Re: [PATCH] Exiting queue and task might race to free cic

From: Nikanth Karthikesan
Date: Wed Nov 19 2008 - 23:55:36 EST


On Wednesday 19 November 2008 19:45:31 Jens Axboe wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19 2008, Nikanth Karthikesan wrote:

> Not sure this is enough, we probably need to copy the key to ensure that
> we get a fresh value. How does this look?
>

Agreed. Read barrier required. But the compiler hint, "likely" can stay?

diff --git a/block/cfq-iosched.c b/block/cfq-iosched.c
index 6a062ee..4504b94 100644
--- a/block/cfq-iosched.c
+++ b/block/cfq-iosched.c
@@ -1318,7 +1318,15 @@ static void cfq_exit_single_io_context(struct
io_context *ioc,
unsigned long flags;

spin_lock_irqsave(q->queue_lock, flags);
- __cfq_exit_single_io_context(cfqd, cic);
+
+ /*
+ * Ensure we get a fresh copy of the ->key to prevent
+ * race between exiting task and queue
+ */
+ smp_read_barrier_depends();
+ if (likely(cic->key))
+ __cfq_exit_single_io_context(cfqd, cic);
+
spin_unlock_irqrestore(q->queue_lock, flags);
}
}


> Did you actually trigger this, or is it just from code inspection?
>

No. But I am looking at another bug report on Suse Kernel where the bug is
triggered during reboot when the kernel thread usb_stor_scan_thread exits.

Thanks
Nikanth Karthikesan
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