[PATCH] remove BUG() in possible but rare condition

From: Glauber Costa
Date: Wed Apr 11 2012 - 14:12:10 EST


While stressing the kernel with with failing allocations today,
I hit the following chain of events:

alloc_page_buffers():

bh = alloc_buffer_head(GFP_NOFS);
if (!bh)
goto no_grow; <= path taken

grow_dev_page():
bh = alloc_page_buffers(page, size, 0);
if (!bh)
goto failed; <= taken, consequence of the above

and then the failed path BUG()s the kernel.

The failure is inserted a litte bit artificially, but even then,
I see no reason why it should be deemed impossible in a real box.

Even though this is not a condition that we expect to see
around every time, failed allocations are expected to be handled,
and BUG() sounds just too much. As a matter of fact, grow_dev_page()
can return NULL just fine in other circumstances, so I propose we just
remove it, then.

Signed-off-by: Glauber Costa <glommer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/buffer.c | 1 -
1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/buffer.c b/fs/buffer.c
index 36d6665..351e18e 100644
--- a/fs/buffer.c
+++ b/fs/buffer.c
@@ -985,7 +985,6 @@ grow_dev_page(struct block_device *bdev, sector_t block,
return page;

failed:
- BUG();
unlock_page(page);
page_cache_release(page);
return NULL;
--
1.7.7.6

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/