Re: [PATCH 1/2] Initial support for Allwinner's Security ID fuses

From: Oliver Schinagl
Date: Wed Jun 26 2013 - 04:32:54 EST


On 24-06-13 23:46, Greg KH wrote:
On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 11:21:16PM +0200, Oliver Schinagl wrote:
On 06/24/13 20:15, Greg KH wrote:
On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 07:11:35PM +0200, Oliver Schinagl wrote:
Hey Greg,
On 06/24/13 18:04, Greg KH wrote:
On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 11:29:42AM +0200, Maxime Ripard wrote:
Hi Greg,

On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 03:58:47PM -0700, Greg KH wrote:
On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:59:37PM +0200, Oliver Schinagl wrote:

[..]

+static int __init sunxi_sid_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
+{
+ u8 entropy[SID_SIZE];
+ unsigned int i;
+ struct resource *res;
+ void __iomem *sid_reg_base;
+ int ret;
+
+ res = platform_get_resource(pdev, IORESOURCE_MEM, 0);
+ sid_reg_base = devm_ioremap_resource(&pdev->dev, res);
+ if (IS_ERR(sid_reg_base))
+ return PTR_ERR(sid_reg_base);
+ platform_set_drvdata(pdev, sid_reg_base);
+
+ ret = device_create_bin_file(&pdev->dev, &sid_bin_attr);
+ if (ret)
+ return ret;

You just raced with userspace, having the file show up after the device
was announced to users that it was there. Please use the proper device
file api to add default attributes to prevent this from happening.

Sorry if the question looks dumb, but what kind of race can we generate
here?

Userspace gets told about the device from the driver core, udev runs and
reads all of the attributes, then your probe function comes along and
adds a new attribute. Userspace will then not know about it at all.

The device_create_bin_file is the last call that we make (if we except
the entropy stuff, but it doesn't really matter here), so after we
created the file, we have everything properly initialised so that our
functions can be called, right?

And another dumb question for you, what is the "proper device file API"
you are referring to ? :)

Please read Documentation/driver_model/device.txt and see the section on
Attributes for what to do. If you have specific questions after reading
that, please let me know.
Since Maxime kinda asked for me, I hope you don't mind me following up.

That doc doesn't mention the binary interface at all. Initially I
had both devices up, the 'read' device as a textual representation
and added the binary one later. Maxime and I decided the binary one
made more sense, as the only textual user would be a human and they
don't poke that entry that often.

So what default way exists for binary files or how would that be solved?

The same interface should work just fine for binary files, have you
tried it?
I'll just take the plunge and make myself look stupid ;)

I tried to change things around, used DEVICE_ATTR(eeprom, S_IRUGO,
sid_read, NULL); So far so good I'd hope.

Ick, no.

Of course now I'll have to change the function's parameters from

static ssize_t sid_read(struct file *fd, struct kobject *kobj,
struct bin_attribute *attr, char *buf,
loff_t pos, size_t size)

to

static ssize_t sid_read(struct device *dev,
struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf)

Which is what do you do not want, as you find out:

But now, I'm missing things like 'pos' and 'size', both which
determine the requested bytes. True, in this specific driver we are
talking about 'only' 16 bytes, but what if it weren't but a few MiB
and in sysfs we want to read some random byte, will we have to put
the entire blok into the buffer?

So sorry for not understanding, but ... I don't understand :)

Stick with a binary attribute, and attach that to the proper class
structure and all should be fine.

Ah crap, you're using a platform device.

{sigh}

Why? Why not use a "real" device which has a "real" class, and then use
the interfaces there?
Because, as I was told, this really is a platform device. If you have some example code I can look at and learn from that would be awesome. I'm still learning after all, and apparently I'm doing it wrong now :)

greg k-h


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