linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH -tip] cpuacct: Make cpuacct hierarchy walk in cpuacct

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Date:	Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:10:31 +0530
From:	Balbir Singh <balbir@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	Li Zefan <lizf@...fujitsu.com>
Cc:	bharata@...ux.vnet.ibm.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Dhaval Giani <dhaval@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Paul Menage <menage@...gle.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@...fujitsu.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH -tip] cpuacct: Make cpuacct hierarchy walk in
	cpuacct_charge() safe when rcupreempt is used.

* Li Zefan <lizf@...fujitsu.com> [2009-03-17 14:28:11]:

> Bharata B Rao wrote:
> > cpuacct: Make cpuacct hierarchy walk in cpuacct_charge() safe when
> > 	rcupreempt is used.
> > 
> > cpuacct_charge() obtains task's ca and does a hierarchy walk upwards.
> > This can race with the task's movement between cgroups. This race
> > can cause an access to freed ca pointer in cpuacct_charge(). This will not
> 
> Actually it can also end up access invalid tsk->cgroups. ;)
> 
> get tsk->cgroups (cg)
>                          (move tsk to another cgroup) or (tsk exiting)
>                          -> kfree(tsk->cgroups)
> get cg->subsys[..]
>

That problem should only occur if we dereference tsk->cgroups
separately and then use that to dereference cg->subsys. Since we use
task_subsys_state() and that is RCU safe, we should be OK.

-- 
	Balbir
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