FAILED: patch "[PATCH] ext4: fix the might_sleep() warnings in kvfree()" failed to apply to 6.1-stable tree

gregkh
2026-03-30T11:05:19Z

The patch below does not apply to the 6.1-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm
tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit
id to <stable@vger.kernel.org>.

To reproduce the conflict and resubmit, you may use the following commands:

git fetch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/ linux-6.1.y
git checkout FETCH_HEAD
git cherry-pick -x 496bb99b7e66f48b178126626f47e9ba79e2d0fa
# <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
git commit -s
git send-email --to '<stable@vger.kernel.org>' --in-reply-to '2026033016-eagle-gangrene-7fc7@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 6.1.y' HEAD^..

Possible dependencies:

thanks,

greg k-h

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From 496bb99b7e66f48b178126626f47e9ba79e2d0fa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Zqiang <qiang.zhang@linux.dev>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:45:45 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] ext4: fix the might_sleep() warnings in kvfree()

Use the kvfree() in the RCU read critical section can trigger
the following warnings:

EXT4-fs (vdb): unmounting filesystem cd983e5b-3c83-4f5a-a136-17b00eb9d018.

WARNING: suspicious RCU usage

./include/linux/rcupdate.h:409 Illegal context switch in RCU read-side critical section!

other info that might help us debug this:

rcu_scheduler_active = 2, debug_locks = 1

Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0xbb/0xd0
dump_stack+0x14/0x20
lockdep_rcu_suspicious+0x15a/0x1b0
__might_resched+0x375/0x4d0
? put_object.part.0+0x2c/0x50
__might_sleep+0x108/0x160
vfree+0x58/0x910
? ext4_group_desc_free+0x27/0x270
kvfree+0x23/0x40
ext4_group_desc_free+0x111/0x270
ext4_put_super+0x3c8/0xd40
generic_shutdown_super+0x14c/0x4a0
? __pfx_shrinker_free+0x10/0x10
kill_block_super+0x40/0x90
ext4_kill_sb+0x6d/0xb0
deactivate_locked_super+0xb4/0x180
deactivate_super+0x7e/0xa0
cleanup_mnt+0x296/0x3e0
__cleanup_mnt+0x16/0x20
task_work_run+0x157/0x250
? __pfx_task_work_run+0x10/0x10
? exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x6a/0x550
exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x102/0x550
do_syscall_64+0x44a/0x500
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
</TASK>

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at mm/vmalloc.c:3441
in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 556, name: umount
preempt_count: 1, expected: 0
CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 556 Comm: umount
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0xbb/0xd0
dump_stack+0x14/0x20
__might_resched+0x275/0x4d0
? put_object.part.0+0x2c/0x50
__might_sleep+0x108/0x160
vfree+0x58/0x910
? ext4_group_desc_free+0x27/0x270
kvfree+0x23/0x40
ext4_group_desc_free+0x111/0x270
ext4_put_super+0x3c8/0xd40
generic_shutdown_super+0x14c/0x4a0
? __pfx_shrinker_free+0x10/0x10
kill_block_super+0x40/0x90
ext4_kill_sb+0x6d/0xb0
deactivate_locked_super+0xb4/0x180
deactivate_super+0x7e/0xa0
cleanup_mnt+0x296/0x3e0
__cleanup_mnt+0x16/0x20
task_work_run+0x157/0x250
? __pfx_task_work_run+0x10/0x10
? exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x6a/0x550
exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x102/0x550
do_syscall_64+0x44a/0x500
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

The above scenarios occur in initialization failures and teardown
paths, there are no parallel operations on the resources released
by kvfree(), this commit therefore remove rcu_read_lock/unlock() and
use rcu_access_pointer() instead of rcu_dereference() operations.

Fixes: 7c990728b99e ("ext4: fix potential race between s_flex_groups online resizing and access")
Fixes: df3da4ea5a0f ("ext4: fix potential race between s_group_info online resizing and access")
Signed-off-by: Zqiang <qiang.zhang@linux.dev>
Reviewed-by: Baokun Li <libaokun@linux.alibaba.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260319094545.19291-1-qiang.zhang@linux.dev
Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
Cc: stable@kernel.org

diff --git a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
index 93d37f6cf9c3..bb6faebf9b6d 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
@@ -3584,9 +3584,7 @@ static int ext4_mb_init_backend(struct super_block *sb)
rcu_read_unlock();
iput(sbi->s_buddy_cache);
err_freesgi:
- rcu_read_lock();
- kvfree(rcu_dereference(sbi->s_group_info));
- rcu_read_unlock();
+ kvfree(rcu_access_pointer(sbi->s_group_info));
return -ENOMEM;
}

@@ -3901,7 +3899,8 @@ void ext4_mb_release(struct super_block *sb)
WARN_ON_ONCE(!list_empty(&sbi->s_discard_list));
}

- if (sbi->s_group_info) {
+ group_info = rcu_access_pointer(sbi->s_group_info);
+ if (group_info) {
for (i = 0; i < ngroups; i++) {
cond_resched();
grinfo = ext4_get_group_info(sb, i);
@@ -3919,12 +3918,9 @@ void ext4_mb_release(struct super_block *sb)
num_meta_group_infos = (ngroups +
EXT4_DESC_PER_BLOCK(sb) - 1) >>
EXT4_DESC_PER_BLOCK_BITS(sb);
- rcu_read_lock();
- group_info = rcu_dereference(sbi->s_group_info);
for (i = 0; i < num_meta_group_infos; i++)
kfree(group_info[i]);
kvfree(group_info);
- rcu_read_unlock();
}
ext4_mb_avg_fragment_size_destroy(sbi);
ext4_mb_largest_free_orders_destroy(sbi);
diff --git a/fs/ext4/super.c b/fs/ext4/super.c
index 152c58fe8e01..baa067eb8cf4 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/super.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
@@ -1254,12 +1254,10 @@ static void ext4_group_desc_free(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi)
struct buffer_head **group_desc;
int i;

- rcu_read_lock();
- group_desc = rcu_dereference(sbi->s_group_desc);
+ group_desc = rcu_access_pointer(sbi->s_group_desc);
for (i = 0; i < sbi->s_gdb_count; i++)
brelse(group_desc[i]);
kvfree(group_desc);
- rcu_read_unlock();
}

static void ext4_flex_groups_free(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi)
@@ -1267,14 +1265,12 @@ static void ext4_flex_groups_free(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi)
struct flex_groups **flex_groups;
int i;

- rcu_read_lock();
- flex_groups = rcu_dereference(sbi->s_flex_groups);
+ flex_groups = rcu_access_pointer(sbi->s_flex_groups);
if (flex_groups) {
for (i = 0; i < sbi->s_flex_groups_allocated; i++)
kvfree(flex_groups[i]);