linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 8/9] module: Switch to kvfree

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Date:   Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:04:19 +0100
From:   Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>
To:     Miroslav Benes <mbenes@...e.cz>
Cc:     "Uladzislau Rezki (Sony)" <urezki@...il.com>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, RCU <rcu@...r.kernel.org>,
        "Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org>,
        Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Daniel Axtens <dja@...ens.net>,
        Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@...nel.org>,
        Neeraj Upadhyay <neeraju@...eaurora.org>,
        Joel Fernandes <joel@...lfernandes.org>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        "Theodore Y . Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>,
        Oleksiy Avramchenko <oleksiy.avramchenko@...ymobile.com>,
        Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>, jeyu@...nel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 8/9] module: Switch to kvfree_rcu() API

On 2021-11-30 11:39:09 [+0100], Miroslav Benes wrote:
> > --- a/kernel/module.c
> > +++ b/kernel/module.c
> > @@ -4150,8 +4150,7 @@ static int load_module(struct load_info *info, const char __user *uargs,
> >   ddebug_cleanup:
> >  	ftrace_release_mod(mod);
> >  	dynamic_debug_remove(mod, info->debug);
> > -	synchronize_rcu();
> > -	kfree(mod->args);
> > +	kvfree_rcu(mod->args);
> >   free_arch_cleanup:
> >  	cfi_cleanup(mod);
> >  	module_arch_cleanup(mod);
> 
> hm, if I am not missing something, synchronize_rcu() is not really 
> connected to kfree(mod->args) there. synchronize_rcu() was added a long 
> time ago when kernel/module.c removed stop_machine() from the code and 
> replaced it with RCU to protect (at least?) mod->list. You can find 
> list_del_rcu(&mod->list) a couple of lines below.

so instead synchronize_rcu() + kfree() you could do
call_rcu(&mod->args->rcu, kfree()) but since you have no RCU-head around
in args you wait for the grace period and then invoke kfree.

kvfree_rcu() is somehow like call_rcu() + kfree() but without the needed
RCU-head. 
So you avoid waiting for the grace period but mod->args is freed later,
after as expected.

> And yes, one could ask how this all works. The error/cleanup sequence in 
> load_module() is a giant mess... well, load_module() is a mess too, but 
> the error path is really not nice.

Well, spring is coming :)

> Miroslav

Sebastian