This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled loopdev: fix a deadlock to the 3.8-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: loopdev-fix-a-deadlock.patch and it can be found in the queue-3.8 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From 5370019dc2d2c2ff90e95d181468071362934f3a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Guo Chao <yan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:16:45 -0800 Subject: loopdev: fix a deadlock From: Guo Chao <yan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> commit 5370019dc2d2c2ff90e95d181468071362934f3a upstream. bd_mutex and lo_ctl_mutex can be held in different order. Path #1: blkdev_open blkdev_get __blkdev_get (hold bd_mutex) lo_open (hold lo_ctl_mutex) Path #2: blkdev_ioctl lo_ioctl (hold lo_ctl_mutex) lo_set_capacity (hold bd_mutex) Lockdep does not report it, because path #2 actually holds a subclass of lo_ctl_mutex. This subclass seems creep into the code by mistake. The patch author actually just mentioned it in the changelog, see commit f028f3b2 ("loop: fix circular locking in loop_clr_fd()"), also see: http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=123806169129727&w=2 Path #2 hold bd_mutex to call bd_set_size(), I've protected it with i_mutex in a previous patch, so drop bd_mutex at this site. Signed-off-by: Guo Chao <yan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Guo Chao <yan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: M. Hindess <hindessm@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Nikanth Karthikesan <knikanth@xxxxxxx> Cc: Jens Axboe <axboe@xxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe@xxxxxxxxx> Acked-by: Jeff Mahoney <jeffm@xxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- drivers/block/loop.c | 2 -- 1 file changed, 2 deletions(-) --- a/drivers/block/loop.c +++ b/drivers/block/loop.c @@ -1285,11 +1285,9 @@ static int loop_set_capacity(struct loop /* the width of sector_t may be narrow for bit-shift */ sz = sec; sz <<= 9; - mutex_lock(&bdev->bd_mutex); bd_set_size(bdev, sz); /* let user-space know about the new size */ kobject_uevent(&disk_to_dev(bdev->bd_disk)->kobj, KOBJ_CHANGE); - mutex_unlock(&bdev->bd_mutex); out: return err; Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from yan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx are queue-3.8/loopdev-fix-a-deadlock.patch queue-3.8/block-use-i_size_write-in-bd_set_size.patch queue-3.8/loopdev-remove-an-user-triggerable-oops.patch -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe stable" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html