Re: [PATCH] mm: delete unsafe BUG from page_cache_add_speculative()

[Andrew Morton]

On Wed, 8 Dec 2021 23:19:18 -0800 (PST) Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> It is not easily reproducible, but on 5.16-rc I have several times hit
> the VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(PageTail(page), page) in page_cache_add_speculative():
> usually from filemap_get_read_batch() for an ext4 read, yesterday from
> next_uptodate_page() from filemap_map_pages() for a shmem fault.
> 
> That BUG used to be placed where page_ref_add_unless() had succeeded,
> but now it is placed before folio_ref_add_unless() is attempted: that
> is not safe, since it is only the acquired reference which makes the
> page safe from racing THP collapse or split.
> 
> We could keep the BUG, checking PageTail only when folio_ref_try_add_rcu()
> has succeeded; but I don't think it adds much value - just delete it.
> 
> Fixes: 020853b6f5ea ("mm: Add folio_try_get_rcu()")
> Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hughd@xxxxxxxxxx>

I added cc:stable to this.