linux-kernel - [PATCH tip/core/rcu 2/2] signal: Document the RCU protection of ->sighand

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Date:	Tue, 28 Oct 2014 15:13:48 -0700
From:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:	mingo@...nel.org, laijs@...fujitsu.com, dipankar@...ibm.com,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com,
	josh@...htriplett.org, tglx@...utronix.de, peterz@...radead.org,
	rostedt@...dmis.org, dhowells@...hat.com, edumazet@...gle.com,
	dvhart@...ux.intel.com, fweisbec@...il.com, oleg@...hat.com,
	bobby.prani@...il.com,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 2/2] signal: Document the RCU protection of ->sighand

From: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>

__cleanup_sighand() frees sighand without RCU grace period. This is
correct but this looks "obviously buggy" and constantly confuses the
readers, add the comments to explain how this works.

Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>
Reviewed-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
Reviewed-by: Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
---
 kernel/fork.c   |  5 ++++-
 kernel/signal.c | 12 +++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index 9b7d746d6d62..9ca84189cfc2 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -1022,11 +1022,14 @@ void __cleanup_sighand(struct sighand_struct *sighand)
 {
 	if (atomic_dec_and_test(&sighand->count)) {
 		signalfd_cleanup(sighand);
+		/*
+		 * sighand_cachep is SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU so we can free it
+		 * without an RCU grace period, see __lock_task_sighand().
+		 */
 		kmem_cache_free(sighand_cachep, sighand);
 	}
 }
 
-
 /*
  * Initialize POSIX timer handling for a thread group.
  */
diff --git a/kernel/signal.c b/kernel/signal.c
index 54820984a872..19e35135fc60 100644
--- a/kernel/signal.c
+++ b/kernel/signal.c
@@ -1275,7 +1275,17 @@ struct sighand_struct *__lock_task_sighand(struct task_struct *tsk,
 			local_irq_restore(*flags);
 			break;
 		}
-
+		/*
+		 * This sighand can be already freed and even reused, but
+		 * we rely on SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU and sighand_ctor() which
+		 * initializes ->siglock: this slab can't go away, it has
+		 * the same object type, ->siglock can't be reinitialized.
+		 *
+		 * We need to ensure that tsk->sighand is still the same
+		 * after we take the lock, we can race with de_thread() or
+		 * __exit_signal(). In the latter case the next iteration
+		 * must see ->sighand == NULL.
+		 */
 		spin_lock(&sighand->siglock);
 		if (likely(sighand == tsk->sighand)) {
 			rcu_read_unlock();
-- 
1.8.1.5

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