linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 5/6] Makes procs file writable to move all threads by tgid at once

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Message-ID: <4AF84C68.7010803@free.fr>
Date:	Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:07:52 +0100
From:	Daniel Lezcano <daniel.lezcano@...e.fr>
To:	Ben Blum <bblum@...gle.com>
CC:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	containers@...ts.linux-foundation.org, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
	serue@...ibm.com, lizf@...fujitsu.com, menage@...gle.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 5/6] Makes procs file writable to move all threads by
 tgid at	once

Ben Blum wrote:
> Makes procs file writable to move all threads by tgid at once
>
> This patch adds functionality that enables users to move all threads in a
> threadgroup at once to a cgroup by writing the tgid to the 'cgroup.procs'
> file. This current implementation makes use of a rwsem that's taken for
> reading in the fork() path to prevent newly forking threads within the
> threadgroup from "escaping" while moving is in progress.
>
> Signed-off-by: Ben Blum <bblum@...gle.com>
>   
[ cut ]
>  /**
> + * cgroup_fork_failed - undo operations for fork failure
> + * @tsk: pointer to  task_struct of exiting process
> + * @run_callback: run exit callbacks?
> + *
> + * Description: Undo cgroup operations after cgroup_fork in fork failure.
> + *
> + * We release the read lock that was taken in cgroup_fork(), since it is
> + * supposed to be dropped in cgroup_post_fork in the success case. The other
> + * thing that wants to be done is detaching the failed child task from the
> + * cgroup, so we wrap cgroup_exit.
> + */
> +void cgroup_fork_failed(struct task_struct *tsk, int run_callbacks)
> +{
> +	up_read(&cgroup_fork_mutex);
> +	cgroup_exit(tsk, run_callbacks);
> +}
> +
> +/**
>   * cgroup_clone - clone the cgroup the given subsystem is attached to
>   * @tsk: the task to be moved
>   * @subsys: the given subsystem
> diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
> index 926c117..027ec16 100644
> --- a/kernel/fork.c
> +++ b/kernel/fork.c
> @@ -1300,7 +1300,7 @@ bad_fork_cleanup_policy:
>  	mpol_put(p->mempolicy);
>  bad_fork_cleanup_cgroup:
>  #endif
> -	cgroup_exit(p, cgroup_callbacks_done);
> +	cgroup_fork_failed(p, cgroup_callbacks_done);
>  	delayacct_tsk_free(p);
>  	if (p->binfmt)
>  		module_put(p->binfmt->module);
>   
Hi Ben,

The current code (with or without your patch) may lead to an error 
because the fork hook can fail and the exit hook is called in all the 
cases making the fork / exit asymmetric.

I will take the usual example with a cgroup with a counter of tasks, in 
the fork hook it increments the counter, in the exit hook it decrements 
the counter. There is one process in the cgroup, hence the counter value 
is 1. Now this process forks and the fork hook fails before the task 
counter is incremented to 2, this is not detected in copy process 
function because the cgroup_fork_callbacks does not return an error, so 
the process will be forked without error and when the process will exits 
the counter will be decremented reaching 0 instead of 1.

IMO, the correct fix should be to make the fork hook to return an error 
and have the cgroup to call the exit method of the subsystem where the 
fork hook was called. For example, there are 10 subsystems using the 
fork / exit hooks, when the a process forks, the fork callbacks is 
called for these subsystems but, let's say, the 3rd fails. So we undo, 
by calling the exit hooks of the first two.

I wrote a patchset to consolidate the hooks called in the cgroup for 
fork and exit, and one of them does a rollback for the fork hook when an 
error occurs. I added an attachment the patch as an example.

Thanks
  -- Daniel
>   

View attachment "0001-cgroup-make-fork-hook-to-return-an-error.patch" of type "text/x-diff" (7122 bytes)