[PATCHv2] backing-dev: fix wakeup timer races with bdi_unregister()

From: Rabin Vincent
Date: Thu Jan 19 2012 - 11:52:00 EST


While 7a401a972df8e18 ("backing-dev: ensure wakeup_timer is deleted")
addressed the problem of the bdi being freed with a queued wakeup
timer, there are other races that could happen if the wakeup timer
expires after/during bdi_unregister(), before bdi_destroy() is called.

wakeup_timer_fn() could attempt to wakeup a task which has already has
been freed, or could access a NULL bdi->dev via the wake_forker_thread
tracepoint.

Cc: Jens Axboe <axboe@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@xxxxxxxxx>
Reported-by: Chanho Min <chanho.min@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Rabin Vincent <rabin@xxxxxx>
---

v2:
- rebase onto the latest kernel which removed the thaw()
- don't unnecessarily initialize task
- unregister device after setting bdi->dev to NULL, not before

mm/backing-dev.c | 23 ++++++++++++++++++-----
1 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/backing-dev.c b/mm/backing-dev.c
index 7ba8fea..dd8e2aa 100644
--- a/mm/backing-dev.c
+++ b/mm/backing-dev.c
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ static void wakeup_timer_fn(unsigned long data)
if (bdi->wb.task) {
trace_writeback_wake_thread(bdi);
wake_up_process(bdi->wb.task);
- } else {
+ } else if (bdi->dev) {
/*
* When bdi tasks are inactive for long time, they are killed.
* In this case we have to wake-up the forker thread which
@@ -584,6 +584,8 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(bdi_register_dev);
*/
static void bdi_wb_shutdown(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
{
+ struct task_struct *task;
+
if (!bdi_cap_writeback_dirty(bdi))
return;

@@ -602,8 +604,13 @@ static void bdi_wb_shutdown(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
* Finally, kill the kernel thread. We don't need to be RCU
* safe anymore, since the bdi is gone from visibility.
*/
- if (bdi->wb.task)
- kthread_stop(bdi->wb.task);
+ spin_lock_bh(&bdi->wb_lock);
+ task = bdi->wb.task;
+ bdi->wb.task = NULL;
+ spin_unlock_bh(&bdi->wb_lock);
+
+ if (task)
+ kthread_stop(task);
}

/*
@@ -623,7 +630,9 @@ static void bdi_prune_sb(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)

void bdi_unregister(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
{
- if (bdi->dev) {
+ struct device *dev = bdi->dev;
+
+ if (dev) {
bdi_set_min_ratio(bdi, 0);
trace_writeback_bdi_unregister(bdi);
bdi_prune_sb(bdi);
@@ -632,8 +641,12 @@ void bdi_unregister(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
if (!bdi_cap_flush_forker(bdi))
bdi_wb_shutdown(bdi);
bdi_debug_unregister(bdi);
- device_unregister(bdi->dev);
+
+ spin_lock_bh(&bdi->wb_lock);
bdi->dev = NULL;
+ spin_unlock_bh(&bdi->wb_lock);
+
+ device_unregister(dev);
}
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(bdi_unregister);
--
1.7.7.3

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