linux-kernel - [PATCH v2 12/11 man-pages] splice.2: document 6.8 blocking behaviour

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Message-ID: <ii3qfagelsu6j2zddtzl6cruy6bpd5wimx35dabhktymjxrwli@tarta.nabijaczleweli.xyz>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 04:09:26 +0100
From: 
	Ahelenia Ziemiańska <nabijaczleweli@...ijaczleweli.xyz>
Cc: Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>, Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>, 
	Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, 
	Alejandro Colomar <alx@...nel.org>, linux-man@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v2 12/11 man-pages] splice.2: document 6.8 blocking behaviour

Hypothetical text that matches v2.

Signed-off-by: Ahelenia Ziemiańska <nabijaczleweli@...ijaczleweli.xyz>
---
 man2/splice.2 | 47 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/man2/splice.2 b/man2/splice.2
index e5d05a05c..d2c7ac8d5 100644
--- a/man2/splice.2
+++ b/man2/splice.2
@@ -139,10 +139,11 @@ .SH ERRORS
 .B EAGAIN
 .B SPLICE_F_NONBLOCK
 was specified in
-.I flags
-or one of the file descriptors had been marked as nonblocking
-.RB ( O_NONBLOCK ) ,
-and the operation would block.
+.IR flags ,
+one of the file descriptors had been marked as nonblocking
+.RB ( O_NONBLOCK )
+and the operation would block,
+or splicing from an untrusted IPC mechanism and no data was available (see HISTORY below).
 .TP
 .B EBADF
 One or both file descriptors are not valid,
@@ -192,6 +193,44 @@ .SH HISTORY
 Since Linux 2.6.31,
 .\" commit 7c77f0b3f9208c339a4b40737bb2cb0f0319bb8d
 both arguments may refer to pipes.
+.P
+Between Linux 4.9 and 6.7,
+.\" commit 8924feff66f35fe22ce77aafe3f21eb8e5cff881
+splicing from a non-pipe to a pipe without
+.B SPLICE_F_NONBLOCK
+would hold the pipe lock and wait for data on the non-pipe.
+This isn't an issue for files, but if the non-pipe is a tty,
+or an IPC mechanism like a socket or a
+.BR fuse (4)
+filesystem, this means that a thread attempting any operation (like
+.BR open (2)/ read (2)/ write (2)/ close (2))
+on the pipe would enter uninterruptible sleep until data appeared,
+which may never happen.
+The same applies to splicing from a pipe to a full socket.
+.P
+Since Linux 6.8,
+.\" commit TBD
+splicing from ttys is disabled
+.RB ( EINVAL ),
+reads done when splicing from sockets happen in non-blocking mode
+(as-if
+.BR MSG_DONTWAIT ,
+returning
+.B EAGAIN
+if no data is available),
+and splicing from
+.BR fuse (4)
+filesystems is only allowed if they were mounted by
+root in the initial user namespace
+(this matches security semantics for normal filesystems).
+If a splice implementation is devised that doesn't need to lock the pipe
+while waiting for data, this may be reversed in a future version.
+Writes when splicing to sockets are also done non-blockingly
+(as-if
+.BR MSG_DONTWAIT ,
+returning
+.B EAGAIN
+if the socket is full).
 .SH NOTES
 The three system calls
 .BR splice (),
-- 
2.39.2

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