[PATCH] fscache: fix race between enablement and dropping of object

From: NeilBrown
Date: Fri Oct 26 2018 - 02:16:50 EST



It was observed that a process blocked indefintely in
__fscache_read_or_alloc_page(), waiting for FSCACHE_COOKIE_LOOKING_UP
to be cleared via fscache_wait_for_deferred_lookup().

At this time, ->backing_objects was empty, which would normaly prevent
__fscache_read_or_alloc_page() from getting to the point of waiting.
This implies that ->backing_objects was cleared *after*
__fscache_read_or_alloc_page was was entered.

When an object is "killed" and then "dropped",
FSCACHE_COOKIE_LOOKING_UP is cleared in fscache_lookup_failure(), then
KILL_OBJECT and DROP_OBJECT are "called" and only in DROP_OBJECT is
->backing_objects cleared. This leaves a window where
something else can set FSCACHE_COOKIE_LOOKING_UP and
__fscache_read_or_alloc_page() can start waiting, before
->backing_objects is cleared

There is some uncertainty in this analysis, but it seems to be fit the
observations. Adding the wake in this patch will be handled correctly
by __fscache_read_or_alloc_page(), as it checks if ->backing_objects
is empty again, after waiting.

Customer which reported the hang, also report that the hang cannot be
reproduced with this fix.

Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neilb@xxxxxxxx>
---
fs/fscache/object.c | 3 +++
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/fs/fscache/object.c b/fs/fscache/object.c
index 9edc920f651f..6d9cb1719de5 100644
--- a/fs/fscache/object.c
+++ b/fs/fscache/object.c
@@ -730,6 +730,9 @@ static const struct fscache_state *fscache_drop_object(struct fscache_object *ob

if (awaken)
wake_up_bit(&cookie->flags, FSCACHE_COOKIE_INVALIDATING);
+ if (test_and_clear_bit(FSCACHE_COOKIE_LOOKING_UP, &cookie->flags))
+ wake_up_bit(&cookie->flags, FSCACHE_COOKIE_LOOKING_UP);
+

/* Prevent a race with our last child, which has to signal EV_CLEARED
* before dropping our spinlock.
--
2.14.0.rc0.dirty

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