linux-kernel - Re: why do we need vmalloc_sync

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Message-ID: <20150614200623.GB19582@redhat.com>
Date:	Sun, 14 Jun 2015 22:06:23 +0200
From:	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@...hat.com>,
	Brian Gerst <brgerst@...il.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@...com>
Subject: Re: why do we need vmalloc_sync_all?

On 06/14, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>
> * Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com> wrote:
>
> > I didn't read v2 yet, but I'd like to ask a question.
> >
> > Why do we need vmalloc_sync_all()?
> >
> > It has a single caller, register_die_notifier() which calls it without
> > any explanation. IMO, this needs a comment at least.
>
> Yes, it's used to work around crashes in modular callbacks: if the callbacks
> happens to be called from within the page fault path, before the vmalloc page
> fault handler runs, then we have a catch-22 problem.
>
> It's rare but not entirely impossible.

But again, the kernel no longer does this? do_page_fault() does vmalloc_fault()
without notify_die(). If it fails, I do not see how/why a modular DIE_OOPS
handler could try to resolve this problem and trigger another fault.

> > I am not sure I understand the changelog in 101f12af correctly, but at first
> > glance vmalloc_sync_all() is no longer needed at least on x86, do_page_fault()
> > no longer does notify_die(DIE_PAGE_FAULT). And btw DIE_PAGE_FAULT has no users.
> > DIE_MNI too...
> >
> > Perhaps we can simply kill it on x86?
>
> So in theory we could still have it run from DIE_OOPS, and that could turn a
> survivable kernel crash into a non-survivable one.

I don't understand... But OK, my understanding of this magic is very limited,
please forget.

Thanks,

Oleg.

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