linux-kernel - Re: 4.9.0 regression in pipe-backed iov

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Message-ID: <20170112223718.GA1555@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
Date:   Thu, 12 Jan 2017 22:37:18 +0000
From:   Al Viro <viro@...IV.linux.org.uk>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     "Alan J. Wylie" <alan@...ie.me.uk>,
        Thorsten Leemhuis <regressions@...mhuis.info>,
        linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: 4.9.0 regression in pipe-backed iov_iter with systemd-nspawn

On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 02:26:42PM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 12:26 PM, Alan J. Wylie <alan@...ie.me.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Strace shows that the processes are hanging in write() and read() calls.
> 
> If this is splice-related, I'm assuming that they aren't actually the
> two ends of the same pipe, and there is somebody doing splice in the
> middle.
> 
> I'm not seeing that process. I'm assuming it's systemd.  Can you try
> to find it and strace that one too? Because that middle man is likely
> the one that has problems (and is not able to splice from one pipe to
> the other).
> 
> Ugh. That one commit has had a lot of bugs in it already. We do not
> have good splice test coverage, because almost nobody uses it.

FWIW, I would really like to know what kind of files had been involved.
There are two paths that can lead to default_file_splice_read():
splice_direct_to_actor() -> do_splice_to() -> default_file_splice_read() and
do_splice() -> do_splice_to() -> default_file_splice_read().

The former only gets there for regular files and block devices.  The latter
is guaranteed that file is not a pipe.  So
	* not a socket (have ->splice_read() of their own)
	* not a pipe or FIFO (neither path allows those)
	* not a block device (have ->splice_read() of their own)
	* not a regular file on a normal local fs (ditto)

So what is it called for in that reproducer?