linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 2/4] clone: add CLONE

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Date:   Mon, 15 Apr 2019 15:24:16 +0200
From:   Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>
To:     Christian Brauner <christian@...uner.io>
Cc:     torvalds@...ux-foundation.org, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk,
        jannh@...gle.com, dhowells@...hat.com, linux-api@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, serge@...lyn.com, luto@...nel.org,
        arnd@...db.de, ebiederm@...ssion.com, keescook@...omium.org,
        tglx@...utronix.de, mtk.manpages@...il.com,
        akpm@...ux-foundation.org, cyphar@...har.com,
        joel@...lfernandes.org, dancol@...gle.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/4] clone: add CLONE_PIDFD

On 04/15, Christian Brauner wrote:
>
> > CLONE_PARENT_SETTID doesn't look very usefule, so what if we add
> >
> > 	if ((clone_flags & (CLONE_PIDFD|CLONE_PARENT_SETTID)) ==
> > 	                   (CLONE_PIDFD|CLONE_PARENT_SETTID))
> > 		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
> >
> > at the start of copy_process() ?
> >
> > Then it can do
> >
> > 	if (clone_flags & CLONE_PIDFD) {
> > 		retval = pidfd_create(pid, &pidfdf);
> > 		if (retval < 0)
> > 			goto bad_fork_free_pid;
> > 		retval = put_user(retval, parent_tidptr)
> > 		if (retval < 0)
> > 			goto bad_fork_free_pid;
> > 	}
>
> Uhhh Oleg, that is nifty. I have to say I like that a lot. This would
> let us return the pid and the pidfd in one go and we can also start
> pidfd numbering at 0.

Christian, sorry if it was already discussed, but I can't force myself to
read all the previous discussions ;)

If we forget about CONFIG_PROC_FS, why do we really want to create a file?


Suppose we add a global u64 counter incremented by copy_process and reported
in /proc/$pid/status. Suppose that clone(CLONE_PIDFD) writes this counter to
*parent_tidptr. Let's denote this counter as UNIQ_PID.

Now, if you want to (say) safely kill a task and you have its UNIQ_PID, you
can do

	kill_by_pid_uniq(int pid, u64 uniq_pid)
	{
		pidfd = open("/proc/$pid", O_DIRECTORY);

		status = openat(pidfd, "status");
		u64 this_uniq_pid = ... read UNIQ_PID from status ...;

		if (uniq_pid != this_uniq_pid)
			return;

		pidfd_send_signal(pidfd);
	}

Why else do we want pidfd?

Oleg.