linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] staging: zcache: fix cleancache race condition with shrinker

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Date:	Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:55:43 +0900
From:	Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>
To:	Seth Jennings <sjenning@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc:	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Nitin Gupta <ngupta@...are.org>,
	Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>,
	Dan Magenheimer <dan.magenheimer@...cle.com>,
	Robert Jennings <rcj@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Xiao Guangrong <xiaoguangrong@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	devel@...verdev.osuosl.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] staging: zcache: fix cleancache race condition with
 shrinker

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 04:58:45PM -0500, Seth Jennings wrote:
> This patch fixes a race condition that results in memory
> corruption when using cleancache.
> 
> The race exists between the zcache shrinker handler,
> shrink_zcache_memory() and cleancache_get_page().
> 
> In most cases, the shrinker will both evict a zbpg
> from its buddy list and flush it from tmem before a
> cleancache_get_page() occurs on that page. A subsequent
> cleancache_get_page() will fail in the tmem layer.
> 
> In the rare case that two occur together and the
> cleancache_get_page() path gets through the tmem
> layer before the shrinker path can flush tmem,
> zbud_decompress() does a check to see if the zbpg is a
> "zombie", i.e. not on a buddy list, which means the shrinker
> is in the process of reclaiming it. If the zbpg is a zombie,
> zbud_decompress() returns -EINVAL.
> 
> However, this return code is being ignored by the caller,
> zcache_pampd_get_data_and_free(), which results in the
> caller of cleancache_get_page() thinking that the page has
> been properly retrieved when it has not.
> 
> This patch modifies zcache_pampd_get_data_and_free() to
> convey the failure up the stack so that the caller of
> cleancache_get_page() knows the page retrieval failed.
> 
> ---
> Based on v3.6-rc3.
> 
> This needs to be applied to stable trees as well.
> zcache-main.c was named zcache.c before v3.1, so
> I'm not sure how you want to handle trees earlier
> than that.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Seth Jennings <sjenning@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Reviewed-by: Minchan Kim <minchan@...nel.org>

Thanks!
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