Use a script to test kernel(arm64) in the following steps: (filesystem is tmpfs, dirA already have 10 files, dirB have 12 files) 1. keep open filenotexist(O_RDWR) in dirA 2. keep open filenotexist(O_RDWR) in dirB 3. keep ls dirB After 10 minutes, there will be an oops: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 00000000003564ad Process ls (pid: 142652, stack limit = 0x0000000055c452f6) Call trace: dcache_readdir+0xf8/0x1b0 iterate_dir+0x8c/0x1a8 ksys_getdents64+0xa4/0x190 __arm64_sys_getdents64+0x28/0x38 el0_svc_common+0x78/0x130 el0_svc_handler+0x38/0x78 el0_svc+0x8/0xc The reason is as follows: 1. dirA create new dentryA(dentryA->next = fileA1), and will delete it lookup_open d_alloc_parallel d_alloc dput -->prev allocated dentry has been added to dentry_hashtable dput remove dentryA from dirA, dentryA->next is still fileA1. 2. dirB create new dentry(use dentryA), and add it to dirB d_alloc -->This will need dirB shared lock __d_alloc INIT_LIST_HEAD(&dentry->d_child) spin_lock(&parent->d_lock) list_add(&dentry->d_child, &parent->d_subdirs) 3. At the same time, ls dirB -->This will need dirB shared lock dcache_readdir p = &dentry->d_subdirs next_positive p = from->next Although d_alloc has spin_lock, next_positive does not have it since commit ebaaa80e8f20 ("lockless next_positive()"). Let's look about __d_alloc: INIT_LIST_HEAD(&dentry->d_child) have 2 steps: 1. dentry->d_child.next = &dentry->d_child 2. dentry->d_child.prev = &dentry->d_child list_add have 4 steps: 3. parent->d_subdirs.next->prev = &dentry->d_child 4. dentry->d_child.next = parent->d_subdirs.next 5. dentry->d_child.prev = &parent->d_subdirs 6. parent->d_subdirs.next = &dentry->d_child In arm64, CPU may run out of order. It only guarantees 4 is after 1, 5 is after 2. Maybe set parent->d_subdirs->next first, while dentry->d_child.next is still uninitialized. dentryA->next is still fileA1, So ls dirB will goto fileA1 which belongs to dirA, thus oops happens. Need to ensure that dentry is initialized before it is added to parent dentry. PS: After add smp_wmb, we test it in 10 hours, the oops does not happen. Signed-off-by: zhengbin <zhengbin13@xxxxxxxxxx> --- fs/dcache.c | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) diff --git a/fs/dcache.c b/fs/dcache.c index e88cf05..0a07671 100644 --- a/fs/dcache.c +++ b/fs/dcache.c @@ -1767,6 +1767,16 @@ struct dentry *d_alloc(struct dentry * parent, const struct qstr *name) struct dentry *dentry = __d_alloc(parent->d_sb, name); if (!dentry) return NULL; + + /* + * need to ensure that dentry->d_child.next is initialized + * (__d_alloc->INIT_LIST_HEAD) before dentry is added to + * parent->d_subdirs, Otherwise in next_positive(do not have + * spin_lock), we may visit uninitialized value because of cpu + * run optimization(first add dentry to parent->d_subdirs). + */ + smp_wmb(); + spin_lock(&parent->d_lock); /* * don't need child lock because it is not subject -- 2.7.4