Re: [PATCH] xfs: shutdown filesystem if xfs_perag_get fails

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@sandeen.net>]

On 4/22/13 8:45 AM, Mark Tinguely wrote:
> On 04/21/13 16:55, Eric Sandeen wrote:
>> On 4/21/13 12:41 PM, Mark Tinguely wrote:
>>
>>> This problem happened locally with a bad inode number from xfs
>>> recovery. xfs_perag_get() can return NULL if given a bad agno.
>>> Most callers of xfs_perag_get() do not check for a NULL before
>>> using the pointer. This patch forces a shutdown of the filesystem
>>> for those callers that do not check the return value rather than
>>> crashing on a dereferenced NULL pointer.
>>
>> Hi Mark -
>>
>> I'm curious, what was the callchain when this happened?  Was it
>> during recovery?  If so, would aborting recovery be more prudent?
>>
>> I might be missing something, but I'm not sure how shutting
>> down avoids a subsequent null ptr deref&  crash.
>>
>> i.e. if a caller does something like:
>>
>>          pag = xfs_perag_get(mp, agno);
>>          spin_lock(&pag->pagb_lock);
>>
>> shutting down in xfs_perag_get doesn't save us from a
>> null pag pointer, would it?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -Eric
> 
> You are correct, we have to exit the routine(s) to avoid the dereference. Let the callers handle the error.
> 
> Sorry for the noise.

No problem, glad I'm useful on the rare occasion.  ;)

Can you share the backtrace on the null deref you saw?

Thanks,
-Eric

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