Re: [PATCH] kthread: dynamically allocate memory to store kthread's full name

[Petr Mladek]

On Wed 2021-11-10 10:12:17, Yafang Shao wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 1:34 AM Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 08, 2021 at 08:41:42AM +0000, Yafang Shao wrote:
> > > When I was implementing a new per-cpu kthread cfs_migration, I found the
> > > comm of it "cfs_migration/%u" is truncated due to the limitation of
> > > TASK_COMM_LEN. For example, the comm of the percpu thread on CPU10~19 are
> > > all with the same name "cfs_migration/1", which will confuse the user. This
> > > issue is not critical, because we can get the corresponding CPU from the
> > > task's Cpus_allowed. But for kthreads correspoinding to other hardware
> > > devices, it is not easy to get the detailed device info from task comm,
> > > for example,
> > >
> > > After this change, the full name of these truncated kthreads will be
> > > displayed via /proc/[pid]/comm:
> > >
> > > --- a/kernel/kthread.c
> > > +++ b/kernel/kthread.c
> > > @@ -399,12 +414,27 @@ struct task_struct *__kthread_create_on_node(int (*threadfn)(void *data),
> > >       if (!IS_ERR(task)) {
> > >               static const struct sched_param param = { .sched_priority = 0 };
> > >               char name[TASK_COMM_LEN];
> > > +             va_list aq;
> > > +             int len;
> > >
> > >               /*
> > >                * task is already visible to other tasks, so updating
> > >                * COMM must be protected.
> > >                */
> > > -             vsnprintf(name, sizeof(name), namefmt, args);
> > > +             va_copy(aq, args);
> > > +             len = vsnprintf(name, sizeof(name), namefmt, aq);
> > > +             va_end(aq);
> > > +             if (len >= TASK_COMM_LEN) {
> > > +                     struct kthread *kthread = to_kthread(task);
> > > +                     char *full_name;
> > > +
> > > +                     full_name = kvasprintf(GFP_KERNEL, namefmt, args);
> > > +                     if (!full_name) {
> > > +                             kfree(create);
> > > +                             return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
> >
> > I'm not a fan of this out-of-line free/return. Why not just leave it
> > truncated when out of memory? For example just do:
> >
> >                         struct kthread *kthread = to_kthread(task);
> >
> >                         kthread->full_name = kvasprintf(GFP_KERNEL, namefmt, args);

> It is OK for me.

I agree. It is perfectly fine to continue here. The truncated name is
a reasonable fallback.


> I will do it as you suggested and show a warning for this case.

Yup. Just please, use only the truncated name in the warning. It is
not important enough to add another va_copy() for this.

> >
> > > +                     }
> > > +                     kthread->full_name = full_name;
> > > +             }
> > >               set_task_comm(task, name);
> > >               /*
> > >                * root may have changed our (kthreadd's) priority or CPU mask.

Best Regards,
Petr