linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] tools: jobserver: Add validation for jobserver tokens to ensure valid '+' characters

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Message-ID: <f1755f03f74e4e4ba8a0a91c9da1a74f@huawei.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2026 08:22:35 +0000
From: duchangbin <changbin.du@...wei.com>
To: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@...nel.org>, "linux-doc@...r.kernel.org"
	<linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>, "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org"
	<linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
CC: duchangbin <changbin.du@...wei.com>, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] tools: jobserver: Add validation for jobserver tokens to
 ensure valid '+' characters

Kindly ping for this fix. This patch resolves the issue where kernel compilation
gets stuck in certain situations.

On Thu, Dec 25, 2025 at 02:26:22PM +0800, Changbin Du wrote:
> Add validation for jobserver tokens to prevent infinite loops on invalid fds
> When using GNU Make's jobserver feature in kernel builds, a bug in MAKEFLAGS
> propagation caused "--jobserver-auth=3,4" to reference an unintended file
> descriptor (Here, fd 3 was inherited from a shell command that opened
> "/etc/passwd" instead of a valid pipe). This led to infinite loops in
> jobserver-exec's os.read() calls due to empty or corrupted tokens. (The
> version of my make is 4.3)
> 
> $ ls -l /proc/self/fd
> total 0
> lrwx------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 0 -> /dev/pts/1
> lrwx------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 1 -> /dev/pts/1
> lrwx------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 2 -> /dev/pts/1
> lr-x------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 3 -> /etc/passwd
> lr-x------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 4 -> /proc/1421383/fd
> 
> The modified code now explicitly validates tokens:
> 1. Rejects empty reads (prevents infinite loops on EOF)
> 2. Checks all bytes are '+' characters (catches fd reuse issues)
> 3. Raises ValueError with clear diagnostics for debugging
> This ensures robustness against invalid jobserver configurations, even when
> external tools (like make) incorrectly pass non-pipe file descriptors.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Changbin Du <changbin.du@...wei.com>
> ---
>  tools/lib/python/jobserver.py | 2 ++
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py b/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py
> index a24f30ef4fa8..88d005f96bed 100755
> --- a/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py
> +++ b/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py
> @@ -91,6 +91,8 @@ class JobserverExec:
>              while True:
>                  try:
>                      slot = os.read(self.reader, 8)
> +                    if not slot or any(c != b'+'[0] for c in slot):
> +                        raise ValueError("empty or unexpected token from jobserver")
>                      self.jobs += slot
>                  except (OSError, IOError) as e:
>                      if e.errno == errno.EWOULDBLOCK:
> -- 
> 2.43.0
> 

-- 
Cheers,
Changbin Du