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Re: [RFC 1/3] mac80211: make scan_sdata pointer usable with RCU

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On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Johannes Berg
<johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-07-09 at 11:48 +0300, Arik Nemtsov wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 10:59 AM, Johannes Berg
>> <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > On Sun, 2012-07-08 at 19:27 +0300, Arik Nemtsov wrote:
>> >> On Sat, Jul 7, 2012 at 12:05 AM, Johannes Berg
>> >> <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> >> > From: Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@xxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >
>> >> > Making the scan_sdata pointer usable with RCU makes
>> >> > it possible to dereference it in the RX path to see
>> >> > if a received frame actually matches the interface
>> >> > that is scanning. This is just preparations, making
>> >> > the pointer __rcu.
>> >>
>> >> I noticed no synchronize_rcu() in the start/stop scan calls. Good/bad idea?
>> >
>> > Well, start() certainly wouldn't need it since you'd only get NULL :-)
>> >
>> > stop() in theory could use it, but it doesn't actually matter because as
>> > long as the interface still exists the pointer is valid. We don't free
>> > the interface in scan stop, so we don't need to make sure that the
>> > pointer is cleared before we continue. And in the case that we *do* in
>> > fact clear the interface (when it's going down) we have synchronize_rcu
>> > already in those code paths due to say the interface list with RCU
>> > protection.
>>
>> I meant protecting these (in patch 2/3):
>>
>> -            local->sched_scanning,
>> +            rcu_dereference_protected(local->sched_scan_sdata,
>> +                                      lockdep_is_held(&local->mtx)),
>>
>> The check is obviously racy here, but it was racy before as well I guess.
>> I'm not sure why something line test_bit(SCHED_SCANNING) wasn't used
>> in these places.
>
> I don't think I understand what you're trying to say ... why is this
> racy? We hold the mutex that we always hold when we assign the pointer.

I mean this check in ieee80211_rx_h_passive_scan():

	if (test_bit(SCAN_HW_SCANNING, &local->scanning) ||
	    test_bit(SCAN_SW_SCANNING, &local->scanning) ||
	    test_bit(SCAN_ONCHANNEL_SCANNING, &local->scanning) ||
	    local->sched_scanning)
		return ieee80211_scan_rx(rx->sdata, skb);

since this is RCU, the pointer might be there a while longer after the
scan finished..
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