linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] signals: work around random wakeups in sigsuspend()

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Date:	Wed, 27 Jan 2016 10:39:44 -0800
From:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>
Cc:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Sasha Levin <sasha.levin@...cle.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, mingo@...nel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] signals: work around random wakeups in sigsuspend()

On Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:41:54 +0100 Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com> wrote:

> > But it did get me to
> > look at the patch again:
> >
> > +       while (!signal_pending(current)) {
> > +               __set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
> > +               schedule();
> > +       }
> >
> > That should very much be:
> >
> > 	for (;;) {
> > 		set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
> > 		if (signal_pending(current))
> > 			break;
> > 		schedule();
> > 	}
> > 	__set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
> 
> Why? It should work either way. Yes, signal_wakeup() can come right before
> __set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE) but this is fine, __schedule() must not
> sleep if signal_pending() == T, that is why it checks signal_pending_state().
> See also the comment above smp_mb__before_spinlock() in schedule().
> 
> IOW, signal_pending() is the "special" condition, you do not need to serialize
> this check with task->state setting, exactly because schedule() knows about the
> signals.

So it's non-buggy because signal_pending() is special.  But it *looks*
buggy!  And there's no comment there explaining why it looks buggy but
isn't, so someone may later come along and "fix" it for us.