linux-kernel - [PATCH v1] audit: merge loops in __audit_inode

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Message-ID: <20250904165919.3362000-1-rrobaina@redhat.com>
Date: Thu,  4 Sep 2025 13:59:19 -0300
From: Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@...hat.com>
To: audit@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc: paul@...l-moore.com,
	eparis@...hat.com,
	Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@...hat.com>
Subject: [PATCH v1] audit: merge loops in __audit_inode_child()

Whenever there's audit context, __audit_inode_child() gets called
numerous times, which can lead to high latency in scenarios that
create too many sysfs/debugfs entries at once, for instance, upon
device_add_disk() invocation.

   # uname -r
   6.17.0-rc3+

   # auditctl -a always,exit -F path=/tmp -k foo
   # time insmod loop max_loop=1000
   real 0m42.753s
   user 0m0.000s
   sys  0m42.494s

   # perf record -a insmod loop max_loop=1000
   # perf report --stdio |grep __audit_inode_child
   37.95%  insmod  [kernel.kallsyms]  [k] __audit_inode_child

__audit_inode_child() searches for both the parent and the child
in two different loops that iterate over the same list. This
process can be optimized by merging these into a single loop,
without changing the function behavior or affecting the code's
readability.

This patch merges the two loops that walk through the list
context->names_list into a single loop. This optimization resulted
in around 54% performance enhancement for the benchmark.

   # uname -r
   6.17.0-rc3+-enhanced

   # auditctl -a always,exit -F path=/tmp -k foo
   # time insmod loop max_loop=1000
   real 0m19.388s
   user 0m0.000s
   sys  0m19.149s

Signed-off-by: Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@...hat.com>
---
 kernel/auditsc.c | 40 ++++++++++++++++++----------------------
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/auditsc.c b/kernel/auditsc.c
index eb98cd6fe91f..7abfb68687fb 100644
--- a/kernel/auditsc.c
+++ b/kernel/auditsc.c
@@ -2437,44 +2437,40 @@ void __audit_inode_child(struct inode *parent,
 	if (inode)
 		handle_one(inode);
 
-	/* look for a parent entry first */
 	list_for_each_entry(n, &context->names_list, list) {
-		if (!n->name ||
-		    (n->type != AUDIT_TYPE_PARENT &&
-		     n->type != AUDIT_TYPE_UNKNOWN))
+		/* can only match entries that have a name */
+		if (!n->name)
 			continue;
 
-		if (n->ino == parent->i_ino && n->dev == parent->i_sb->s_dev &&
-		    !audit_compare_dname_path(dname,
-					      n->name->name, n->name_len)) {
+		/* look for a parent entry first */
+		if (!found_parent &&
+		    (n->type == AUDIT_TYPE_PARENT || n->type == AUDIT_TYPE_UNKNOWN) &&
+		    (n->ino == parent->i_ino && n->dev == parent->i_sb->s_dev &&
+		     !audit_compare_dname_path(dname, n->name->name, n->name_len))) {
 			if (n->type == AUDIT_TYPE_UNKNOWN)
 				n->type = AUDIT_TYPE_PARENT;
 			found_parent = n;
-			break;
 		}
-	}
 
-	cond_resched();
-
-	/* is there a matching child entry? */
-	list_for_each_entry(n, &context->names_list, list) {
-		/* can only match entries that have a name */
-		if (!n->name ||
-		    (n->type != type && n->type != AUDIT_TYPE_UNKNOWN))
-			continue;
-
-		if (!strcmp(dname->name, n->name->name) ||
-		    !audit_compare_dname_path(dname, n->name->name,
+		/* is there a matching child entry? */
+		if (!found_child &&
+		    (n->type == type || n->type == AUDIT_TYPE_UNKNOWN) &&
+		    (!strcmp(dname->name, n->name->name) ||
+		     !audit_compare_dname_path(dname, n->name->name,
 						found_parent ?
 						found_parent->name_len :
-						AUDIT_NAME_FULL)) {
+						AUDIT_NAME_FULL))) {
 			if (n->type == AUDIT_TYPE_UNKNOWN)
 				n->type = type;
 			found_child = n;
-			break;
 		}
+
+		if (found_parent && found_child)
+			break;
 	}
 
+	cond_resched();
+
 	if (!found_parent) {
 		/* create a new, "anonymous" parent record */
 		n = audit_alloc_name(context, AUDIT_TYPE_PARENT);
-- 
2.51.0