Re: [PATCH] uprobes: Use synchronize_rcu() not synchronize_sched()

[Steven Rostedt]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2018 13:35:49 +0200
Oleg Nesterov <oleg@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 08/09, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> >
> > --- a/kernel/trace/trace_uprobe.c
> > +++ b/kernel/trace/trace_uprobe.c
> > @@ -952,7 +952,7 @@ probe_event_disable(struct trace_uprobe *tu, struct trace_event_file *file)
> >
> >  		list_del_rcu(&link->list);
> >  		/* synchronize with u{,ret}probe_trace_func */
> > -		synchronize_sched();
> > +		synchronize_rcu();  
> 
> Can't we change uprobe_trace_func() and uretprobe_trace_func() to use
> rcu_read_lock_sched() instead? It is more cheap.

Is it? rcu_read_lock_sched() is a preempt_disable(), where
rcu_read_lock() may just be a task counter increment.

> 
> 
> Hmm. probe_event_enable() does list_del + kfree on failure, this doesn't
> look right... Not only because kfree() can race with list_for_each_entry_rcu(),
> we should not put the 1st link on list until uprobe_buffer_enable().
> 
> Does the patch below make sense or I am confused?

I guess the question is, if it isn't enabled, are there any users or
even past users still running. If not, then I think the current code is
OK, as there shouldn't be anything happening to race with it.

-- Steve

> 
> Oleg.
> 
> 
> --- x/kernel/trace/trace_uprobe.c
> +++ x/kernel/trace/trace_uprobe.c
> @@ -896,8 +896,6 @@ probe_event_enable(struct trace_uprobe *
>  			return -ENOMEM;
>  
>  		link->file = file;
> -		list_add_tail_rcu(&link->list, &tu->tp.files);
> -
>  		tu->tp.flags |= TP_FLAG_TRACE;
>  	} else {
>  		if (tu->tp.flags & TP_FLAG_TRACE)
> @@ -909,7 +907,7 @@ probe_event_enable(struct trace_uprobe *
>  	WARN_ON(!uprobe_filter_is_empty(&tu->filter));
>  
>  	if (enabled)
> -		return 0;
> +		goto add;
>  
>  	ret = uprobe_buffer_enable();
>  	if (ret)
> @@ -920,7 +918,8 @@ probe_event_enable(struct trace_uprobe *
>  	ret = uprobe_register(tu->inode, tu->offset, &tu->consumer);
>  	if (ret)
>  		goto err_buffer;
> -
> + add:
> +	list_add_tail_rcu(&link->list, &tu->tp.files);
>  	return 0;
>  
>   err_buffer:
> @@ -928,7 +927,6 @@ probe_event_enable(struct trace_uprobe *
>  
>   err_flags:
>  	if (file) {
> -		list_del(&link->list);
>  		kfree(link);
>  		tu->tp.flags &= ~TP_FLAG_TRACE;
>  	} else {