Re: [PATCH net v3 2/3] vsock/test: fix MSG_PEEK handling in recv_buf()

Stefano Garzarella
2026-04-15T11:54:56Z

On Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 01:31:11PM +0200, Stefano Garzarella wrote:
>On Tue, Apr 14, 2026 at 06:10:22PM +0200, Luigi Leonardi wrote:
>>`recv_buf` does not handle the MSG_PEEK flag correctly: it keeps calling
>>`recv` until all requested bytes are available or an error occurs.
>>
>>The problem is how it calculates the amount of bytes read: MSG_PEEK
>>doesn't consume any bytes, will re-read the same bytes from the buffer
>>head, so, summing the return value every time is wrong.
>>
>>Moreover, MSG_PEEK doesn't consume the bytes in the buffer, so if the
>>requested amount is more than the bytes available, the loop will never
>>terminate, because `recv` will never return EOF. For this reason we need
>>to compare the amount of read bytes with the number of bytes expected.
>>
>>Add a check, and if the MSG_PEEK flag is present, update the counter of
>>read bytes differently, and break if we read the expected amount.
>
>nit: "..., update the counter for bytes read only after all expected
>bytes have been read and break out of the loop; otherwise, try again
>after a short delay to avoid consuming too many CPU cycles."
>
>>
>>This allows us to simplify the `test_stream_credit_update_test`, by
>>reusing `recv_buf`, like some other tests already do.
>>
>>This also fixes callers that pass MSG_PEEK to recv_buf().
>
>nit: this is implicit from the first part of the description.
>
>>
>>Suggested-by: Stefano Garzarella <sgarzare@redhat.com>
>>Signed-off-by: Luigi Leonardi <leonardi@redhat.com>
>>---
>>tools/testing/vsock/util.c | 15 +++++++++++++++
>>tools/testing/vsock/vsock_test.c | 13 +------------
>>2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
>>
>>diff --git a/tools/testing/vsock/util.c b/tools/testing/vsock/util.c
>>index 1fe1338c79cd..2c9ee3210090 100644
>>--- a/tools/testing/vsock/util.c
>>+++ b/tools/testing/vsock/util.c
>>@@ -381,7 +381,13 @@ void send_buf(int fd, const void *buf, size_t len, int flags,
>> }
>>}
>>
>>+#define RECV_PEEK_RETRY_USEC 10
>
>10 usec IMO are a bit low, it could be the same order of the syscalls
>involved in the loop, I'd go to some milliseconds like we do for
>SEND_SLEEP_USEC.
>
>>+
>>/* Receive bytes in a buffer and check the return value.
>>+ *
>>+ * MSG_PEEK note: MSG_PEEK doesn't consume bytes from the buffer, so partial
>>+ * reads cannot be summed. Instead, the function retries until recv() returns
>>+ * exactly expected_ret bytes in a single call.
>
>I'd replace with something like this:
>
> * When MSG_PEEK is set, recv() is retried until it returns exactly
> * expected_ret bytes. The function returns on error, EOF, or timeout
> * as usual.
>
>Thanks,
>Stefano
>
>> *
>> * expected_ret:
>> * <0 Negative errno (for testing errors)
>>@@ -403,6 +409,15 @@ void recv_buf(int fd, void *buf, size_t len, int flags, ssize_t expected_ret)
>> if (ret <= 0)
>> break;
>>
>>+ if (flags & MSG_PEEK) {
>>+ if (ret == expected_ret) {

On second thought, I think it would be more appropriate to check for
`ret >= expected_ret` here, because all subsequent recv() will
definitely return more bytes, so there’s no point in continuing the
loop... and anyway, we’ll check the result later, so just that change
should be fine.

And of course I'd update the comment on top in this way:

* When MSG_PEEK is set, recv() is retried until it returns at least
* expected_ret bytes. The function returns on error, EOF, or timeout
* as usual.

Thanks,
Stefano

>>+ nread = ret;
>>+ break;
>>+ }
>>+ timeout_usleep(RECV_PEEK_RETRY_USEC);
>>+ continue;
>>+ }
>>+
>> nread += ret;
>> } while (nread < len);
>> timeout_end();
>>diff --git a/tools/testing/vsock/vsock_test.c b/tools/testing/vsock/vsock_test.c
>>index 5bd20ccd9335..bdb0754965df 100644
>>--- a/tools/testing/vsock/vsock_test.c
>>+++ b/tools/testing/vsock/vsock_test.c
>>@@ -1500,18 +1500,7 @@ static void test_stream_credit_update_test(const struct test_opts *opts,
>> }
>>
>> /* Wait until there will be 128KB of data in rx queue. */
>>- while (1) {
>>- ssize_t res;
>>-
>>- res = recv(fd, buf, buf_size, MSG_PEEK);
>>- if (res == buf_size)
>>- break;
>>-
>>- if (res <= 0) {
>>- fprintf(stderr, "unexpected 'recv()' return: %zi\n", res);
>>- exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
>>- }
>>- }
>>+ recv_buf(fd, buf, buf_size, MSG_PEEK, buf_size);
>>
>> /* There is 128KB of data in the socket's rx queue, dequeue first
>> * 64KB, credit update is sent if 'low_rx_bytes_test' == true.
>>
>>--
>>2.53.0
>>