linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 31/38] x86/resctrl: resctrl_exit() teardown resctrl but leave the mount point

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <4b988afb-bc2e-4b4c-8ebe-e1db0b614f24@arm.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2024 17:41:40 +0100
From: James Morse <james.morse@....com>
To: Reinette Chatre <reinette.chatre@...el.com>, x86@...nel.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@...el.com>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
 Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
 H Peter Anvin <hpa@...or.com>, Babu Moger <Babu.Moger@....com>,
 shameerali.kolothum.thodi@...wei.com,
 D Scott Phillips OS <scott@...amperecomputing.com>,
 carl@...amperecomputing.com, lcherian@...vell.com,
 bobo.shaobowang@...wei.com, tan.shaopeng@...itsu.com,
 baolin.wang@...ux.alibaba.com, Jamie Iles <quic_jiles@...cinc.com>,
 Xin Hao <xhao@...ux.alibaba.com>, peternewman@...gle.com,
 dfustini@...libre.com, amitsinght@...vell.com,
 David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>, Rex Nie <rex.nie@...uarmicro.com>,
 Dave Martin <dave.martin@....com>, Shaopeng Tan <tan.shaopeng@...fujitsu.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 31/38] x86/resctrl: resctrl_exit() teardown resctrl but
 leave the mount point

Hi Reinette,

On 28/06/2024 17:53, Reinette Chatre wrote:
> On 6/14/24 8:00 AM, James Morse wrote:
>> resctrl_exit() was intended for use when the 'resctrl' module was unloaded.
>> resctrl can't be built as a module, and the kernfs helpers are not exported
>> so this is unlikely to change. MPAM has an error interrupt which indicates
>> the MPAM driver has gone haywire. Should this occur tasks could run with
>> the wrong control values, leading to bad performance for impoartant tasks.
> 
> impoartant -> important
> 
>> The MPAM driver needs a way to tell resctrl that no further configuration
>> should be attempted.
>>
>> Using resctrl_exit() for this leaves the system in a funny state as
>> resctrl is still mounted, but cannot be un-mounted because the sysfs
>> directory that is typically used has been removed. Dave Martin suggests
>> this may cause systemd trouble in the future as not all filesystems
>> can be unmounted.
>>
>> Add calls to remove all the files and directories in resctrl, and
>> remove the sysfs_remove_mount_point() call that leaves the system
>> in a funny state. When triggered, this causes all the resctrl files
>> to disappear. resctrl can be unmounted, but not mounted again.

> I am not familiar with these flows so I would like to confirm ...
> In this scenario the resctrl filesystem will be unregistered, are
> you saying that it is possible to unmount a filesystem after it has
> been unregistered?

Counter-intuitively: yes.

The rules are described in fs/filesystems.c: We can access the members of the struct
file_system_type if the list lock is held, or a reference is held to the module. This is
how /proc/mounts is able to print the filesystem name from struct file_system_type without
taking the lock - it holds a reference to any module to prevent the structure from being
freed. Because resctrl can't be built as a module, we can say there is always a reference
held, and we can never free struct file_system_type.


Thanks,

James