Since commit 49d200deaa ("debugfs: prevent access to removed files'
private data"), accesses to a file's private data are protected from
concurrent removal by covering all file_operations with a SRCU read section
and sychronizing with those before returning from debugfs_remove() by means
of synchronize_srcu().
As pointed out by Johannes Berg, there are debugfs files with forever
blocking file_operations. Their corresponding SRCU read side sections would
block any debugfs_remove() forever as well, even unrelated ones. This
results in a livelock. Because a remover can't cancel any indefinite
blocking within foreign files, this is a problem.
Resolve this by introducing support for more granular protection on a
per-file basis.
This is implemented by introducing an 'active_users' refcount_t to the
per-file struct debugfs_fsdata state. At file creation time, it is set to
one and a debugfs_remove() will drop that initial reference. The new
debugfs_file_get() and debugfs_file_put(), intended to be used in place of
former debugfs_use_file_start() and debugfs_use_file_finish(), increment
and decrement it respectively. Once the count drops to zero,
debugfs_file_put() will signal a completion which is possibly being waited
for from debugfs_remove().
Thus, as long as there is a debugfs_file_get() not yet matched by a
corresponding debugfs_file_put() around, debugfs_remove() will block.
Actual users of debugfs_use_file_start() and -finish() will get converted
to the new debugfs_file_get() and debugfs_file_put() by followup patches.
Fixes: 49d200deaa ("debugfs: prevent access to removed files' private data")
Reported-by: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
Signed-off-by: Nicolai Stange <nicstange@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Linux kernel
============
This file was moved to Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst
Please notice that there are several guides for kernel developers and users.
These guides can be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF.
In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.
There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.
See Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what is contained in each file.
Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.
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