Re: [PATCH v4] block/loop: Serialize ioctl operations.

[Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2018/09/25 3:47, Jan Kara wrote:
>> +/*
>> + * unlock_loop - Unlock loop_mutex as needed.
>> + *
>> + * Explicitly call this function before calling fput() or blkdev_reread_part()
>> + * in order to avoid circular lock dependency. After this function is called,
>> + * current thread is no longer allowed to access "struct loop_device" memory,
>> + * for another thread would access that memory as soon as loop_mutex is held.
>> + */
>> +static void unlock_loop(void)
>> +{
>> +	if (loop_mutex_owner == current) {
> 
> Urgh, why this check? Conditional locking / unlocking is evil so it has to
> have *very* good reasons and there is not any explanation here. So far I
> don't see a reason why this is needed at all.

Yeah, this is why Jens hates this patch. But any alternative?



>> @@ -630,7 +669,12 @@ static void loop_reread_partitions(struct loop_device *lo,
>> +	unlock_loop();
> 
> Unlocking in loop_reread_partitions() makes the locking rules ugly. And
> unnecessarily AFAICT. Can't we just use lo_refcnt to protect us against
> loop_clr_fd() and freeing of 'lo' structure itself?

Really? I think that just elevating lo->lo_refcnt will cause another lockdep
warning because __blkdev_reread_part() requires bdev->bd_mutex being held.
Don't we need to drop the lock in order to solve original lockdep warning at [2] ?

int __blkdev_reread_part(struct block_device *bdev)
{
	struct gendisk *disk = bdev->bd_disk;

	if (!disk_part_scan_enabled(disk) || bdev != bdev->bd_contains)
		return -EINVAL;
	if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
		return -EACCES;

	lockdep_assert_held(&bdev->bd_mutex);

	return rescan_partitions(disk, bdev);
}

int blkdev_reread_part(struct block_device *bdev)
{
	int res;

	mutex_lock(&bdev->bd_mutex);
	res = __blkdev_reread_part(bdev);
	mutex_unlock(&bdev->bd_mutex);

	return res;
}