Re: [PATCH] xfs: Fix possible truncation of log data in xlog_bread_noalign()

Dave Chinner
2013-02-23T00:08:09Z

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 08:12:52AM +0000, Tony Lu wrote:
> I encountered the following panic when using xfs partitions as rootfs, which
> is due to the truncated log data read by xlog_bread_noalign(). We should
> extend the buffer by one extra log sector to ensure there's enough space to
> accommodate requested log data, which we indeed did in xlog_get_bp(), but we
> forgot to do in xlog_bread_noalign().

We've never done that round up in xlog_bread_noalign(). It shouldn't
be necessary as xlog_get_bp() and xlog_bread_noalign() are doing
fundamentally different things. That is, xlog_get_bp() is ensuring
the buffer is large enough for the upcoming IO that will be
requested, while xlog_bread_noalign() is simply ensuring what it is
passed is correctly aligned to device sector boundaries.

So, if you have to fudge an extra block for xlog_bread_noalign(),
that implies that what xlog_bread_noalign() was passed was probably
not correct. It also implies that you are using sector sizes larger
than 512 bytes, because that's the only time this might matter. Put
simply, this:

> XFS mounting filesystem sda2
> Starting XFS recovery on filesystem: sda2 (logdev: internal)
> XFS: xlog_recover_process_data: bad clientid
> XFS: log mount/recovery failed: error 5
> XFS: log mount failed

Is not sufficient information for me to determine if you've correctly
analysed the problem you were seeing and that this is the correct
fix for it. I don't even know what kernel you are seeing this on, or
how you are reproducing it.

Note that I'm not saying the fix isn't necessary or correct, just
that I cannot review it based this commit message. Given that this
code is essentially unchanged in behaviour since the large sector
size support was adding in 2003(*), understanding how it is
deficient is critical part of the reviewi process....

Information you need to provide so I have a chance of reviewing
whether it is correct or not:

- what kernel you saw this on,
- what the filesystem configuration was
- what workload reproduced this problem (a test case would
be nice, and xfstest even better)
- the actual contents of the log that lead to the short read
during recovery
- whether xfs_logprint was capable of parsing the log
correctly
- where in the actual log recovery process the failure
occurred (e.g. was it trying to recover transactions from
a section of a wrapped log?)

IOWs, please show your working so we can determine if this is the
root cause of the problem you are seeing. :)

(*) http://oss.sgi.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=archive/xfs-import.git;a=commitdiff;h=f14e527f411712f89178c31370b5d733ea1d0280

FWIW, I think your change might need work - there's the possibility
that is can round up the length beyond the end of the log if we ask
to read up to the last sector of the log (i.e. blkno + blklen ==
end of log) and then round up blklen by one sector....

Cheers,

Dave.
--
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com