[Devel] Re: [PATCH 12/25] sysfs: Introduce sysfs_rename_mutex

[Tejun Heo]

Hello, Eric.

Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> Looking carefully at the rename code we have a subtle dependency
> that the structure of sysfs not change while we are performing
> a rename.  If the parent directory of the object we are renaming
> changes while the rename is being performed nasty things could
> happen when we go to release our locks.
> 
> So introduce a sysfs_rename_mutex to prevent this highly
> unlikely theoretical issue.

Yeah, it's a theoretical issue.  Rename/move implementation has always
depended on the parent structure not changing beneath it, but it's nice
to tighten up loose ends.

> +DEFINE_MUTEX(sysfs_rename_mutex);

Probably doesn't really matter but wouldn't a rwsem fit better?

> @@ -774,7 +775,7 @@ static struct dentry *__sysfs_get_dentry(struct super_block *sb, struct sysfs_di
>   *	down from there looking up dentry for each step.
>   *
>   *	LOCKING:
> - *	Kernel thread context (may sleep)
> + *	mutex_lock(sysfs_rename_mutex)

LOCKING describes what locks should be held when entering the function,
so proper description would be something like...

	Kernel thread context, grabs sysfs_rename_mutex

Thanks.

-- 
tejun
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