linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/2 v2] bcachefs: do not use PF_MEMALLOC

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Message-ID: <a53xyedoraogetttff7e2afxx3bcomjh4j2r5qaxxl2v66adlx@4fexbinton3g>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2024 09:22:26 -0400
From: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@...ux.dev>
To: Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>
Cc: Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>, 
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>, 
	Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@...il.com>, jack@...e.cz, Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>, 
	Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>, Paul Moore <paul@...l-moore.com>, 
	James Morris <jmorris@...ei.org>, "Serge E. Hallyn" <serge@...lyn.com>, 
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-bcachefs@...r.kernel.org, 
	linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2 v2] bcachefs: do not use PF_MEMALLOC_NORECLAIM

On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 11:12:18PM GMT, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 06:02:32AM -0400, Kent Overstreet wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 02:09:57PM GMT, Dave Chinner wrote:
> > > On Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 08:15:43AM +0200, Michal Hocko wrote:
> > > > From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
> > > > 
> > > > bch2_new_inode relies on PF_MEMALLOC_NORECLAIM to try to allocate a new
> > > > inode to achieve GFP_NOWAIT semantic while holding locks. If this
> > > > allocation fails it will drop locks and use GFP_NOFS allocation context.
> > > > 
> > > > We would like to drop PF_MEMALLOC_NORECLAIM because it is really
> > > > dangerous to use if the caller doesn't control the full call chain with
> > > > this flag set. E.g. if any of the function down the chain needed
> > > > GFP_NOFAIL request the PF_MEMALLOC_NORECLAIM would override this and
> > > > cause unexpected failure.
> > > > 
> > > > While this is not the case in this particular case using the scoped gfp
> > > > semantic is not really needed bacause we can easily pus the allocation
> > > > context down the chain without too much clutter.
> > > > 
> > > > Acked-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>
> > > > Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>
> > > 
> > > Looks good to me.
> > > 
> > > Reviewed-by: Dave Chinner <dchinner@...hat.com>
> > 
> > Reposting what I wrote in the other thread:
> 
> I've read the thread. I've heard what you have had to say. Like
> several other people, I think your position is just not practical or
> reasonable.
> 
> I don't care about the purity or the safety of the API - the
> practical result of PF_MEMALLOC_NORECLAIM is that __GFP_NOFAIL
> allocation can now fail and that will cause unexpected kernel
> crashes.  Keeping existing code and API semantics working correctly
> (i.e. regression free) takes precedence over new functionality or
> API features that people want to introduce.
> 
> That's all there is to it. This is not a hill you need to die on.

If you use GFP_NOFAIL in a context where you're not allowed to sleep,
that's a bug, same as any other bug where you get the gfp flags wrong
(e.g. GFP_KERNEL in non sleepable context).

This isn't going to affect you unless you start going around inserting
PF_MEMALLOC_NORECLAIM where it doesn't need to be. Why would you do
that?

But the lack of gfp flags for pte allocation means that this actually is
a serious gap we need to be fixing.