linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] slab: prevent infinite loop in kmalloc

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Message-ID: <aQwY90CJJECSSFtW@harry>
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2025 12:41:43 +0900
From: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>
Cc: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...two.org>,
        David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
        Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@...ux.dev>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] slab: prevent infinite loop in kmalloc_nolock() with
 debugging

On Mon, Nov 03, 2025 at 01:24:15PM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> In review of a followup work, Harry noticed a potential infinite loop.
> Upon closed inspection, it already exists for kmalloc_nolock() on a
> cache with debugging enabled, since commit af92793e52c3 ("slab:
> Introduce kmalloc_nolock() and kfree_nolock().")
> 
> When alloc_single_from_new_slab() fails to trylock node list_lock, we
> keep retrying to get partial slab or allocate a new slab. If we indeed
> interrupted somebody holding the list_lock, the trylock fill fail
> deterministically and we end up allocating and defer-freeing slabs
> indefinitely with no progress.
> 
> To fix it, fail the allocation if spinning is not allowed. This is
> acceptable in the restricted context of kmalloc_nolock(), especially
> with debugging enabled.
> 
> Reported-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/aQLqZjjq1SPD3Fml@hyeyoo/
> Fixes: af92793e52c3 ("slab: Introduce kmalloc_nolock() and kfree_nolock().")
> Signed-off-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>
> ---
> as we discussed in the linked thread, 6.18 hotfix to be included in
> slab/for-next-fixes
> ---

Looks good to me,
Reviewed-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>

-- 
Cheers,
Harry / Hyeonggon