Re: [PATCH] Cpuset: oops in exit on null cpuset fix

From: Paul Jackson
Date: Wed Feb 15 2006 - 03:11:42 EST


Andrew wrote:
> Seems strange to patch the kernel for this. Can't the add-on patch do it?
> Or can we just move the cpuset_exit()s to later in the exit() paths?

Sure, the add-on could have handled it, or had its exit routine
called earlier, or had cpuset_exit called later, ...

But it would still have been an accident waiting to happen again,
when someone adds another hook, or gets the order in cpuset_exit
wrong, or some such.

Heck, for all I know, your *-mm kernel might even have such a
bug now (before you took this patch). Perhaps there was some
code path that would try to allocate memory after the cpuset_exit
call, and no one has hit on that path yet.

This patch was a zero runtime cost way to reduce the risks. With
this patch, a task doesn't have a blackout period, shortly before
exit, when memory allocations will oops the kernel.

--
I won't rest till it's the best ...
Programmer, Linux Scalability
Paul Jackson <pj@xxxxxxx> 1.925.600.0401
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