Re: [PATCH 1/1] mm: fix the theoretical compound_lock() vsprep_new_page() race

[Andrea Arcangeli]

On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 08:09:20PM +0100, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
> get/put_page(thp_tail) paths do get_page_unless_zero(page_head) +
> compound_lock(). In theory this page_head can be already freed and
> reallocated as alloc_pages(__GFP_COMP, smaller_order). In this case
> get_page_unless_zero() can succeed right after set_page_refcounted(),
> and compound_lock() can race with the non-atomic __SetPageHead().
> 
> Perhaps we should rework the thp locking (under discussion), but
> until then this patch moves set_page_refcounted() and adds wmb()
> to ensure that page->_count != 0 comes as a last change.
> 
> I am not sure about other callers of set_page_refcounted(), but at
> first glance they look fine to me.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@xxxxxxxxxx>

Acked-by: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@xxxxxxxxxx>

Only one improvement possible, the smp_wmb() could have been put under
CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE somehow. No difference for x86-64 though.

Thanks,
Andrea
--
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/