[RFC][PATCH] Allow threads to rename siblings via /proc/pid/tasks/tid/comm

[john stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>]

Ok, third attempt at this. 

I've added some minor tweaks from Darren's review, and I think the
memory barrier bits are in the right place.

Please let me know if you have any comments or feedback! If not I'll
probably send this on to -mm next week.

thanks
-john


===============

Setting a thread's comm to be something unique is a very useful ability
and is helpful for debugging complicated threaded applications. However
currently the only way to set a thread name is for the thread to name
itself via the PR_SET_NAME prctl.

However, there may be situations where it would be advantageous for a
thread dispatcher to be naming the threads its managing, rather then
having the threads self-describe themselves. This sort of behavior is
available on other systems via the pthread_setname_np() interface.

This patch exports a task's comm via proc/pid/comm and
proc/pid/task/tid/comm interfaces, and allows thread siblings to write
to these values.


Signed-off-by: John Stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>

diff --git a/fs/exec.c b/fs/exec.c
index d49be6b..ce70e55 100644
--- a/fs/exec.c
+++ b/fs/exec.c
@@ -926,7 +926,18 @@ char *get_task_comm(char *buf, struct task_struct *tsk)
 void set_task_comm(struct task_struct *tsk, char *buf)
 {
 	task_lock(tsk);
-	strlcpy(tsk->comm, buf, sizeof(tsk->comm));
+
+	/*
+	 * Threads may access current->comm without holding
+	 * the task lock, so write the string carefully
+	 * to avoid non-terminating reads. Readers without a lock
+	 * will get the oldname, the newname or an empty string.
+	 */
+	tsk->comm[0] = 0;
+	wmb();
+	strlcpy(tsk->comm+1, buf+1, sizeof(tsk->comm)-1);
+	wmb();
+	tsk->comm[0] = buf[0];
 	task_unlock(tsk);
 	perf_event_comm(tsk);
 }
diff --git a/fs/proc/base.c b/fs/proc/base.c
index 837469a..7f59af1 100644
--- a/fs/proc/base.c
+++ b/fs/proc/base.c
@@ -1265,6 +1265,78 @@ static const struct file_operations proc_pid_sched_operations = {
 
 #endif
 
+
+
+static ssize_t
+comm_write(struct file *file, const char __user *buf,
+	    size_t count, loff_t *offset)
+{
+	struct inode *inode = file->f_path.dentry->d_inode;
+	struct task_struct *p;
+	char buffer[TASK_COMM_LEN];
+
+	memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
+	if (count > sizeof(buffer) - 1)
+		count = sizeof(buffer) - 1;
+	if (copy_from_user(buffer, buf, count))
+		return -EFAULT;
+
+	p = get_proc_task(inode);
+	if (!p)
+		return -ESRCH;
+
+	if (same_thread_group(current, p))
+		set_task_comm(p, buffer);
+	else
+		count = -EINVAL;
+
+	put_task_struct(p);
+
+	return count;
+}
+
+
+static int comm_show(struct seq_file *m, void *v)
+{
+	struct inode *inode = m->private;
+	struct task_struct *p;
+
+	p = get_proc_task(inode);
+	if (!p)
+		return -ESRCH;
+
+	task_lock(p);
+	seq_printf(m, "%s\n", p->comm);
+	task_unlock(p);
+
+	put_task_struct(p);
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int comm_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
+{
+	int ret;
+
+	ret = single_open(filp, comm_show, NULL);
+	if (!ret) {
+		struct seq_file *m = filp->private_data;
+
+		m->private = inode;
+	}
+	return ret;
+}
+
+
+static const struct file_operations proc_pid_set_comm_operations = {
+	.open		= comm_open,
+	.read		= seq_read,
+	.write		= comm_write,
+	.llseek		= seq_lseek,
+	.release	= single_release,
+};
+
+
 /*
  * We added or removed a vma mapping the executable. The vmas are only mapped
  * during exec and are not mapped with the mmap system call.
@@ -2504,6 +2576,7 @@ static const struct pid_entry tgid_base_stuff[] = {
 #ifdef CONFIG_SCHED_DEBUG
 	REG("sched",      S_IRUGO|S_IWUSR, proc_pid_sched_operations),
 #endif
+	REG("comm",      S_IRUGO|S_IWUSR, proc_pid_set_comm_operations),
 #ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_TRACEHOOK
 	INF("syscall",    S_IRUSR, proc_pid_syscall),
 #endif
@@ -2839,6 +2912,7 @@ static const struct pid_entry tid_base_stuff[] = {
 #ifdef CONFIG_SCHED_DEBUG
 	REG("sched",     S_IRUGO|S_IWUSR, proc_pid_sched_operations),
 #endif
+	REG("comm",      S_IRUGO|S_IWUSR, proc_pid_set_comm_operations),
 #ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_TRACEHOOK
 	INF("syscall",   S_IRUSR, proc_pid_syscall),
 #endif