Re: [patch 1/4] Add routine for generating an ID for kernel pointer

[Cyrill Gorcunov <gorcunov@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 01:47:37PM +0400, Pavel Emelyanov wrote:
> > A thought: if all we're trying to do here is to check for the sameness
> > of objects, can we push the comparison into the kernel so we don't have
> > this exporting-sensitive-info problem at all?  Just return a boolean to
> > userspace?
> > 
> > Something like
> > 
> > int sys_pid_fields_equal(pid_t pid1, pid_t pid2, enum pid_field field_id);
> > 
> > ?
> > 
> > For /proc/pid/fdinfo/* userspace can open /proc/pid1/fdinfo/0 and
> > /proc/pid2/fdinfo/0 and call sys_are_these_files_the_same(fd1, fd2, ...).
> > 
> > Perhaps sys_pid_fields_equal() can use sys_are_these_files_the_same()
> > as well, if we can think up a way of passing it two fds to represent
> > the two pids.
> > 
> > Have a think about it ;)
> 
> With this the complexity of determining sharing for N files scattered across
> several tasks would be N^2, since we'll have to compare each file to each file.
> 

Sigh. Indeed, I somehow missed that we have to compare a bunch of descriptors.

> On the other hand having just N IDs at hands would allow us to use more efficient
> algorithms resulting in e.g. N*log(N) complexity.
> 
> That said I'd really appreciate if we work out a solution with IDs.
> 

	Cyrill