Date:	Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:00:41 -0500 (EST)
From:	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, mingo@...e.hu, peterz@...radead.org,
	fweisbec@...il.com, srostedt@...hat.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4] uaccess: add copy_word_from_user


On Wed, 25 Feb 2009, Andrew Morton wrote:

> On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:30:08 -0500
> Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org> wrote:
> 
> > From: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@...hat.com>
> > 
> > The ftrace utility reads space delimited words from user space.
> > Andrew Morton did not like how ftrace open coded this. He had
> > a good point since more than one location performed this feature.
> > 
> > This patch creates a copy_word_from_user function that can copy
> > a space delimited word from user space. This puts the code in
> > a new lib/uaccess.c file. This keeps the code in a single location
> > and may be optimized in the future.
> > 
> 
> Does your code actually still need this?  It is unacceptble to just
> be more strict about userspace's write()s?

Well, it does make it easy for cat and grep to work with the interface.

> 
> > diff --git a/include/linux/uaccess.h b/include/linux/uaccess.h
> > index 6b58367..2d706d9 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/uaccess.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/uaccess.h
> > @@ -106,4 +106,8 @@ extern long probe_kernel_read(void *dst, void *src, size_t size);
> >   */
> >  extern long probe_kernel_write(void *dst, void *src, size_t size);
> >  
> > +extern int copy_word_from_user(void *to, const void __user *from,
> > +			       unsigned int copy, unsigned int read,
> > +			       unsigned int *copied, int skip);
> > +
> >  #endif		/* __LINUX_UACCESS_H__ */
> > diff --git a/lib/Makefile b/lib/Makefile
> > index 32b0e64..46ce28c 100644
> > --- a/lib/Makefile
> > +++ b/lib/Makefile
> > @@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ lib-y := ctype.o string.o vsprintf.o cmdline.o \
> >  	 rbtree.o radix-tree.o dump_stack.o \
> >  	 idr.o int_sqrt.o extable.o prio_tree.o \
> >  	 sha1.o irq_regs.o reciprocal_div.o argv_split.o \
> > -	 proportions.o prio_heap.o ratelimit.o show_mem.o is_single_threaded.o
> > +	 proportions.o prio_heap.o ratelimit.o show_mem.o is_single_threaded.o \
> > +	 uaccess.o
> >  
> >  lib-$(CONFIG_MMU) += ioremap.o
> >  lib-$(CONFIG_SMP) += cpumask.o
> > diff --git a/lib/uaccess.c b/lib/uaccess.c
> > new file mode 100644
> > index 0000000..5b9a4ac
> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ b/lib/uaccess.c
> > @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
> > +/*
> > + * lib/uaccess.c
> > + * generic user access file.
> 
> That's a good place for it.  I wonder if we have other uaccess
> functions which should be moved here sometime.
> 
> > + * started by Steven Rostedt
> > + *
> > + *  Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat, Inc., Steven Rostedt <srostedt@...hat.com>
> > + *
> > + * This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License,
> > + * Version 2.  See the file COPYING for more details.
> > + */
> > +#include <linux/uaccess.h>
> > +#include <linux/ctype.h>
> > +
> > +/**
> > + * copy_word_from_user - copy a space delimited word from user space
> > + * @to:	     The location to copy to
> > + * @from:    The location to copy from
> > + * @copy:    The number of bytes to copy
> > + * @read:    The number of bytes to read
> > + * @copied:  The number of bytes actually copied to @to
> > + * @skip:    If other than zero, will skip leading white space
> > + *
> > + * This reads from a user buffer, a space delimited word.
> > + * If skip is set, then it will trim all leading white space.
> > + * Then it will copy all non white space until @copy bytes have
> > + * been copied, @read bytes have been read from the user buffer,
> > + * or more white space has been encountered.
> > + *
> > + * Note, if skip is not set, and white space exists at the beginning
> > + *  it will return immediately.
> > + *
> > + * Returns:
> > + *  The number of bytes read from user space
> 
> Confused.
> 
> Is this "the number of bytes which I copied into *to", or is it "the
> number of userspace bytes over which I advanced"?
> 
> Hopefully the latter, because callers of copy_word_from_user() should
> be able to call this function multiple times to be able to parse "foo
> bar zot\0" into three separate words with three separate calls to
> copy_word_from_user().  It might be worth mentioning how callers should
> do this in the covering comment?

