On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 12:02:04PM -0700, Axel Rasmussen wrote: > The old FIXME noted that the zeroing was done to differentiate the two > EINVAL cases. It's possible something like this was true historically, > but in current Linux we zero it in *both* EINVAL cases, so this is at > least no longer true. > > After reading the code, I can't determine any clear reason why we zero > it in some cases but not in others. So, some simple advice we can give > userspace is: if an error occurs, treat the contents of the structure as > unspecified. Just re-initialize it before retrying UFFDIO_API again. In old kernels (e.g. 4.20 and I didn't go to check when this changed) we had two -EINVALS: one when UFFDIO_API was called when state != UFFD_STATE_WAIT_API and another for API version or features mismatch and we zeroed uffd_api struct only in the second case. In the current code the first case does not exits anymore. > Signed-off-by: Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@xxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Mike Rapoport (IBM) <rppt@xxxxxxxxxx> > --- > man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 | 16 ++++++++-------- > 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 b/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 > index 1aa9654be..29dca1f6b 100644 > --- a/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 > +++ b/man2/ioctl_userfaultfd.2 > @@ -272,6 +272,14 @@ operation returns 0 on success. > On error, \-1 is returned and > .I errno > is set to indicate the error. > +If an error occurs, > +the kernel may zero the provided > +.I uffdio_api > +structure. > +The caller should treat its contents as unspecified, > +and reinitialize it before re-attempting another > +.B UFFDIO_API > +call. > Possible errors include: > .TP > .B EFAULT > @@ -305,14 +313,6 @@ twice, > the first time with no features set, > is explicitly allowed > as per the two-step feature detection handshake. > -.\" FIXME In the above error case, the returned 'uffdio_api' structure is > -.\" zeroed out. Why is this done? This should be explained in the manual page. > -.\" > -.\" Mike Rapoport: > -.\" In my understanding the uffdio_api > -.\" structure is zeroed to allow the caller > -.\" to distinguish the reasons for -EINVAL. > -.\" > .SS UFFDIO_REGISTER > (Since Linux 4.3.) > Register a memory address range with the userfaultfd object. > -- > 2.42.0.459.ge4e396fd5e-goog > > -- Sincerely yours, Mike.
