Re: [syzbot] [ntfs3?] INFO: task hung in __start_renaming

Mateusz Guzik
2025-11-24T07:54:33Z

On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 11:13:03PM -0800, syzbot wrote:
> syzbot has tested the proposed patch but the reproducer is still triggering an issue:
> INFO: task hung in __start_renaming
>
> INFO: task syz.0.17:6473 blocked for more than 143 seconds.
> Not tainted syzkaller #0
> "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
> task:syz.0.17 state:D stack:27936 pid:6473 tgid:6471 ppid:6352 task_flags:0x400040 flags:0x00080002
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5257 [inline]
> __schedule+0x14bc/0x5030 kernel/sched/core.c:6864
> __schedule_loop kernel/sched/core.c:6946 [inline]
> schedule+0x165/0x360 kernel/sched/core.c:6961
> schedule_preempt_disabled+0x13/0x30 kernel/sched/core.c:7018
> rwsem_down_write_slowpath+0x872/0xfe0 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1185
> __down_write_common kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1317 [inline]
> __down_write kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1326 [inline]
> down_write_nested+0x1b5/0x200 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1707
> inode_lock_nested include/linux/fs.h:1072 [inline]
> lock_rename fs/namei.c:3681 [inline]
> __start_renaming+0x148/0x410 fs/namei.c:3777
> do_renameat2+0x399/0x8e0 fs/namei.c:5991
> __do_sys_rename fs/namei.c:6059 [inline]
> __se_sys_rename fs/namei.c:6057 [inline]
> __x64_sys_rename+0x82/0x90 fs/namei.c:6057
> do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
> do_syscall_64+0xfa/0xfa0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
> entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
> RIP: 0033:0x7f2425d8f749
> RSP: 002b:00007f2426c44038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000052
> RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f2425fe6090 RCX: 00007f2425d8f749
> RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000200000000080 RDI: 0000200000000340
> RBP: 00007f2425e13f91 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
> R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
> R13: 00007f2425fe6128 R14: 00007f2425fe6090 R15: 00007ffcd5a91138
> </TASK>
>

So at the end of the day I think this erroneously bisected to my patch.
While it may sound like famous last words, hear me out.

The reproducer fails to trigger the problem on my test jig, thus I
resorted to asking syzbot.

First patch I sent for testing was merely a sanity check -- prior to my
patch inode_unhashed() checks were *always* executing, with my patch
they only happen if I_NEW was spotted. This patch "solved" the problem.

Second patch added some asserts on inode_unhashed() and syzbot had some
internal issues, ultimately it was not tested.

Third patch added even *more* asserts and t0his time around things
failed the previously reported way about half an hour of testing. But if
the first patch indeed solved something, the BUG_ONs would have
triggered instead.

So that's for testing.

In my first response I made a remark in my first reply that ntfs is at
fault. After a quick skim I spotted d_instantiate() instead of
d_instantiate_new() and jumped to conclusions. It calls unlock_new_inode()
later which does the right thing, so it is fine AFAICS.

So what about correctness of my patch?

My patch lifted the go-to-sleep code from inode_wait_for_lru_isolating().
In principle that can be buggy but is just used rarely enough that it
went unnoticed. I don't see anything wrong with it though, including
after comparing it with __wait_on_freeing_inode(). Notably both
synchronize with the ->i_lock. No games played.

I figure maybe there is something fucky going on with ordering on wakeup
side:

inode_state_clear(inode, I_NEW | I_CREATING);
inode_wake_up_bit(inode, __I_NEW);

Going through __wake_up_common_lock takes a spinlock, which on amd64
would have a side effect of publishing that I_NEW store, even ignoring
therest of the ordering.

On going to sleep side to the flag is only ever tested with ->i_lock
held anyway, so it can't be an ordering issue on that front. The thread
could not have been missed from the sleepers list as going to sleep is
again ->i_lock protected, with the lock only dropped around the call to
schedule().

So I don't see how this can be buggy.

At the same time the traces report the thing off cpu is playing around
with rwsems with the __start_renaming et al patchset, while the code for
inode hash manipulation is decidedly *ON* cpu -- reported by NMIs, not
hung test detector.

In principle this still can be a thread hung waiting on I_NEW somewhere,
but syzbot did not produce a collection of backtraces for other threads.

However, given that the __start_renaming et al patchset is complicated
*and* that syzbot could mistakenly report (or not) a bug I'm led to
conclude the reproducer is highly unreliable and my commit landed as a
random victim.

All that said, I think the folk working on that patchset should take
over.

My patch is a minor optimization and can be skipped in this merge window
at no real loss,

My take is that the big patchset *should* be skipped in this merge
window given the above, unless the problem is uickly identified.