Re: [PATCH v2] audit: Avoid excessive dput/dget in audit_context setup and reset paths

[Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>]

On Tue, Feb 03, 2026 at 02:44:33PM -0500, Waiman Long wrote:

> diff --git a/kernel/audit.h b/kernel/audit.h
> index 7c401729e21b..03f3539b10e7 100644
> --- a/kernel/audit.h
> +++ b/kernel/audit.h
> @@ -133,6 +133,13 @@ struct audit_context {
>  	int		    name_count; /* total records in names_list */
>  	struct list_head    names_list;	/* struct audit_names->list anchor */
>  	char		    *filterkey;	/* key for rule that triggered record */
> +	/*
> +	 * pwd_reset is set if audit_free_names() has been called from
> +	 * audit_reset_context() to reset pwd, but pwd is still holding dentry
> +	 * and mount references to be used in later audit action without
> +	 * the need to reacqure the references again.

That's a delicate way to say "we have mounts stuck busy inexplicably for userland"...

Generally a chdir(2) away from something immediately followed by umount(2)
is _not_ expected to leave you with -EBUSY when nobody else has been doing
anything with the mount in question.