Re: [PATCH] lib/scatterlist.c: don't flush_kernel_dcache_page onslab page

From: Russell King - ARM Linux
Date: Thu Oct 31 2013 - 18:44:59 EST


On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 03:27:45PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Oct 2013 00:20:05 +0800 Ming Lei <ming.lei@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Commit b1adaf65ba03([SCSI] block: add sg buffer copy helper functions)
> > introduces two sg buffer copy helpers, and calls flush_kernel_dcache_page()
> > on pages in SG list after these pages are written to.
> >
> > Unfortunately, the commit may introduce a potential bug:
> >
> > - Before sending some SCSI commands, kmalloc() buffer may be
> > passed to block layper, so flush_kernel_dcache_page() can
> > see a slab page finally
> >
> > - According to cachetlb.txt, flush_kernel_dcache_page() is
> > only called on "a user page", which surely can't be a slab page.
> >
> > - ARCH's implementation of flush_kernel_dcache_page() may
> > use page mapping information to do optimization so page_mapping()
> > will see the slab page, then VM_BUG_ON() is triggered.
> >
> > Aaro Koskinen reported the bug on ARM/kirkwood when DEBUG_VM is enabled,
> > and this patch fixes the bug by adding test of '!PageSlab(miter->page)'
> > before calling flush_kernel_dcache_page().
>
> We should work out which kernel(s) need this patch. b1adaf65ba03 was
> merged in 2008, so presumably some more recent patch has exposed the
> problem, but I don't know what one that was.
>
> Help me out here?

1bc39742aab0 (ARM: 7755/1: handle user space mapped pages in
flush_kernel_dcache_page) in June 2013, which according to git describe
is:

v3.10-rc4-9-g1bc39742aab0

Presumably that means v3.10+ need it.
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