Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:45:41 +0800
From: Yajun Deng <yajun.deng@...ux.dev>
To: "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
 linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
 Lorenzo Stoakes <lstoakes@...il.com>,
 Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
 Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>, Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
 Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>, Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mm/mmap: simplify vma_merge()


On 2024/1/24 00:08, Liam R. Howlett wrote:
> Adding to the Cc list, because it's vma_merge().
>
> * Yajun Deng <yajun.deng@...ux.dev> [240118 03:23]:
>> These vma_merge() callers will pass mm, anon_vma and file, they all from
>> vma. There is no need to pass three parameters at the same time.
>>
>> We will find the current vma in vma_merge().
> It sounds like you are adding a search for current to vma_merger(), but
> you are removing that part in your patch, so it's odd to say this here.
>

Okay.

>> If we pass the original vma
>> to vma_merge(), the current vma is actually the original vma or NULL.
> What do you mean original vma?  The source of the anon_vma, vm_mm, etc?
> If so, the 'original' vma could be prev (shifting boundaries in case 4
> and 5 in the comments).  I think "vma that was the source of the
> arguments" would be more clear than "original vma".
>

Okay.

>> So we didn't need to find the current vma with find_vma_intersection().
>>
>> Pass vma to vma_merge(), and add a check to make sure the current vma
>> is an existing vma.
> How could it not be an existing vma?  It is dereferenced, so it exists.
> Do you mean a vma in the vma tree?
It means the current vma is NULL or not.
> I think this is all to say that we can pass through the vma to figure
> out if curr == NULL, or if it's vma directly.
>
Okay.
>> Signed-off-by: Yajun Deng <yajun.deng@...ux.dev>
>> ---
>>   mm/mmap.c | 37 +++++++++++++++++--------------------
>>   1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/mm/mmap.c b/mm/mmap.c
>> index 49d25172eac8..7e00ae4f39e3 100644
>> --- a/mm/mmap.c
>> +++ b/mm/mmap.c
>> @@ -860,14 +860,16 @@ can_vma_merge_after(struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long vm_flags,
>>    *      area is returned, or the function will return NULL
>>    */
>>   static struct vm_area_struct
>> -*vma_merge(struct vma_iterator *vmi, struct mm_struct *mm,
>> -	   struct vm_area_struct *prev, unsigned long addr, unsigned long end,
>> -	   unsigned long vm_flags, struct anon_vma *anon_vma, struct file *file,
>> -	   pgoff_t pgoff, struct mempolicy *policy,
>> +*vma_merge(struct vma_iterator *vmi, struct vm_area_struct *prev,
>> +	   struct vm_area_struct *curr, unsigned long addr, unsigned long end,
>> +	   unsigned long vm_flags, pgoff_t pgoff, struct mempolicy *policy,
>>   	   struct vm_userfaultfd_ctx vm_userfaultfd_ctx,
>>   	   struct anon_vma_name *anon_name)
>>   {
>> -	struct vm_area_struct *curr, *next, *res;
>> +	struct mm_struct *mm = curr->vm_mm;
>> +	struct anon_vma *anon_vma = curr->anon_vma;
>> +	struct file *file = curr->vm_file;
>> +	struct vm_area_struct *next = NULL, *res;
>>   	struct vm_area_struct *vma, *adjust, *remove, *remove2;
>>   	struct vm_area_struct *anon_dup = NULL;
>>   	struct vma_prepare vp;
>> @@ -889,13 +891,12 @@ static struct vm_area_struct
>>   		return NULL;
>>   
>>   	/* Does the input range span an existing VMA? (cases 5 - 8) */
>> -	curr = find_vma_intersection(mm, prev ? prev->vm_end : 0, end);
>> +	if (prev == curr || addr != curr->vm_start || end > curr->vm_end)
>> +		curr = NULL;
> It would be nice to have comments about what cases this logic covers,
> because reverse engineering it is a pain.  And we have to do it every
> time a change occurs in the function, even when we are the ones who
> wrote the statement.  I think we can all agree that this function is
> painful, but it's improving and thanks for joining.


Okay.

>>   
>>   	if (!curr ||			/* cases 1 - 4 */
>>   	    end == curr->vm_end)	/* cases 6 - 8, adjacent VMA */
>> -		next = vma_lookup(mm, end);
>> -	else
>> -		next = NULL;		/* case 5 */
>> +		next = vma_lookup(mm, end); /* NULL case 5 */
> Ah, maybe put the comment about case 5 being null on a different line.
> I thought you were saying the vma_lookup() will return NULL, not that it
> was initialised as NULL above.  Change the wording to something like
> "case 5 set to NULL above" or "case 5 remains NULL".
>

Okay.

>>   
>>   	if (prev) {
>>   		vma_start = prev->vm_start;
>> @@ -919,7 +920,6 @@ static struct vm_area_struct
>>   
>>   	/* Verify some invariant that must be enforced by the caller. */
>>   	VM_WARN_ON(prev && addr <= prev->vm_start);
>> -	VM_WARN_ON(curr && (addr != curr->vm_start || end > curr->vm_end));
> Why did you drop this?  I understand you moved basically all of it to an
> if statement above, but it's still true, right?  Considering the
> trickiness of the function I'd like to keep it if there's no one who
> feels strongly about it.


I don't think we need this. We move this to the front of the function, 
addr, end and curr won't be

changed until then.

>>   	VM_WARN_ON(addr >= end);
>>   
> ...
>
> To increase the chances of actually finding an issue, I would suggest
> splitting this into two patches:
>
> 1. Just passing through vma.
> 2. The logic changes to remove that find_vma_intersection() call.
Okay.
> By the way, what are the performance benefits to this change?  It's not
> without its own risks - this function has caused subtle bugs that
> persisted for several releases in the past and it'd be nice to know what
> we are gaining for the risk.


No, I just found out that the current vma is the source vma. So we don't 
need to find the current

vma with find_vma_intersection().

I think we can add some case about vma_merge() to the LTP project. It 
currently has 5 test cases

about vma, but it doesn't seem to detect the risk of vma_merge().

Link: http://linux-test-project.github.io/

>
> Thanks,
> Liam

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