From: Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org>
To: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Cc: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>,
John Hubbard <jhubbard@nvidia.com>,
linux-man <linux-man@vger.kernel.org>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Linux-MM <linux-mm@kvack.org>,
lkml <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
Linux API <linux-api@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mmap.2: MAP_FIXED is okay if the address range has been reserved
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2018 23:11:15 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20180416211115.GU17484@dhcp22.suse.cz> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAG48ez1bV_zZP3Y2ioDndP+H8mLCcxOtU1vCbWe7Q8myEGfXQQ@mail.gmail.com>
On Mon 16-04-18 22:17:40, Jann Horn wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 9:57 PM, Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> wrote:
> > On Mon 16-04-18 21:30:09, Jann Horn wrote:
> >> On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 9:18 PM, Michal Hocko <mhocko@kernel.org> wrote:
> > [...]
> >> > Yes, reasonably well written application will not have this problem.
> >> > That, however, requires an external synchronization and that's why
> >> > called it error prone and racy. I guess that was the main motivation for
> >> > that part of the man page.
> >>
> >> What requires external synchronization? I still don't understand at
> >> all what you're talking about.
> >>
> >> The following code:
> >>
> >> void *try_to_alloc_addr(void *hint, size_t len) {
> >> char *x = mmap(hint, len, ...);
> >> if (x == MAP_FAILED) return NULL;
> >> if (x == hint) return x;
> >
> > Any other thread can modify the address space at this moment.
>
> But not parts of the address space that were returned by this mmap() call.
?
> > Just
> > consider that another thread would does mmap(x, MAP_FIXED) (or any other
> > address overlapping [x, x+len] range)
>
> If the other thread does that without previously having created a
> mapping covering the area in question, that would be a bug in the
> other thread.
MAP_FIXED is sometimes used without preallocated address ranges.
> MAP_FIXED on an unmapped address is almost always a bug
> (excluding single-threaded cases with no library code, and even then
> it's quite weird) - for example, any malloc() call could also cause
> libc to start using the memory range you're trying to map with
> MAP_FIXED.
Yeah and that's why we there is such a large paragraph in the man page
;)
> > becaus it is seemingly safe as x
> > != hint.
>
> I don't understand this part. Are you talking about a hypothetical
> scenario in which a programmer attempts to segment the virtual memory
> space into areas that are exclusively used by threads without creating
> memory mappings for those areas?
Yeah, that doesn't sound all that over-exaggerated, right? And yes,
such a code would be subtle and most probably buggy. I am not trying to
argue for those hypothetical cases. All I am saying is that MAP_FIXED is
subtle.
I _do_ agree that using it solely on the preallocated and _properly_
managed address ranges is safe. I still maintain my position on error
prone though. And besides that there are usecases which do not operate
on preallocated address ranges so people really have to be careful.
I do not really care what is the form. I find the current wording quite
informative and showing examples of how things might be broken. I do
agree with your remark that "MAP_FIXED on preallocated ranges is safe"
should be added. But MAP_FIXED is dangerous API and should have few big
fat warnings.
--
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2018-04-16 21:11 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2018-04-12 15:39 [PATCH] mmap.2: MAP_FIXED is okay if the address range has been reserved Jann Horn
2018-04-12 18:32 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2018-04-12 18:33 ` John Hubbard
2018-04-12 18:37 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2018-04-12 18:49 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-12 18:59 ` John Hubbard
2018-04-12 19:18 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-12 19:24 ` John Hubbard
2018-04-13 6:43 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2018-04-13 6:49 ` Michal Hocko
2018-04-13 15:04 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-13 16:04 ` Michal Hocko
2018-04-13 16:05 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-13 16:17 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-16 10:07 ` Michal Hocko
2018-04-16 13:55 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-16 19:18 ` Michal Hocko
2018-04-16 19:30 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-16 19:57 ` Michal Hocko
2018-04-16 20:17 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-16 21:11 ` Michal Hocko [this message]
2018-04-16 21:12 ` Jann Horn
2018-04-17 6:23 ` Michal Hocko
2018-05-02 13:06 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
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