Re: [PATCH 08/10] ioctl_userfaultfd.2: clarify the state of the uffdio_api structure on error

Alejandro Colomar
2023-09-25T23:56:12Z

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Hi Axel,

On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 12:02:04PM -0700, Axel Rasmussen wrote:
> The old FIXME noted that the zeroing was done to differentiate the two
> EINVAL cases. It's possible something like this was true historically,
> but in current Linux we zero it in *both* EINVAL cases, so this is at
> least no longer true.
>
> After reading the code, I can't determine any clear reason why we zero
> it in some cases but not in others. So, some simple advice we can give
> userspace is: if an error occurs, treat the contents of the structure as
> unspecified. Just re-initialize it before retrying UFFDIO_API again.
>
> Signed-off-by: Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@google.com>

I can't apply this patch due to conflicts (due to not having applied two
of the previous ones). Please resend all remaining patches in following
revisions of the patch set.

The applied ones are here:

<https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/log/?h=contrib>

It's kind of like Linux's 'next' branch.

Cheers,
Alex

> ---
> man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 | 16 ++++++++--------
> 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 b/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2
> index 1aa9654be..29dca1f6b 100644
> --- a/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2
> +++ b/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2
> @@ -272,6 +272,14 @@ operation returns 0 on success.
> On error, \-1 is returned and
> .I errno
> is set to indicate the error.
> +If an error occurs,
> +the kernel may zero the provided
> +.I uffdio_api
> +structure.
> +The caller should treat its contents as unspecified,
> +and reinitialize it before re-attempting another
> +.B UFFDIO_API
> +call.
> Possible errors include:
> .TP
> .B EFAULT
> @@ -305,14 +313,6 @@ twice,
> the first time with no features set,
> is explicitly allowed
> as per the two-step feature detection handshake.
> -.\" FIXME In the above error case, the returned 'uffdio_api' structure is
> -.\" zeroed out. Why is this done? This should be explained in the manual page.
> -.\"
> -.\" Mike Rapoport:
> -.\" In my understanding the uffdio_api
> -.\" structure is zeroed to allow the caller
> -.\" to distinguish the reasons for -EINVAL.
> -.\"
> .SS UFFDIO_REGISTER
> (Since Linux 4.3.)
> Register a memory address range with the userfaultfd object.
> --
> 2.42.0.459.ge4e396fd5e-goog
>

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