Re: [RFC][PATCHv4 6/6] printk: remove zap_locks() function

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Thu, Dec 01, 2016 at 11:34:42AM +0900, Sergey Senozhatsky wrote:
> On (11/25/16 16:17), Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 04:01:13PM +0100, Petr Mladek wrote:
> > > On Fri 2016-10-28 00:49:33, Sergey Senozhatsky wrote:
> > > > 2) Since commit cf9b1106c81c ("printk/nmi: flush NMI messages on the
> > > >    system panic") panic attempts to zap the `logbuf_lock' spin_lock to
> > > >    successfully flush nmi messages to `logbuf'.
> > > 
> > > Note that the same code is newly used to flush also the printk_safe
> > > per-CPU buffers. It means that logbuf_lock is zapped also when
> > > flushing these new buffers.
> > > 
> > 
> > Note that (raw_)spin_lock_init() as done here and in
> > printk_nmi_flush_on_panic() can wreck the lock state and doesn't ensure
> > a subsequent spin_lock() of said lock will actually work.
> > 
> > The very best solution is to simply ignore the lock in panic situations
> > rather than trying to wreck it.
> 
> do you mean that we can enterily drop the spin_lock_init()? or is there
> something else?

You should not touch the lock in any way shape or form in the panic
path. Just ignore all locking and do the console writes (which gets you
into whole different pile of crap).

Put another way, don't do silly things like spin_lock() when you're in a
hurry to get your panics out.

> spin_lock_init() either does not improve anything or let
> us to, at least, move the messages from per-CPU buffers to the logbuf.

So spin_lock_init() will completely wreck the lock. And this being the
recursion path, not a panic path, we could have continued running the
kernel no problem.

So yes, its actively harmful. You turn a benign printk() into something
that will wreck the kernel.