Re: [PATCH] fs/super: fix memory leak of s_fs_info on setup_bdev_super failure

Mehdi Ben Hadj Khelifa
2025-11-18T17:06:04Z

On 11/18/25 5:55 PM, Al Viro wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 04:35:09PM +0000, Al Viro wrote:
>

>> For HFS I would expect that hfs_fill_super() would call hfs_mdb_put(sb)
>> on all failures and have it called from subsequent ->put_super() if
>> we succeed and later unmount the filesystem. That seems to be where
>> ->s_fs_info is taken out of superblock and freed.
>>
>> What do you observe getting leaked and in which case does that happen?
Sorry for my other late reply. My thunderbird client had some issues and
got delayed and seperated emails somehow...
>
> AFAICS, the problem is with aca740cecbe5 "fs: open block device after superblock
> creation" where you get a failure exit stuck between getting a new superblock
> from sget_fc() and calling fill_super().
>

Yes this is what I mentionned in my earlier mail.(not the commit causing
the issue though).
> That is where the gap has been introduced. I see two possible solutions:
> one is to have failure of setup_bdev_super() (and only it) steal ->s_fs_info
> back, on the theory that filesystem didn't have a chance to do anything
> yet. Another is to move the call of hfs_mdb_put() from failure exits of
> hfs_fill_super() *and* from hfs_put_super() into hfs_kill_sb(), that
> would do that:
>
> generic_shutdown_super(sb);
> hfs_mdb_put(sb);
> if (sb->s_bdev) {
> sync_blockdev(sb->s_bdev);
> bdev_fput(sb->s_bdev_file);
> }

I will do the second approach, test it send it for review shortly.

Best regards,
Mehdi Ben Hadj Khelifa