Yes it is the latter. Since I tried to be consistent in using "read" and 
"copy" I thought it was obvious. But like most things technical, 
everything is obvious to the one that wrote the code.


> 
> > + *  -EAGAIN, if we copied a word successfully, but never hit
> > + *    ending white space. The number of bytes copied will be the same
> > + *    as @read. Note, if skip is set, and all we hit was white space
> > + *    then we will also returne -EAGAIN with @copied = 0.
> > + *
> > + *  @copied will contain the number of bytes copied into @to
> > + *
> > + *  -EFAULT, if we faulted during any part of the copy.
> > + *     @copied will be undefined.
> > + *
> > + *  -EINVAL, if we fill up @from before hitting white space.
> > + *    @copy must be bigger than the expected word to read.
> > + */
> > +int copy_word_from_user(void *to, const void __user *from,
> > +			unsigned int copy, unsigned int read,
> > +			unsigned int *copied, int skip)
> > +{
> 
> The uaccess functions are a bit confused about whether the `size' args
> are unsigned, unsigned long, etc.  They should be size_t.  unsigned is
> OK here.

I'll do a clean up patch.

> 
> > +	unsigned int have_read = 0;
> > +	unsigned int have_copied = 0;
> > +	const char __user *user = from;
> > +	char *kern = to;
> > +	int ret;
> > +	char ch;
> > +
> > +	/* get the first character */
> > +	ret = get_user(ch, user++);
> > +	if (ret)
> > +		return ret;
> > +	have_read++;
> > +
> > +	/*
> > +	 * If skip is set, and the first character is white space
> > +	 * then we will continue to read until we find non white space.
> > +	 */
> > +	if (skip) {
> > +		while (have_read < read && isspace(ch)) {
> > +			ret = get_user(ch, user++);
> > +			if (ret)
> > +				return ret;
> > +			have_read++;
> > +		}
> > +
> > +		/*
> > +		 * If ch is still white space, then have_read == read.
> > +		 * We successfully copied zero bytes. But this is
> > +		 * still valid. Just let the caller try again.
> > +		 */
> > +		if (isspace(ch)) {
> > +			ret = -EAGAIN;
> > +			goto out;
> > +		}
> > +	} else if (isspace(ch)) {
> > +		/*
> > +		 * If skip was not set and the first character was
> > +		 * white space, then we return immediately.
> > +		 */
> > +		ret = have_read;
> > +		goto out;
> > +	}
> > +
> > +
> > +	/* Now read the actual word */
> > +	while (have_read < read &&
> > +	       have_copied < copy && !isspace(ch)) {
> > +
> > +		kern[have_copied++] = ch;
> > +
> > +		ret = get_user(ch, user++);
> > +		if (ret)
> > +			return ret;
> > +
> > +		have_read++;
> > +	}
> > +
> > +	/*
> > +	 * If we ended with white space then we have successfully
> > +	 * read in a full word.
> > +	 *
> > +	 * If ch is not white space, and we have filled up @from,
> > +	 * then this was an invalid word.
> > +	 *
> > +	 * If ch is not white space, and we still have room in @from
> > +	 * then we let the caller know we have split a word.
> > +	 *  (have_read == read)
> > +	 */
> > +	if (isspace(ch))
> > +		ret = have_read;
> > +	else if (have_copied == copy)
> > +		ret = -EINVAL;
> > +	else {
> > +		WARN_ON(have_read != read);
> > +		ret = -EAGAIN;
> > +	}
> > +
> > + out:
> > +	*copied = have_copied;
> > +
> > +	return ret;
> > +}
> 
> Sheer madness ;)
> 
> Someone is going to want to extend the "isspace" to include other
> tokens.  We can fall off that bridge when we come to it.

Hmm, Frederic mentioned this too. I guess adding a "delimiter" field and 
calling it copy_token_from_user would not be to hard to implement. Then we 
can have copy_word_from_user be just a wrapper (as Frederic mentioned).

-- Steve

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