linux-ext4 - Re: [PATCH 03/22] ext4: Do not iput inode under running transaction in ext4

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Date:   Sun, 20 Oct 2019 21:21:05 -0400
From:   "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>
To:     Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>
Cc:     linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org, stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 03/22] ext4: Do not iput inode under running transaction
 in ext4_mkdir()

On Fri, Oct 04, 2019 at 12:05:49AM +0200, Jan Kara wrote:
> When ext4_mkdir() fails to add entry into directory, it ends up dropping
> freshly created inode under the running transaction and thus inode
> truncation happens under that transaction. That breaks assumptions that
> ext4_evict_inode() does not get called from a transaction context
> (although I'm not aware of any real issue) and is completely
> unnecessary. Just stop the transaction before dropping inode reference.
> 
> CC: stable@...r.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>

If we call ext4_journal_stop(handle) before calling iput(inode),
there's a chance that we could crash with the inode with i_link_counts
== 0, but we won't have yet call ext4_evict_inode() to mark the inode
as free in the inode bitmap.  This would result in a inode leak.

Also, this isn't the only place where we can enter ext4_evict_inode()
with an active handle; the same situation arise in ext4_add_nondir(),
and for the same reason.

So I think the code is right as is.  Do you agree?

	     	       	       	     	- Ted