Re: [PATCH] zsmalloc: correct fragile [kmap|kunmap]_atomic use

Minchan Kim
2014-11-18T23:21:12Z

Hello Andrew,

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 03:01:38PM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Nov 2014 09:07:32 -0600 Seth Jennings <sjennings@variantweb.net> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 10:11:01AM +0900, Minchan Kim wrote:
> > > The kunmap_atomic should use virtual address getting by kmap_atomic.
> > > However, some pieces of code in zsmalloc uses modified address,
> > > not the one got by kmap_atomic for kunmap_atomic.
> > >
> > > It's okay for working because zsmalloc modifies the address
> > > inner PAGE_SIZE bounday so it works with current kmap_atomic's
> > > implementation. But it's still fragile with potential changing
> > > of kmap_atomic so let's correct it.
>
> It is a bit alarming, but I've seen code elsewhere in which a modified
> pointer is passed to kunmap_atomic(). So the kunmap_atomic() interface
> is "kvaddr should point somewhere into the page" and that won't be
> changing without a big effort.
>
> > Seems like you could just use PAGE_MASK to get the base page address
> > from link like this:
>
> I think Minchan's approach is better: it explicitly retains the
> kmap_atomic() return value for passing to kunmap_atomic(). That's
> nicer than modifying it and then setting it back again.
>
> I mean, a cleaner way of implementing your suggestion would be
>
> void kunmap_atomic_unaligned(void *p)
> {
> kunmap_atomic(void *)((unsigned long)p & PAGE_MASK);
> }
>
> but then one looks at
>
> void __kunmap_atomic(void *kvaddr)
> {
> unsigned long vaddr = (unsigned long) kvaddr & PAGE_MASK;
>
> and asks "what the heck".
>
>
> So I dunno. We could leave the code as-is. I have no strong feelings
> either way. Minchan's patch has no effect on zsmalloc.o section sizes
> with my compiler.

I hope to merge my patch.

Main reason I sent the patch is I got a subtle bug when I implement
new feature of zsmalloc(ie, compaction) due to link's mishandling
(ie, link was over page boundary by my fault).
Although it was totally my mistake, it took time for a while
to find a root cause because unpredictable kmapped address should
be unmapped so it's almost random crash.

IOW, it's fragile to depend on kunmap_atomic's internal and at least,
I wanted to make zram code more robust.

Thanks.

>
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--
Kind regards,
Minchan Kim