Re: [PATCH v2 00/10] uaccess: better might_sleep/might_fault behavior

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Wed May 22 2013 - 10:45:39 EST


On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 04:04:48PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Wednesday 22 May 2013, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
> > On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 11:25:36AM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> > > Given the most commonly used functions and a couple of architectures
> > > I'm familiar with, these are the ones that currently call might_fault()
> > >
> > > x86-32 x86-64 arm arm64 powerpc s390 generic
> > > copy_to_user - x - - - x x
> > > copy_from_user - x - - - x x
> > > put_user x x x x x x x
> > > get_user x x x x x x x
> > > __copy_to_user x x - - x - -
> > > __copy_from_user x x - - x - -
> > > __put_user - - x - x - -
> > > __get_user - - x - x - -
> > >
> > > WTF?
> >
> > I think your table is rather screwed - especially on ARM. Tell me -
> > how can __copy_to_user() use might_fault() but copy_to_user() not when
> > copy_to_user() is implemented using __copy_to_user() ? Same for
> > copy_from_user() but the reverse argument - there's nothing special
> > in our copy_from_user() which would make it do might_fault() when
> > __copy_from_user() wouldn't.
>
> I think something went wrong with formatting of the tabstobs in
> the table. I've tried to correct it above to the same version I
> see on the mailing list.
>
> > The correct position for ARM is: our (__)?(pu|ge)t_user all use
> > might_fault(), but (__)?copy_(to|from)_user do not. Neither does
> > (__)?clear_user. We might want to fix those to use might_fault().
>
> Yes, that sounds like a good idea, especially since they are all
> implemented out-of-line.
>
> For __get_user()/__put_user(), I would probably do the reverse and make
> them not call might_fault() though, like we do on most other architectures:
>
> Look at the object code produced for setup_sigframe for instance, it calls
> might_fault() around 25 times where one should really be enough.

Well it depends on what config options you set.
But with VOLUNTARY you are right.
Also, look at memcpy_fromiovec and weep.

> Using
> __put_user() instead of put_user() is normally an indication that the
> author of that function has made performance considerations and move the
> (trivial) access_ok() call out, but now we add a more expensive
> call instead.
>
> Arnd

I think exactly the same rules should apply to __XXX_user and
__copy_XXX_user - otherwise it's really confusing.

Maybe a preempt point in might_fault should go away?
Basically

#define might_fault() __might_sleep(__FILE__, __LINE__, 0)

Possibly adding the in_atomic() etc checks that Peter suggested.

Ingo, what do you think? And what testing would be appropriate
for such a change?


Thanks,

--
MST
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