On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 05:57:43PM -0800, Ivan Delalande wrote: > proc_sys_lookup can fail with ENOMEM instead of ENOENT when the > corresponding sysctl table is being unregistered. In our case we see > this upon opening /proc/sys/net/*/conf files while network interfaces > are being removed, which confuses our configuration daemon. > > The problem was successfully reproduced and this fix tested on v4.9.122 > and v4.20-rc6. > > Fixes: ace0c791e6c3 ("proc/sysctl: Don't grab i_lock under sysctl_lock.") > Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Signed-off-by: Ivan Delalande <colona@xxxxxxxxxx> > --- > fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c | 9 +++++---- > 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c b/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c > index 89921a0d2ebb..834be5bc3d07 100644 > --- a/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c > +++ b/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c > @@ -474,7 +474,7 @@ static struct inode *proc_sys_make_inode(struct super_block *sb, > if (unlikely(head->unregistering)) { > spin_unlock(&sysctl_lock); > iput(inode); > - inode = NULL; > + inode = ERR_PTR(-ENOENT); > goto out; > } > ei->sysctl = head; > @@ -549,10 +549,11 @@ static struct dentry *proc_sys_lookup(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry, > goto out; > } > > - err = ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM); > inode = proc_sys_make_inode(dir->i_sb, h ? h : head, p); > - if (!inode) > + if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(inode)) { > + err = inode ? ERR_CAST(inode) : ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM); *gags* If you want to return specific errors, do just that and for pity sake, do *NOT* invent such hybrids. "Pointer to object on success, ERR_PTR(-E...) on failure, NULL means ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM)" is a bitch to reason about and prone to breakage. "Return NULL on error" and "return ERR_PTR() on error" do not mix. Just make proc_sys_make_inode() return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM) on allocation failures and update the callers (as you have to, anyway). IS_ERR_OR_NULL() is usually a sign of bad calling conventions and it certainly is just that in this case. Just do inode = new_inode(sb); if (!inode) return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM); in there, in addition to your return of ERR_PTR(-ENOENT), and lose those IS_ERR_OR_NULL() things. Make those IS_ERR() and turn the assignment to err into straight ERR_CAST(). All there is to it...