linux-kernel - Re: refcounting drivers' data structures used in sysfs buffers

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Date:	Fri, 9 Mar 2007 12:02:14 -0500
From:	"Dmitry Torokhov" <dmitry.torokhov@...il.com>
To:	"Oliver Neukum" <oneukum@...e.de>
Cc:	"Alan Stern" <stern@...land.harvard.edu>,
	"Maneesh Soni" <maneesh@...ibm.com>, gregkh@...e.de,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: refcounting drivers' data structures used in sysfs buffers

On 3/9/07, Oliver Neukum <oneukum@...e.de> wrote:
> Am Freitag, 9. März 2007 17:32 schrieb Alan Stern:
> > On Fri, 9 Mar 2007, Oliver Neukum wrote:
> >
> > > Am Donnerstag, 8. März 2007 17:02 schrieb Alan Stern:
> > > > On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Oliver Neukum wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > after a lightning bolt from high above I've been looking into refcounting
> > > > > the data structures drivers use to provide the data used to refill sysfs
> > > > > buffers. I've come to the following conclusion.
> > > > >
> > > > > 1. struct sysfs_buffer must have a struct kref * and probably a destructor
> > > > > pointer
> > > > > 2. drivers must be able to pass these pointers through an extended
> > > > > device_create_file()
> > > > > 3. Drivers must use refcounting if they want to use attributes
> > > > > 4. read/write/poll must do refcounting
> > > > >
> > > > > I am not sure where to store the pointers. struct sysfs_dirent() looks
> > > > > like the obvious choice. Comments?
> > > >
> > > > Can you explain the reasoning that led to these conclusions?  And what
> > > > exactly was your lightning bolt?
> > >
> > > The old race between disconnect and IO to attribute via sysfs again.
> > > If I cannot disassociate the drivers from the buffers in the buffers, drivers
> > > must not deallocate the data necessary to answer sysfs callbacks while
> > > a buffer exists.
> >
> > Why wouldn't you be able to dissociate a driver from a buffer?  That was
> > the whole point of adding .orphan to sysfs_buffer and creating
> > sysfs_buffer_collection -- it was supposed to solve exactly this race.
>
> It did solve the race but deadlocked when unbinding devices through sysfs.
> Linux therefore asked for the patch to be reverted and wants the isue solved
> with refcounting.
>

I think we already have all refcounting that is needed. What is
missing is subsystem-provided ->release() hooks for drivers to release
driver-specific resources when a device finally goes away.

-- 
Dmitry
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