Re: [PATCH] mm/mmap/vma_merge: always check invariants

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Tue May 02 2023 - 15:15:30 EST


On Sun, 30 Apr 2023 21:19:17 +0100 Lorenzo Stoakes <lstoakes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> We may still have inconsistent input parameters even if we choose not to
> merge and the vma_merge() invariant checks are useful for checking this
> with no production runtime cost (these are only relevant when
> CONFIG_DEBUG_VM is specified).
>
> Therefore, perform these checks regardless of whether we merge.
>
> This is relevant, as a recent issue (addressed in commit "mm/mempolicy:
> Correctly update prev when policy is equal on mbind") in the mbind logic
> was only picked up in the 6.2.y stable branch where these assertions are
> performed prior to determining mergeability.
>
> Had this remained the same in mainline this issue may have been picked up
> faster, so moving forward let's always check them.
>

I'll scoot this into 6.4-rc, given the recent problems in this area.

> --- a/mm/mmap.c
> +++ b/mm/mmap.c
> @@ -960,17 +960,17 @@ struct vm_area_struct *vma_merge(struct vma_iterator *vmi, struct mm_struct *mm,
> merge_next = true;
> }
>
> + /* Verify some invariant that must be enforced by the caller. */
> + VM_WARN_ON(prev && addr <= prev->vm_start);
> + VM_WARN_ON(curr && (addr != curr->vm_start || end > curr->vm_end));
> + VM_WARN_ON(addr >= end);

Maybe converting to VM_WARN_ON_ONCE() would be kinder.