Re: [PATCH] swap: fix setting PAGE_SIZE blocksize duringswapoff/swapon race

From: Weijie Yang
Date: Thu Oct 17 2013 - 12:01:01 EST


On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 11:48 PM, Weijie Yang <weijie.yang.kh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 1:19 AM, Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On Tue, 15 Oct 2013, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
>>> On Tue, 2013-10-15 at 02:59 -0700, Hugh Dickins wrote:
>>> > On Mon, 14 Oct 2013, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
>>> >
>>> > > Fix race between swapoff and swapon resulting in setting blocksize of
>>> > > PAGE_SIZE for block devices during swapoff.
>>> > >
>>> > > The swapon modifies swap_info->old_block_size before acquiring
>>> > > swapon_mutex. It reads block_size of bdev, stores it under
>>> > > swap_info->old_block_size and sets new block_size to PAGE_SIZE.
>>> > >
>>> > > On the other hand the swapoff sets the device's block_size to
>>> > > old_block_size after releasing swapon_mutex.
>>> > >
>>> > > This patch locks the swapon_mutex much earlier during swapon. It also
>>> > > releases the swapon_mutex later during swapoff.
>>> > >
>>> > > The effect of race can be triggered by following scenario:
>>> > > - One block swap device with block size of 512
>>> > > - thread 1: Swapon is called, swap is activated,
>>> > > p->old_block_size = block_size(p->bdev); /512/
>>> > > block_size(p->bdev) = PAGE_SIZE;
>>> > > Thread ends.
>>> > >
>>> > > - thread 2: Swapoff is called and it goes just after releasing the
>>> > > swapon_mutex. The swap is now fully disabled except of setting the
>>> > > block size to old value. The p->bdev->block_size is still equal to
>>> > > PAGE_SIZE.
>>> > >
>>> > > - thread 3: New swapon is called. This swap is disabled so without
>>> > > acquiring the swapon_mutex:
>>> > > - p->old_block_size = block_size(p->bdev); /PAGE_SIZE (!!!)/
>>> > > - block_size(p->bdev) = PAGE_SIZE;
>>> > > Swap is activated and thread ends.
>>> > >
>>> > > - thread 2: resumes work and sets blocksize to old value:
>>> > > - set_blocksize(bdev, p->old_block_size)
>>> > > But now the p->old_block_size is equal to PAGE_SIZE.
>>> > >
>>> > > The patch swap-fix-set_blocksize-race-during-swapon-swapoff does not fix
>>> > > this particular issue. It reduces the possibility of races as the swapon
>>> > > must overwrite p->old_block_size before acquiring swapon_mutex in
>>> > > swapoff.
>>> > >
>>> > > Signed-off-by: Krzysztof Kozlowski <k.kozlowski@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> >
>>> > Sorry you're being blown back and forth on this, but I say Nack to
>>> > this version. I've not spent the time to check whether it ends up
>>> > correct or not; but your original patch was appropriate to the bug,
>>> > and this one is just unnecessary churn in my view.
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I still think my previous patch does not solve the issue entirely.
>>> The call set_blocksize() in swapoff quite often sets PAGE_SIZE instead
>>> of valid block size (e.g. 512). I trigger this with:
>>
>> PAGE_SIZE and 512 are equally valid block sizes,
>> it's just hard to support both consistently at the same instant.
>>
>>> ------
>>> for i in `seq 1000`
>>> do
>>> swapoff /dev/sdc1 &
>>> swapon /dev/sdc1 &
>>> swapon /dev/sdc1 &
>>> done
>>> ------
>>> 10 seconds run of this script resulted in 50% of set_blocksize(PAGE_SIZE).
>>> Although effect can only be observed after adding printks (block device is
>>> released).
>>
>> But despite PAGE_SIZE being a valid block size,
>> I agree that it's odd if you see variation there.
>>
>> Here's my guess: it looks as if the p->bdev test is inadequate, in the
>> decision whether bad_swap should set_blocksize() or not: p->bdev is not
>> usually reset when a swap_info_struct is released for reuse.
>>
>> Please try correcting that, either by resetting p->bdev where necessary,
>> or by putting a better test in bad_swap: see if that fixes this oddity.
>>
>> I still much prefer your original little patch,
>> to this extension of the use of swapon_mutex.
>>
>> However, a bigger question would be, why does swapoff have to set block
>> size back to old_block_size anyway? That was introduced in 2.5.13 by
>>
>> <viro@xxxxxxxxxxxx> (02/05/01 1.447.69.1)
>> [PATCH] (1/6) blksize_size[] removal
>>
>> - preliminary cleanups: make sure that swapoff restores original block
>> size, kill set_blocksize() (and use of __bread()) in multipath.c,
>> reorder opening device and finding its block size in mtdblock.c.
>>
>> Al, not an urgent question, but is this swapoff old_block_size stuff
>> still necessary? And can't swapon just use whatever bd_block_size is
>> already in force? IIUC, it plays no part beyond the initial readpage
>> of swap header.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Hugh
>
> Let me try to explain(and guess):
> we have to set_block in swapon. the swap_header is PAGE_SIZE, if device's
> blocksize is more than PAGE_SIZE, then the swap entry address on swapfile
> would be not PAGE_SIZE aligned. or one swap page can not fill a block.
> There maybe a problem for some device.
> The set_blocksize() do the judgement work for swapon.
> And may be some userland tools assume swap device blocksize is PAGE_SIZEï
>
> issues here are more than this one:
> After swap_info_struct is released for reuse in swapoff.
> Its corresponding resources are released later, such as:
> - swap_cgroup_swapoff(type);
> - blkdev_put
> - inode->i_flags &= ~S_SWAPFILE;
>

my code is 3.11 version. And in 3.12-rc5,
free_percpu(p->percpu_cluster);
is another issue that released later.

> we need release(or clean) these resources before release swap_info_struct.
>
> to Krzysztof: I think it is better to add this handle to your patch
>
> regards
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