I had a report of a crash today. The kernel in question is older but has a backport of the most recent nfsd filecache patches. In particular nfsd_file_do_acquire is pretty much identical to the current mainline code: [1803883.048506] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000020 [1803883.048972] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [1803883.049378] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [1803883.049798] PGD 0 P4D 0 [1803883.050171] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [1803883.050563] CPU: 16 PID: 3591 Comm: nfsd Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE --------- --- 5.14.0-210.jlayton.nfsd92.2.el9.x86_64 #1 [1803883.051386] Hardware name: Supermicro Super Server/H11SSL-NC, BIOS 1.0b 04/27/2018 [1803883.051820] RIP: 0010:nfsd_file_do_acquire+0x7fb/0x8b0 [nfsd] [1803883.052286] Code: 00 00 00 41 bc 00 00 27 18 e9 46 fc ff ff 89 c2 e9 df fb ff ff 48 8b 6c 24 20 65 48 ff 05 d5 57 cc 3e 49 8b 45 28 8b 74 24 08 <48> 8b 78 20 e8 9c 5d ff ff 89 c7 e8 95 27 ff ff 41 89 c4 e9 30 fc [1803883.053180] RSP: 0018:ffffb4ca5269fc40 EFLAGS: 00010206 [1803883.053639] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000001 RCX: 0000000000000002 [1803883.054106] RDX: 0000000080000000 RSI: 0000000000000002 RDI: ffff9c9722b6af40 [1803883.054576] RBP: ffff9c90265f0000 R08: 0000000000000006 R09: 000000000000062b [1803883.055056] R10: 0000000000000866 R11: 000000000000062b R12: ffffb4ca55e7d000 [1803883.055544] R13: ffff9c936c971ea0 R14: ffff9c936c971ea0 R15: ffff9c936c971ee0 [1803883.056067] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9c9b0f700000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [1803883.056577] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [1803883.057093] CR2: 0000000000000020 CR3: 0000000c3e450000 CR4: 00000000003506e0 [1803883.057621] Call Trace: [1803883.058155] <TASK> [1803883.058700] nfs4_get_vfs_file+0x3dd/0x410 [nfsd] [1803883.059283] nfsd4_process_open2+0x412/0x9f0 [nfsd] [1803883.059854] nfsd4_open+0x282/0x4b0 [nfsd] [1803883.060398] nfsd4_proc_compound+0x44b/0x6f0 [nfsd] [1803883.060966] nfsd_dispatch+0x149/0x270 [nfsd] [1803883.061520] svc_process_common+0x3bc/0x5e0 [sunrpc] [1803883.062099] ? nfsd_svc+0x190/0x190 [nfsd] [1803883.062667] ? nfsd_shutdown_threads+0xa0/0xa0 [nfsd] [1803883.063238] svc_process+0xb7/0xf0 [sunrpc] [1803883.063826] nfsd+0xd5/0x190 [nfsd] [1803883.064408] kthread+0xd9/0x100 [1803883.064959] ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 [1803883.065501] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 [1803883.066052] </TASK> [1803883.066592] Modules linked in: mst_pciconf(OE) mst_pci(OE) overlay nfsd nfs_acl binfmt_misc dm_cache_smq dm_cache dm_persistent_data dm_bio_prison dm_bufio rpcsec_gss_krb5 auth_rpcgss nfsv4 nfs lockd grace fscache netfs rbd libceph dns_resolver 8021q garp mrp stp llc bonding nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv4 rfkill ip_set nf_tables nfnetlink rpcrdma sunrpc rdma_ucm ib_srpt ib_isert iscsi_target_mod target_core_mod ipmi_ssif ib_iser libiscsi scsi_transport_iscsi intel_rapl_msr ib_umad intel_rapl_common rdma_cm ib_ipoib iw_cm amd64_edac edac_mce_amd ib_cm kvm_amd kvm mlx5_ib mlx4_ib ib_uverbs irqbypass rapl pcspkr ib_core joydev acpi_ipmi i2c_piix4 k10temp ipmi_si ipmi_devintf ipmi_msghandler acpi_cpufreq xfs libcrc32c raid1 sd_mod sg mlx5_core ast drm_vram_helper drm_kms_helper syscopyarea sysfillrect crct10dif_pclmul sysimgblt crc32_pclmul nvme [1803883.066656] fb_sys_fops crc32c_intel ahci mpt3sas drm_ttm_helper nvme_core ttm libahci mlxfw ghash_clmulni_intel igb mlx4_core tls nvme_common drm libata raid_class psample scsi_transport_sas t10_pi ccp pci_hyperv_intf sp5100_tco dca i2c_algo_bit dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_mod fuse [1803883.074377] CR2: 0000000000000020 We got a coredump from this one, and I did a bit of analysis: wait_for_construction: wait_on_bit(&nf->nf_flags, NFSD_FILE_PENDING, TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE); /* Did construction of this file fail? */ if (!test_bit(NFSD_FILE_HASHED, &nf->nf_flags)) { trace_nfsd_file_cons_err(rqstp, key.inode, may_flags, nf); if (!open_retry) { status = nfserr_jukebox; goto out; } open_retry = false; if (refcount_dec_and_test(&nf->nf_ref)) nfsd_file_free(nf); goto retry; } this_cpu_inc(nfsd_file_cache_hits); status = nfserrno(nfsd_open_break_lease(file_inode(nf->nf_file), may_flags)); <<<< CRASH HERE out: if (status == nfs_ok) { if (open) this_cpu_inc(nfsd_file_acquisitions); *pnf = nf; } else { if (refcount_dec_and_test(&nf->nf_ref)) nfsd_file_free(nf); nf = NULL; } out_status: put_cred(key.cred); if (open) trace_nfsd_file_acquire(rqstp, key.inode, may_flags, nf, status); return status; open_file: trace_nfsd_file_alloc(nf); nf->nf_mark = nfsd_file_mark_find_or_create(nf, key.inode); if (nf->nf_mark) { if (open) { status = nfsd_open_verified(rqstp, fhp, may_flags, &nf->nf_file); trace_nfsd_file_open(nf, status); } else status = nfs_ok; } else status = nfserr_jukebox; /* * If construction failed, or we raced with a call to unlink() * then unhash. */ if (status == nfs_ok && key.inode->i_nlink == 0) status = nfserr_jukebox; if (status != nfs_ok) nfsd_file_unhash(nf); clear_bit_unlock(NFSD_FILE_PENDING, &nf->nf_flags); smp_mb__after_atomic(); wake_up_bit(&nf->nf_flags, NFSD_FILE_PENDING); goto out; Relevant disassembly: /usr/src/debug/kernel-5.14.0-210.jlayton.nfsd92.2.el9/linux-5.14.0-210.jlayton.nfsd92.2.el9.x86_64/./include/linux/fs.h: 1348 0xffffffffc1368883 <nfsd_file_do_acquire+0x7f3>: mov 0x28(%r13),%rax /usr/src/debug/kernel-5.14.0-210.jlayton.nfsd92.2.el9/linux-5.14.0-210.jlayton.nfsd92.2.el9.x86_64/fs/nfsd/filecache.c: 1145 0xffffffffc1368887 <nfsd_file_do_acquire+0x7f7>: mov 0x8(%rsp),%esi 0xffffffffc136888b <nfsd_file_do_acquire+0x7fb>: mov 0x20(%rax),%rdi <<< CRASH HERE crash> struct -o nfsd_file struct nfsd_file { [0x0] struct rhash_head nf_rhash; [0x8] struct list_head nf_lru; [0x18] struct callback_head nf_rcu; [0x28] struct file *nf_file; [0x30] const struct cred *nf_cred; [0x38] struct net *nf_net; [0x40] unsigned long nf_flags; [0x48] struct inode *nf_inode; [0x50] refcount_t nf_ref; [0x54] unsigned char nf_may; [0x58] struct nfsd_file_mark *nf_mark; [0x60] ktime_t nf_birthtime; } nf_file is 0x28 bytes into that struct, so the mov at +0x7f3 is probably the dereferencing of that. That means that the addr of the nfsd_file is (probably) in %r13. Based on that, nf_file looks like a legit address. crash> struct nfsd_file ffff9c936c971ea0 struct nfsd_file { nf_rhash = { next = 0xffffb4ca55ef9209 }, nf_lru = { next = 0xffff9c936c971ea8, prev = 0xffff9c936c971ea8 }, nf_rcu = { next = 0xffff9c93995c3218, func = 0x0 }, nf_file = 0xffff9c9b3b080600, nf_cred = 0xffff9c9423a55a40, nf_net = 0xffffffffa200cd40 <init_net>, nf_flags = 0x1, nf_inode = 0xffff9c9c204c5500, nf_ref = { refs = { counter = 0x2 } }, nf_may = 0x2, nf_mark = 0xffff9c9633a85b40, nf_birthtime = 0x668a348ce435a } In this code, one task is opening a file for the cache and another is waiting on the construction to complete. After we open the file, we populate the nf_file field, clear NFSD_FILE_PENDING and wake up anyone waiting on it. Here though, the waiter had finished waiting but when it went to fetch nf->nf_file in the register, it still appeared to be NULL. In the core, it is populated with a valid file pointer however. clear_bit_unlock does a full barrier (on x86) before clearing the bit. According to memory-barriers.txt, wait_on_bit should imply a read memory barrier. Why was %rax zeroed out? -- Jeff Layton <jlayton@xxxxxxxxxx>