public inbox for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com,
	ebiederm@xmission.com
Subject: [PATCH] [0/11] SYSCTL: Use RCU to avoid races with string sysctls
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:20:21 +0100 (CET)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20091221220.243954235@firstfloor.org> (raw)


With BKL-less sysctls most of the writable string sysctls are racy. There
is no locking on the reader side, so a reader could see an inconsistent
string or worse miss the terminating null and walk of beyond it.

This patch kit adds a new "rcu string" variant to avoid these 
problems and convers the racy users. One the writer side the strings are 
always copied to new memory and the readers use rcu_read_lock()
to get a stable view. For readers who access the string over
sleeps the reader copies the string. 

This is all hidden in a new generic "rcu_string" ADT which can be also 
used for other purposes.

This finally implements all the letters in RCU, most other users
leave out the 'C'.

I also fixed the zone order list sysctl to use a mutex to avoid
racing with itself. 

I left some obscure users in architectures (sparc, mips) alone and audited
all of the others. The sparc reboot_cmd one has references to asm files
which I didn't want to touch and the mips variant seemd just too obscure.

All the others are not racy.

-Andi

             reply	other threads:[~2009-12-21  1:20 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 25+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2009-12-21  1:20 Andi Kleen [this message]
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [1/11] Add rcustring ADT for RCU protected strings Andi Kleen
2009-12-22  2:46   ` Paul E. McKenney
2009-12-22 10:05     ` Andi Kleen
2009-12-22 20:59       ` Paul E. McKenney
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [2/11] Add a kernel_address() that works for data too Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [3/11] SYSCTL: Add proc_rcu_string to manage sysctls using rcu strings Andi Kleen
2009-12-22  2:51   ` Paul E. McKenney
2009-12-22  3:00     ` Eric W. Biederman
2009-12-22  7:44       ` Paul E. McKenney
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [4/11] SYSCTL: Use RCU strings for core_pattern sysctl Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [5/11] SYSCTL: Add call_usermodehelper_cleanup() Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [6/11] SYSCTL: Convert modprobe_path to proc_rcu_string() Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [7/11] SYSCTL: Convert poweroff_command to proc_rcu_string Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [8/11] SYSCTL: Convert hotplug helper string to proc_rcu_string() Andi Kleen
2009-12-22 19:03   ` Greg KH
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [9/11] SYSCTL: Add a mutex to the page_alloc zone order sysctl Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [10/11] SYSCTL: Use RCU protected sysctl for ocfs group add helper Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:20 ` [PATCH] [11/11] SYSCTL: Convert IRDA text sysctl to RCU Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  1:59 ` [PATCH] [0/11] SYSCTL: Use RCU to avoid races with string sysctls Eric W. Biederman
2009-12-21  2:04   ` Andi Kleen
2009-12-21  2:31     ` Eric W. Biederman
2009-12-21  3:21       ` Andi Kleen
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2009-12-21  7:57 Alexey Dobriyan
2009-12-21 10:50 ` Andi Kleen

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20091221220.243954235@firstfloor.org \
    --to=andi@firstfloor.org \
    --cc=ebiederm@xmission.com \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox