On Tue, Aug 09, 2022 at 04:59:01PM -0400, Waiman Long wrote: > A circular locking problem is reported by lockdep due to the following > circular locking dependency. > > +--> cpu_hotplug_lock --> slab_mutex --> kn->active#126 --+ > | | > +---------------------------------------------------------+ > > One way to break this circular locking chain is to avoid holding > cpu_hotplug_lock and slab_mutex while deleting the kobject in > sysfs_slab_unlink() which should be equivalent to doing a write_lock > and write_unlock pair of the kn->active virtual lock. > > Since the kobject structures are not protected by slab_mutex or the > cpu_hotplug_lock, we can certainly release those locks before doing > the delete operation. > > Move sysfs_slab_unlink() and sysfs_slab_release() to the newly > created kmem_cache_release() and call it outside the slab_mutex & > cpu_hotplug_lock critical sections. > > Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx> > --- > mm/slab_common.c | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------- > 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/mm/slab_common.c b/mm/slab_common.c > index 17996649cfe3..9274fb03563e 100644 > --- a/mm/slab_common.c > +++ b/mm/slab_common.c > @@ -392,6 +392,30 @@ kmem_cache_create(const char *name, unsigned int size, unsigned int align, > } > EXPORT_SYMBOL(kmem_cache_create); > > +#ifdef SLAB_SUPPORTS_SYSFS > +/* > + * For a given kmem_cache, kmem_cache_destroy() should only be called > + * once or there will be a use-after-free problem. The actual deletion > + * and release of the kobject does not need slab_mutex or cpu_hotplug_lock > + * protection. So they are now done without holding those locks. > + */ > +static void kmem_cache_release(struct kmem_cache *s, bool workfn) > +{ > + if (!workfn) > + sysfs_slab_unlink(s); > + > + if (workfn || !(s->flags & SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU)) > + sysfs_slab_release(s); > + else > + schedule_work(&slab_caches_to_rcu_destroy_work); > +} > +#else > +static inline void kmem_cache_release(struct kmem_cache *s, bool workfn) > +{ > + slab_kmem_cache_release(s); > +} > +#endif > + > static void slab_caches_to_rcu_destroy_workfn(struct work_struct *work) > { > LIST_HEAD(to_destroy); > @@ -418,11 +442,7 @@ static void slab_caches_to_rcu_destroy_workfn(struct work_struct *work) > list_for_each_entry_safe(s, s2, &to_destroy, list) { > debugfs_slab_release(s); > kfence_shutdown_cache(s); > -#ifdef SLAB_SUPPORTS_SYSFS > - sysfs_slab_release(s); > -#else > - slab_kmem_cache_release(s); > -#endif > + kmem_cache_release(s, true); Hi Waiman! As I understand, with SLAB_SUPPORTS_SYSFS kmem_cache_release() can effectively call into itself: first it's called with workfn == false from shutdown_cache() and then optionally it's scheduled to call itself from a work context with workfn == true just to call sysfs_slab_release(). Is it right? If !SLAB_SUPPORTS_SYSFS, shutdown_cache() optionally adds kmem_cache to the slab_caches_to_rcu_destroy list and calls kmem_cache_release(s, false) == slab_kmem_cache_release(). How it's then removed from the list? Overall the patch is a bit hard to follow (not like this code was easy to read before, so can't blame the patch). But I wonder if it will make things simpler to decouple kmem_cache_release(workfn == true) and kmem_cache_release(workfn == false) into 2 different helpers? Or at least add a bold comment on how things are supposed to work. Thanks!