linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 12/17] proc/fd: In fdinfo seq_show don't use get_files

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Date:   Mon, 17 Aug 2020 17:08:27 -0700
From:   Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:     "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
Cc:     Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-fsdevel <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>, criu@...nvz.org,
        bpf <bpf@...r.kernel.org>,
        Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Christian Brauner <christian.brauner@...ntu.com>,
        Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
        Cyrill Gorcunov <gorcunov@...il.com>,
        Jann Horn <jann@...jh.net>, Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
        Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@...hat.com>,
        Jeff Layton <jlayton@...hat.com>,
        Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu>,
        Matthew Wilcox <willy@...ian.org>,
        "J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@...ldses.org>,
        Matthew Wilcox <matthew@....cx>,
        Trond Myklebust <trond.myklebust@....uio.no>,
        Chris Wright <chrisw@...hat.com>,
        Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>,
        Daniel Borkmann <daniel@...earbox.net>,
        Martin KaFai Lau <kafai@...com>,
        Song Liu <songliubraving@...com>, Yonghong Song <yhs@...com>,
        Andrii Nakryiko <andriin@...com>,
        John Fastabend <john.fastabend@...il.com>,
        KP Singh <kpsingh@...omium.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 12/17] proc/fd: In fdinfo seq_show don't use get_files_struct

On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 3:11 PM Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@...ssion.com> wrote:
>
> Instead hold task_lock for the duration that task->files needs to be
> stable in seq_show.  The task_lock was already taken in
> get_files_struct, and so skipping get_files_struct performs less work
> overall, and avoids the problems with the files_struct reference
> count.

Hmm. Do we even need that task_lock() at all? Couldn't we do this all
with just the RCU lock held for reading?

As far as I can tell, we don't really need the task lock. We don't
even need the get/pid_task_struct().

Can't we just do

        rcu_read_lock();
        task = pid_task(proc_pid(inode), PIDTYPE_PID);
        if (task) {
                unsigned int fd = proc_fd(m->private);
                struct file *file = fcheck_task(task, fd);
                if (file)
                        .. do the seq_printf ..

and do it all with no refcount games or task locking at all?

Anyway, I don't dislike your patch per se, I just get the feeling that
you could go a bit further in that cleanup..

And it's quite possible that I'm wrong, and you can't just use the RCU
lock, but as far as I can tell, both the task lookup and the file
lookup *already* really both depend on the RCU lock anyway, so the
other locking and reference counting games really do seem superfluous.

Please just send me a belittling email telling me what a nincompoop I
am if I have missed something.

             Linus