Re: [PATCH] Fix signal race during process exit

[Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>]

On Wed, 2004-06-02 at 15:57, Andrew Morton wrote:
> void update_process_times(int user_tick)
> {
> 	struct task_struct *p = current;
> 	int cpu = smp_processor_id(), system = user_tick ^ 1;
> versus:
> 
> void __exit_sighand(struct task_struct *tsk)
> {
> 	struct sighand_struct * sighand = tsk->sighand;

No.  tsk == current for __exit_sighand.  You know, getting current is SO
expensive, and so we should PASS IT to functions explicitly!

One of my pet gripes: this code is badly obfuscated by this.  Is it just
me?

> And there's a little window at the end of exit_notify() where the exitting
> task (which is still "current" on its CPU) can take a timer interrupt while
> in a state TASK_ZOMBIE.  The CPU which is running wait4() will run
> release_task() for the exitting task and the above race can occur.

Hmm, while we're at it, the task seems to release itself while running
here: exit_notify() -> release_task() -> put_task_struct() ->
__put_task_struct() -> BOOM?

Surely not, what am I missing?

> Right now, I see no alternative to adding locking which pins task->sighand
> while the timer handler is running.  Taking tasklist_lock on each timer
> tick will hurt - maybe a new per-process lock is needed?

Hmm, a per-cpu cache of exited tasks: one task for each CPU.  We hold a
reference to the task struct until the next exit on the same CPU
happens?  We could also reuse that cache for fork()...

Rusty.
-- 
Anyone who quotes me in their signature is an idiot -- Rusty Russell