Re: [PATCH v8 11/12] zram: fix crashes with cpu hotplug multistate

Petr Mladek
2021-11-02T14:15:27Z

On Tue 2021-10-26 23:37:30, Ming Lei wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 10:48:18AM +0200, Petr Mladek wrote:
> > Below are more details about the livepatch code. I hope that it will
> > help you to see if zram has similar problems or not.
> >
> > We have kobject in three structures: klp_func, klp_object, and
> > klp_patch, see include/linux/livepatch.h.
> >
> > These structures have to be statically defined in the module sources
> > because they define what is livepatched, see
> > samples/livepatch/livepatch-sample.c
> >
> > The kobject is used there to show information about the patch, patched
> > objects, and patched functions, in sysfs. And most importantly,
> > the sysfs interface can be used to disable the livepatch.
> >
> > The problem with static structures is that the module must stay
> > in the memory as long as the sysfs interface exists. It can be
> > solved in module_exit() callback. It could wait until the sysfs
> > interface is destroyed.
> >
> > kobject API does not support this scenario. The relase() callbacks
>
> kobject_delete() is for supporting this scenario, that is why we don't
> need to grab module refcnt before calling show()/store() of the
> kobject's attributes.
>
> kobject_delete() can be called in module_exit(), then any show()/store()
> will be done after kobject_delete() returns.

I am a bit confused. I do not see kobject_delete() anywhere in kernel
sources.

I see only kobject_del() and kobject_put(). AFAIK, they do _not_
guarantee that either the sysfs interface was destroyed or
the release callbacks were called. For example, see
schedule_delayed_work(&kobj->release, delay) in kobject_release().

By other words, anyone could still be using either the sysfs interface
or the related structures after kobject_del() or kobject_put()
returns.

IMHO, kobject API does not support static structures and module
removal.

Best Regards,
Petr