I am genuinely curious if there is a reason for not setting
>> `bi_vcnt` during a clone.
>
> I think that it came from commit 59d276fe0 (with the addition of
> bio_clone_fast()), where we assume that the cloned bio is not having the
> bio_vec touched and so does not need to know bi_vcnt (or bi_max_vecs).
> And it is inefficient to needlessly set bi_vcnt then.

I see. That is a few days ago. I am quite confident that for modern
hardware and workloads, this assignment will not have any measurable
impact on performance.

Can we add it back?

I understand if you would prefer not to, since it is not strictly
necessary. But in that case, I would suggest patching the documentation
of `struct bio` something like this:


--- a/include/linux/blk_types.h
+++ b/include/linux/blk_types.h
@@ -255,7 +255,8 @@ struct bio {
 	struct bio_integrity_payload *bi_integrity; /* data integrity */
 #endif
 
-	unsigned short		bi_vcnt;	/* how many bio_vec's */
+	unsigned short bi_vcnt;  /* how many bio_vec's. Not valid if this bio is
+	                            a clone (flagged BIO_CLONED). */
 
 	/*
 	 * Everything starting with bi_max_vecs will be preserved by bio_reset()



Best regards,
Andreas Hindborg

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[Bart Van Assche]

On 2/18/25 9:12 AM, John Garry wrote:
> On 18/02/2025 11:40, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
>> But I am genuinely curious if there is a reason for not setting
>> `bi_vcnt` during a clone.
> 
> I think that it came from commit 59d276fe0 (with the addition of 
> bio_clone_fast()), where we assume that the cloned bio is not having the 
> bio_vec touched and so does not need to know bi_vcnt (or bi_max_vecs). 
> And it is inefficient to needlessly set bi_vcnt then.

Hmm ... I prefer paying the very small performance hit caused by copying
bi_vcnt rather than having to deal with the inconsistency caused by not
copying that data structure member.

Thanks,

Bart.

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[John Garry]

On 18/02/2025 22:21, Bart Van Assche wrote:
> On 2/18/25 9:12 AM, John Garry wrote:
>> On 18/02/2025 11:40, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
>>> But I am genuinely curious if there is a reason for not setting
>>> `bi_vcnt` during a clone.
>>
>> I think that it came from commit 59d276fe0 (with the addition of 
>> bio_clone_fast()), where we assume that the cloned bio is not having 
>> the bio_vec touched and so does not need to know bi_vcnt (or 
>> bi_max_vecs). And it is inefficient to needlessly set bi_vcnt then.
> 
> Hmm ... I prefer paying the very small performance hit caused by copying
> bi_vcnt rather than having to deal with the inconsistency caused by not
> copying that data structure member.

 From my experience, setting anything which is not strictly necessary in 
the fastpath code is generally not wanted.

Thanks,
John

Re: [PATCH] block: set bi_vcnt when cloning bio

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Sat, Feb 15, 2025 at 11:58:15AM +0100, Andreas Hindborg wrote:
> When cloning a bio, the `bio.bi_vcnt` field is not cloned. This is a
> problem if users want to perform bounds checks on the `bio.bi_io_vec`
> field.

Right now bi_vcnt is supposed to be an implementation detail for
bio_add_*, which obviously can't be called on cloned bio. Except for the
usual abuse in bcache/bcachefs that has mostly kept up except for a few
read-only checks in the completion routines which also can't be called
on cloned bios.

It would be nice to use it as a __counted_by bound for bi_io_vec, but
until that is supported on pointers in addition to the flexible arrays
we can't actually do that.  So as-is I don't really see a point in
just assigning the value if we don't actually use it.